A DEVELOPMENTAL EXAMINATION OF CHILDRENS UNDERSTANDING OF EFFORT AND ABILITY IN THE PHYSICAL AND ACADEMIC DOMAINS

The purpose of this study was to test one aspect of the developmental component of Nicholls' theory of achievement motivation. Specifically, we examined and contrasted children's levels of understanding of effo rt and ability in the physical and academic domains. Students (N = 144 ; 8 boys and 8 girls for each age group from the ages of 5-13 years) p articipated in two sessions; in each they viewed two films and respond ed to questions posed in a subsequent structured interview. The films showed two children applying unequal effort which resulted in two poss ible outcomes: (1) the children achieved the same score; or (2) the la zier child outscored the hard-working child. A developmental-structura l analysis of the children's responses was conducted, and the same fou r levels of understanding of effort and ability identified by Nicholls (1978) emerged. In addition, a fifth level (i.e., Level 0) was includ ed which represented children who were unable to identify the hard-wor king student in the films or whose responses did not address the effor t-ability issue. A nonparametric test of association between ordinal v ariables revealed a positive and significant relationship between chil dren's ages and their levels of understanding of ability in both conte xts. Children's conceptions of ability were significantly correlated a cross domains. No gender differences were evident in children's unders tanding of effort and ability in either the physical or academic conte xts.