People view many attributes, including intelligence, through implicit theories (or mindsets). Entity mindsets position the attribute as unchangeable or static, whereas incremental mindsets see the attribute as malleable or capable of being changed/improved (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). The present studies examined a new questionnaire designed to…

Noncognitive constructs such as self-efficacy, social awareness, and academic engagement are widely acknowledged as critical components of human capital, but systematic data collection on such skills in school systems is complicated by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges and resource constraints. This study addresses this issue by…

The aim of this study was to test a process model of students' learning in higher education, linking anxiety, course experience (positive and negative), self-worth protection (SWP) (self-handicapping, defensive expectations, reflectivity), student approach to learning (SAL) (deep/surface), and achievement. Path and bootstrap analyses of data from…

Research supported by U.S. Office of Education Contract OEC-3-7-068694-2082

This study of handicapped and non-handicapped preschool and early elementary school children and their older normal siblings was designed to determine (1) the intercorrelation of parent and teacher ratings of the child's academic competence and social adjustment, and (2) the correlations of mother, father and teacher ratings with the child's…

The Test of Reactions and Adaptation in College (TRAC), a measure of students' personal dispositions toward learning, is presented. Results from 2 different samples of college students (n=1,081) indicate acceptable psychometric characteristics for the TRAC. The TRAC predicted college success better than high school weighted academic average did.…

Validity evidence for a new instrument, the Situation-Response Measure of Achievement Motivation for analyzing cross-situational consistency of achievement-related behavior, is presented in a study of 246 college students. Exploratory factor analysis indicates the presence of two factors, striving and apprehensiveness. (SLD)

Examines M. L. Maehr's Personal Investment Model of motivation. Presents evidence for the usefulness of the theoretical framework and the validity of the Inventory of School Motivation, based on the theory, using data for 2,152 high school students from aboriginal (n=492), migrant (n=487), and Anglo (n=1,173) backgrounds in Australia. (SLD)

Although student evaluation of instruction has been shown to produce reliable results over class averages, considerable within-class variability exists that has not been investigated. This study looked at examples of student evaluations in which students diametrically differed in their evaluation of the same instructor. Patterns were noted. A…

The purpose of this study is to report a behavioral observation validation of a multiple social interaction measurement instrument entitled the "Barclay Classroom Climate Inventory." This instrument measures social interaction in the elementary classroom as derived from self-report, peer judgments and teacher expectations. It provides an…

Findings based on extended analyses of cognitive, familial, personality, and social-behavioral data from two previous research investigations are presented. Data for the main study, i.e., the present study, was collected principally by means of interviews. Findings of the principal study include the following: (1) Parental figures living in the…