The internal/external frame of reference model (I/E model) posits that individuals' achievement-related self-concepts are formed through social comparisons (e.g., self vs. peers) within academic domains and dimensional comparisons (e.g., math vs. verbal) between distinct domains. A large body of research has supported the theorized pattern of…

"Stereotype threat" is defined as a situational threat that diminishes performance, originating from a negative stereotype about one's own social group. In 3 studies, we seek to determine whether there are indeed negative stereotypes of students who have chosen a career in teaching, and whether the performance of these students is…

Student ratings of teaching quality have been shown to be powerful predictors of important academic outcome variables. This is the case despite the fact that students from the same classroom can perceive teaching quality quite differently in their own idiosyncratic ways. These differences among students in the same classroom are typically…

Psychological research and theory have traditionally suggested that opportunities for choosing will lead to motivation and performance benefits. However, evidence on choice effects has not been ubiquitously positive, and recent investigations have revealed factors that diminish or reverse the effects of choosing. This investigation sought to…

Prior research has shown that the agreement between teacher and student ratings of instructional quality is, at best, moderate, and the associations between measures of instructional quality and outcomes such as standardized achievement are typically small and somewhat mixed across both perspectives. One explanation for these low-to-moderate…

Grounded in self-determination theory, this longitudinal study examined the academic correlates of middle and high school students' (N = 923; 33.4% male) intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations (i.e., life goals) and the type of aspirations that they perceive their parents to promote to them. Person-centered analysis revealed 3 meaningful groups: a…

College students attributed their own performance and the performance of the average student to ability, test difficulty, preparation, and luck. Successful students perceived internal factors and unsuccessful students perceived external factors as more important causes of their own performance. Students' anxiety and their ratings of the course and…

Undergraduate subjects with either an internal or external locus of control were used to investigate the relationship between locus of control and responsiveness to expectations regarding their own and their teacher's competence. As predicted, internal subjects were more receptive to the expectation regarding self than external subjects.…

Undergraduates could earn a $10 bonus by performing above average on a free-recall task. Following a pretest, success messages were manipulated. During a subsequent test, subjects could cheat. Cheating was related to anticipated success in a curvilinear fashion with medium success yielding the most cheating. Cheating and expectations are…

Examining the effects of the noxiousness of an automobile accident, probability of being in an accident, and efficacy of safe driving practices on driver education students, the results disclosed that all three independent variables affected attitudes toward safety, and performance on the simulator. (Author/BW)

Undergraduate students participated in a study to measure the effect of variables influencing teacher rating. Overall, students rated their instructors more positively when they believed evaluation was sponsored by the faculty rather than a student group. (Author/DEP)

This article reports a study designed to appraise teaching styles though students' perceptions. (Author)

This study examined the joint effects of teachers' expectations about students and vice versa on the performance and attitudes of both participants. Results showed that student performance was a function of the teacher's expectations. (Author/GK)

Student attendance at help sessions before an examination indicated by attitudinal and behavioral data that those most likely to seek academic help had performed poorly in the past, attributed their performance to remediable factors and received information about session usefulness. Ability, effort and external attribution significance are…

Thirty-one male and 49 female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 1 of 8 experimental conditions to investigate whether importance could moderate mood effects on student performance attributions. Outcome importance significantly increased mood biases in perceptions of causal locus but not stability. Other moderating effects are…