The effects of perceived attributions, action control, and creativity on college students' motivation and performance: A field study

Abstract

College students periodically experience varying degrees of academic failure in pursuit of their educational goals. Such experiences can have deleterious effects on subsequent motivation and achievement. Recent research, however, indicates that some students are buffered against negative academic outcomes because they possess certain cognitive orientations or individual differences. Extending this research, the present study examined the buffering effects of students' perceived attributions for failure (unstable, stable), action control orientations (state, action), and creativity (low, high) on motivation and achievement. College students were grouped into unstable/stable attributions, state/action orientations, and low/high creativity according to their scores on Russell's (1982) causal dimension scale, Kuhl's (1985) action control scale, and two creativity items, respectively. Subsequently, three motivation variables were examined, along with their actual course grade in introductory psychology. Analysis of variance results indicated that unstable attributions produced greater motivation in students than did stable attributions. Moreover, stability attributions interacted with creativity and action control orientation on students' performance.