Unmotivated or motivated to fail? A cross-cultural study of achievement motivation, fear of failure, and student disengagement

A classic distinction in the literature on achievement and motivation is between fear of failure and success orientations. From the perspective of self-worth theory, these motives are not bipolar constructs but dimensions that interact in ways that make some students particularly vulnerable to underachievement and disengagement from school. The current study employs the quadripolar model of need achievement (Covington, 1992; Covington & Omelich, 1988) to explore how these approach and avoidance orientations are related to self-handicapping, defensive pessimism, and helplessness in Eastern and Western settings. Although there have been numerous calls for research of this kind across cultures (Elliott & Bempechat, 2002; Jose & Kilburg, 2007; Pintrich, 2003), little exists in the field to date. In Study 1, with 1,423 Japanese high school students, helplessness and self-handicapping were found to be highest when students were low in success orientation and high in fear of failure. These findings were replicated in Study 2 with 643 Australian students and extended to measures of truancy, disengagement, and self-reported academic achievement. Consistent with self-worth theory, success orientation largely moderated the relationship between fear of failure and academic engagement in both cultures. These results suggest that in the absence of firm achievement goals, fear of failure is associated with a range of maladaptive self-protective strategies. The current project thus represents a unique application of self-worth theory to achievement dynamics and clarifies substantive issues relevant to self-handicapping and disengagement across cultures

Unmotivated or motivated to fail? A cross-cultural study of achievement motivation, fear of failure, and student disengagement

A classic distinction in the literature on achievement and motivation is between fear of failure and success orientations. From the perspective of self-worth theory, these motives are not bipolar constructs but dimensions that interact in ways that make

My intelligence may be more malleable than yours: the revised implicit theories of intelligence (self-theory) scale is a better predictor of achievement, motivation, and student disengagement

The belief that intelligence is malleable has important consequences for achievement and motivation (Blackwell et al. Child Development, 78, 246-263. 2007; Dweck, 1999; Robins & Pals, Self and Identity, 1,313-336, 2002). However, believing that it is possible to improve intelligence does not necessarily mean students are always confident they can improve their own. The current study presents a revised “self-theory” measure of the implicit theories of intelligence scale, which assess students’ beliefs about their ability to mold their own intelligence in contrast to their beliefs about the malleability of intelligence in general. In testing with 643 Australian high school students (62 % female) ranging from 15 to 19 years of age (M=16.6, standard deviation (SD)=1.01), the belief that intelligence is “fixed” was predictive of lower endorsement of achievement goals, greater helplessness attributions, and poorer self-reported academic grades. Fixed “entity” beliefs were also predictive of academic self-handicapping, truancy, and disengagement. On all of these measures, the new self-theory scale uniquely explained greater outcome variance. These results indicate that students’ implicit beliefs—particularly about their own intelligence—may have important implications for their motivation, engagement, and performance in school

Influence of school community and fitness on prevalence of overweight in Australian school children

AbstractThe study objectives were (1) to determine the variation in prevalence of overweight between school communities, (2) to evaluate the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and the probability of being overweight among different school communities, and (3) to test whether this relationship varies between school communities. Using a repeated cross-sectional design, data from 31,424 (15,298 girls, 16,126 boys) Australian school children who had objective assessments of body composition and physical performance were used. Ninety-one schools located across 5 states and territories were included. Independent samples were taken across 12 school years (2000–2011). Analysis used generalised linear mixed models in R with a two-level hierarchical structure—children, nested within school communities. Predictor variables considered were: level 1—gender, age, cardiorespiratory fitness and year of measurement; level 2—school community. A total of 24.6% of the children were overweight and 69% were of low fitness. Variation in the prevalence of overweight between school communities was significant, ranging from 19% to 34%. The probability of being overweight was negatively associated with increasing cardiorespiratory fitness. The relationship was steepest at low fitness and varied markedly between school communities. Children of low fitness had probabilities of being overweight ranging between 26% and 75% depending on school community, whereas those of high fitness had probabilities of <2%. Our findings suggest that most might be gained from a public health perspective by focusing intervention on the least fit children in the worst-performing communities

A general algebraic algorithm for blind extraction of one source in a MIMO convolutive mixture

International audienceThe paper deals with the problem of blind source extraction from a MIMO convolutive mixture. We define a new criterion for source extraction which uses higher-order contrast functions based on so called reference signals. It generalizes existing reference-based contrasts. In order to optimize the new criterion, we propose a general algebraic algorithm based on best rank-1 tensor approximation. Computer simulations illustrate the good behavior and the interest of our algorithm in comparison with other approaches

Implicit Theories and Emotion Regulation: Beliefs about Emotions and their role in Psychological Health and Well-being

Implicit theories about emotion refer to people’s beliefs about whether their emotions are fixed (entity theory) or malleable (incremental theory). Growing research indicates that these beliefs influence emotion regulation efforts, psychological health and well-being, and may even play a key role in clinical disorders and their treatment. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to this growing body of literature. Across 10 studies and seven empirical chapters, I examine the associations between implicit theories of emotion, emotion regulation, and psychological health. Using the Process Model of Emotion Regulation as a framework, this thesis is divided into sections corresponding to different emotion regulation stages: Situation Selection; Attentional Regulation; Response Modulation and Cognitive Change. The first three studies are focused on measurement: The personal implicit theory scales are developed and evaluated, and qualitative measures are used to test whether implicit theories map onto different emotion regulation strategies. Studies 4 and 5 examine implicit theories of emotion and the first stages of the Process Model: Situation Selection and Situation Modification. In a Study 4 entity (versus incremental) beliefs were associated with poorer psychological health outcomes, and avoidance strategies mediated the links between implicit theories and psychological health. In Study 5, participants’ emotion beliefs were experimentally manipulated leading them to believe that they struggled (entity condition) or did not struggle (incremental condition) with controlling their emotions. Participants in the entity condition reported increased intentions to engage in avoidance strategies, were more likely to avoid emotion regulation stimuli, and reported greater avoidance of psychological help. Studies 6 and 7 examined implicit theories of emotion and the third stage of the Process Model: Attentional Deployment. In a correlational study (Study 6), entity beliefs about emotions were positively associated with maladaptive attention regulation (e.g., catastrophizing) and negatively associated with adaptive attention regulation (e.g., mindfulness). Entity beliefs also predicted greater likelihood of using response modulation strategies like alcohol and medication as a means of regulating emotions. Attention regulation also indirectly explained links between emotion beliefs and response modulation. In a longitudinal Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention study (Study 7), MBSR led to a significant reduction in entity beliefs (compared to controls). Changes emotion beliefs mediated MBSR-related reductions in stress, anxiety, depression and response modulation at 12-month follow-up. Studies 8, 9 and 10 examine implicit theories of emotion and the third stage of the Process Model: Cognitive Change. In a correlational study (Study 8), entity beliefs about emotions predict reduced likelihood of using cognitive reappraisal in daily life, which in turn predict poorer self-esteem and life satisfaction. In a clinical study (Study 9), patients with social anxiety disorder (compared to healthy controls) were more likely to view emotions as things that cannot be controlled (entity theory). These beliefs predicted anxiety symptom severity. Finally, in a waitlist-controlled, 12-week Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) intervention study (Study 10), changes in implicit theories of emotion explained CBT-related reductions in social anxiety symptoms and uniquely predicted treatment outcomes even when controlling for baseline anxiety and other kinds of maladaptive beliefs. Emotion beliefs also continued to predict social anxiety 12-months post-treatment. The final chapters of this thesis employ a clinical case study to demonstrate why emotion beliefs can be harmful, and why psychoeducation may not always be an effective intervention. The implications of these findings in relation to emotion regulation and clinical treatment are discussed

Chaotic Dynamics of a Free Particle Interacting Linearly with a Harmonic Oscillator

We study the closed Hamiltonian dynamics of a free particle moving on a ring, over one section of which it interacts linearly with a single harmonic oscillator. On the basis of numerical and analytical evidence, we conjecture that at small positive energies the phase space of our model is completely chaotic except for a single region of complete integrability with a smooth sharp boundary showing no KAM-type structures of any kind. This results in the cleanest mixed phase space structure possible, in which motions in the integrable region and in the chaotic region are clearly separated and independent of one another. For certain system parameters, this mixed phase space structure can be tuned to make either of the two components disappear, leaving a completely integrable or completely chaotic phase space. For other values of the system parameters, additional structures appear, such as KAM-like elliptic islands, and one parameter families of parabolic periodic orbits embedded in the chaotic sea. The latter are analogous to bouncing ball orbits seen in the stadium billiard. The analytical part of our study proceeds from a geometric description of the dynamics, and shows it to be equivalent to a linked twist map on the union of two intersecting disks.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures Typos corrected to display section label