Attributions can have a significant effect on academic achievement and students with learning difficulties are more likely to display negative attributions than their peers. In this article, the attributions of students identified as having learning difficulties are compared with those of other non-labelled low achievers, and non-labelled average…

This study tested Rotter's hypothesis that internals would show more achievement-striving behaviors than externals using a direct measure of such behavior. (Editor)

Noting the attractions of self-report questionnaires and surveys to those engaged in educational research, this article discusses some of the problems that can arise from their injudicious use. It is argued that the potentially misleading nature of findings from such approaches is particularly highlighted when mixed methodologies are employed.…

According to the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model (H. W. Marsh, 1986), students not only compare their own abilities in a domain with those of other students (social comparison), they also compare their own achievements in different domains (internal comparison). The main purpose of this study was to investigate internal comparison…

This study was designed to: (1) investigate the relationships between internal-external (I-E) locus of control and academic achievement for boys and girls over a nine-month period and (2) to determine whether the moderate ability of I-E scores to predict academic achievement is due to the moderate reliabilities of the I-E measures. A total of 279…

A pilot study was conducted at two middle schools to investigate the relationship among student locus of control, field dependency, self-esteem, and achievement. A relationship between self-esteem and achievement has already been identified by research; another variable considered as a possible effect on a person's predisposition to achieve was…

Comments on Skinner, Zimmer-Gembeck and Connell's study (PS 528 522) which investigated the relationship between elementary school students' beliefs-performance cycles and their perceived control and classroom engagement. Notes methodological and theoretical issues and controversial issues raised by the study. Discusses the links to other…

Nearly 140 studies of motivation in African Americans were reviewed. The review is organized around five topics that are subsumed under three assumptions about the relationship between ethnic minority status and motivation. African Americans appear to maintain a belief in personal control, have high expectancies, and enjoy positive self-regard.…

This study investigated relationships among locus of control, instructional mode, and achievement for externally and internally oriented students taught by the same instructor using two different teaching methods. A definite relationship was found among the variables, and internally oriented students attained higher achievement levels where…

The purpose of this investigation was to identify those demographic and programmatic (independent) variables which were the best predictors of student success in a remedial program, as measured by four different criterion (dependent) variables: grade point average, persistence, increase in internality in locus of control, and increase in…