Motivational deficits among adolescents with mental handicaps

• Main Author: Ruttner, Jeffrey D.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1992
• Subjects: Motivation (Psychology); Learning disabled children
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=56623

Carol Dweck's (1988) social-cognitive theory of achievement proposes that individuals will be most likely to pursue challenges and persevere in the face of obstacles if they (a) attribute failures to lack of effort, (b) possess an incremental theory of intelligence, and (c) possess high confidence in their intelligence. A recent study by Breed and Koestner (1991) showed that all 3 of these factors enhanced motivation among 5th and 6th grade children in regular classes. The present study examined the relation of these variables to the motivation of 44 7th, 8th and 9th graders who were classified as learning disabled (LD). Results showed that children who are LD are significantly less likely than other children to attribute failures to a lack of effort. Results also showed that children who are LD, like children who are not LD, displayed enhanced motivation when incremental theories of intelligence are highlighted. Finally, it was shown that children who are LD do not respond to positive feedback with enhanced motivation, as would children who are not LD. In fact, there was a marginal trend for children who are LD who received neutral feedback to display more motivation than those who received very positive feedback. The study highlights the difficulty of providing positive performance feedback to LD children in a convincing manner.