Attribution-based motivation treatment efficacy in an online learning environment for students who differ in cognitive elaboration

Hamm, J. M., Perry, R. P., Chipperfield, J. G., Murayama, K. and Weiner, B. (2017) Attribution-based motivation treatment efficacy in an online learning environment for students who differ in cognitive elaboration. Motivation and Emotion, 41 (5). pp. 600-616. ISSN 1573-6644 doi: 10.1007/s11031-017-9632-8

Abstract/Summary

Attribution-based motivation treatments can boost performance in competitive achievement settings (Perry and Hamm 2017), yet their efficacy relative to mediating processes and affect-based treatments remains largely unexamined. In a two-semester, pre-post, randomized treatment study (n = 806), attributional retraining (AR) and stress-reduction (SR) treatments were administered in an online learning environment to first-year college students who differed in cognitive elaboration (low, high). Low elaborators who received AR outperformed their SR peers by nearly a letter grade on a class test assessed 5 months post-treatment. Path analysis revealed this AR-performance linkage was mediated by causal attributions, perceived control, and positive and negative achievement emotions in a hypothesized causal sequence. Results advance the literature by showing AR (vs. SR) improved performance indirectly via cognitive and affective process variables specified by Weiner’s (1985a, 2012) attribution theory of motivation and emotion.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/72219
Identification Number/DOI	10.1007/s11031-017-9632-8
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Springer
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