Building on the notion that motivation energizes and directs resources in achievement situations, we argue that goal orientations affect perceptions of own intelligence and that the effect of goals on performance is partly mediated by self-estimates of intelligence. Studies 1 (n = 89) and 2 (n = 165) investigated the association of goal…

The present study examined the contribution of self-efficacy beliefs in self-regulated learning (SESRL) in predicting academic achievement at the end of junior high school above and beyond the effects of previous academic achievement, gender, socioeconomic status, intelligence, personality traits, and self-esteem. Participants included 170 (87…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which personality traits, after controlling for general intelligence, predict academic performance in different school subjects. Upper secondary school students in Sweden (N=315) completed the Wonderlic IQ test (Wonderlic, 1992) and the IPIP-NEO-PI test (Goldberg, 1999). A series of…

The present study examined how beliefs about intelligence, as mediated by ability-validation goals, predicted whether students lost or maintained levels of intrinsic motivation over the course of a single academic year. 978 third- through eighth-grade students were surveyed in the fall about their theories concerning the malleability of…

We investigated the usefulness of the Over-Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ) as a measure of cognitive abilities. In OCQs respondents are asked to rate their familiarity with items of academic or everyday knowledge (Paulhus, Harms, Bruce, & Lysy, 2003). Some items exist in reality ("reals"), and others do not ("foils"). We developed four OCQs, each…

To learn if Protestant ethic endorsement predicted intelligence controlling for the big five personality factors, 364 college students from England and the United States completed a 65-item multifaceted work ethic endorsement measure, the 50-item Wonderlic Personnel Test, and a 60-item measure of the big five personality factors. A hierarchical…

The study examined the relationship between implicit theories, goal orientations, subjective and test estimates of intelligence, academic self-concept, and achievement in a selective student population (N=300). There was no direct impact of implicit theories of intelligence and goal orientations on achievement. However, subjective evaluations of…

The augmented theory of successful intelligence [Sternberg, R. J. (2003b). "Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized." New York: Cambridge University Press] postulates that intelligence comprises creative skills in generating novel ideas; analytical skills in discerning whether they are good ideas; practical skills in implementing the…