THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED ATTRIBUTIONS, ACTION CONTROL, AND CREATIVITYON COLLEGE-STUDENTS MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE - A FIELD-STUDY

College students periodically experience varying degrees of academic f ailure in pursuit of their educational goals. Such experiences can hav e deleterious effects on subsequent motivation and achievement. Recent research, however, indicates that some students are bufferd against n egative academic outcomes because they possess certain cognitive orien tations or individual difference. Extending this research, the present study examined the buffering effects of students' perceived attributi ons for failure (unstable, stable), action control orientations (state , action), and creativity (low, high) on motivation and achievement Co llege students were grouped into unstable/stable attributions, state/a ction orientations, and low/high creativity according to their scores on Russell's (1982) causal dimension scale, Kuhl's (1985) action contr ol scale, and two creativity items, respectively. Subsequently, three motivation variables were examined, along with their actual course gra de in introductory psychology. Analysis of variance results indicated that unstable attributions produced greater motivation in students tha n did stable attributions. Moreover, stability attributions interacted with creativity and action control orientation on students' performan ce.