LAUSR

Try this simple thought experiment. Two students (named A and B) failed an important test and asked themselves: Why did I fail? Assuming they are being honest in their selfappraisals, Student A discloses “I failed because I am not smart enough.” And Student B admits, “I failed because I did not try hard enough.” Which student would you rather be? We would venture to say that almost anyone of any age group — in Western culture at least — would rather be Student B who exerted little effort than Student A who believes they have low ability. Why would this be? Is there a theory of motivation that can help us understand the differences between failure due to low ability versus lack of effort and why one explanation is preferred (more adaptive) over the other? The answer to this question is yes and that theory is the focus of the current article. We begin by describing the basic principles of attribution theory as the motivational framework that makes conceptual distinctions between low ability and lack of effort as causes of failure. Next we turn to the literature on attribution retraining that describes interventions to change maladaptive beliefs about achievement outcomes. The article concludes with recommendations for teachers on how their feedback to students can covey attributional information.