Motivation and Counterfactual Thinking: The Moderating Role of Implicit Theories of Intelligence
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Two studies were conducted to examine the role of implicit theories of intelligence in the motivational consequences of performance-related counterfactual thinking.Overall, upward and downward counterfactuals generated in response to performance feedback differentially influenced incremental and entity theorists' propensity to engage in remedial action.In Study 1 it was found that incremental theorists reported greater motivation for remedial action when generating upward compared to downward counterfactuals for imagined poor performance, whereas entity theorists reported less motivation for remedial action when generating upward as compared to downward counterfactuals.In study 2 it was found that incremental theorists perceived remedial action to be more useful and engaged in more remedial action following upward compared to downward counterfactuals, whereas counterfactual direction did not influence entity theorists' perceptions of the usefulness of remedial action or actual engagement in remedial action.The results of these studies suggest that the perceived attainability of future improvement is an important moderator of the counterfactual direction and motivation link.
Author: Elizabeth A. Dyczewski
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2602056111