Two studies examined the cognitive-motivational differences between helpless and mastery-oriented children by analyzing the effects of failure feedback on problem solving strategies during testing and identifying semantic differences in children's verbalizations following failure on task. Subjects were fifth graders of both sexes. (CM)

Individual differences in same-aged children's reasoning about effort and ability, as well as the consequences of different forms of reasoning in actual achievement situations, were investigated. It was hypothesized that different forms of children's reasoning would be related to different (helpless versus mastery-oriented) motivational patterns.…

Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of sex differences in learned helplessness in the generalization of failure experience. Subjects in experiment 1 were fifth graders and subjects in experiment 2 were fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. (MP)