The relationship between attributions, affect and the 
achievement in English of standard 8 students in the 
SebokenglEvaton circuits 
SIPHO ELIJAH MQWATm 
RA., REd., HED. 
Mini-Dissertation submitted for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree 
MAGISTER EDUCATIONIS 
in 
The Department of Educational Psychology, Guidance and Orthopedagogics in the 
Faculty of Education of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education 
SUPERVISOR: Dr. M. Scott 
POTCHEFSTROOM 
1993 
DECLARATION 
I declare that the relationship between attributions, affect and their influence on 
achievement in English of standard 8 students in the Sebokeng/Evaton circuits, is my 
own work. It is being submitted for the MAGISTER EDUCATIONIS degree to the 
Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, Potchefttroom. It has not 
been submitted before, for any degree or examination to any other university. 
SIPHO ELIJAH MQWATHI 
May 1993 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
I wish to express my most sincere gratitude to: 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
Dr. M. Scott, my most esteemed supervisor, for her untiring guidance, 
motivation and formative criticism, without which I would not have 
completed this study. 
Professor J.L. De K. Monteith, for his advice and assistance with the 
statistical analyses. 
Professor H.S. Steyn, head of the Statistical Consultation Services, for his 
advice and guidance with the statistical analyses. 
Professor A.L. Combrinck, for language editing. 
Mrs. E. Mentz, for her friendship and perseverance in those trying times, 
while performing the statistical analyses. 
Mrs. C. Postma, for perseverance in typing the text with professional care 
and for her contribution in editing the text. 
* The Vereeniging Area Manager, inspectorate and principals of schools, who 
permitted me to conduct the research in the schools in the area. 
* My sons, Simphiwe and Sibulelo for their love and understanding that at 
times they had to do without the attention of a father. 
* 
* 
My loving wife, Francinah, whose love, support and encouragement helped 
me through this task. 
Above all to God the Almighty, who endowed me with the ability, 
competence, motivation and sustenance to complete this research. 
SIPHO ELDAH MQWATHI 
Potchefstroom, May 1993 
In gratitude I wish to give recognition to: 
* The SAS computer-programmes which were used in the statistical 
analyses of the research data. Information of the programmes can be 
found in: 
SAS Institute Inc., 1985. SAS user's guide. 5th ed. Cary, N.C. 
SAS Institute Inc., 1988. SAS/SAT user's guide. 6th ed. Cary, 
N.C. 
The opinions that are expressed in this study and the conclusions that were reached, 
are those of the author and are not to be ascribed to the Department of Educational 
Psychology, Guidance and Orthopedagogics of the Potchefstroom University for 
Christian Higher Education 
ii 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
PAGE 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1 
O~SOMM~NG ................................................................... viii 
S~OJ>SIS ........................................................................... Jr 
(;~~~Il £)lV~ ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1 
1. 
1.1 
1.2 
1.3 
1.4 
1.4.1 
1.4.2 
1.4.2.1 
1.4.2.2 
1.4.2.3 
1.4.2.4 
1.4.2.5 
1.5 
1.6 
1.6.1 
1.6.2 
1.6.3 
1.7 
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND .... 1 
INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ........ 1 
THE AIM OF THE RESEARCH .......................................... 4 
HYPOTHESES ............................................................... 4 
METHOD OF RESEARCH ................................................ 4 
Literature review ........................ : ..................................... 5 
The empirical research ....................................................... 5 
Experimental design .......................................................... 5 
Population and sample ....................................................... 5 
Variables ....................................................................... 5 
Instrumentation ................................................................ 6 
\ 
Statistical techniques ......................................................... 6 
PROGRAM OF· RESEARCH ............................................... 6 
CONCEPT CLARIFICATION OF MOTIV ATIONAL 
VARIABLES ..... , ............................................................. 6 
Self-efficacy ................................................................... 6 
Goal-orientation .•............................................................. 7 
Attributions .................................................................... 7 
SUMMARy ................................................................... 7 
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2. COGNITION AND EMOTION: AN A TTRIBUTIONAL 
PERSPECTIVE ............................................................... 8 
2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 8 
2.2 ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION ......................................... 9 
Hi 
2.3 THE COMPONENTS OF MOTIVATION .............................. 12 
2.3.1 Cognition ..................................................................... 12 
2.3.2 Emotions ...................................................................... 14 
2.3.3 The relationship between cognition and emotions and their 
2.3.4 
2.4 
2.4.1 
2.4.2 
2.5 
2.5.1 
2.5.2 
2.5.3 
2.5.3.1 
2.5.3.2 
2.5.3.3 
2.5.4 
2.6 
2.6.1 
2.6.2 
2.6.3 
2.6.4 
2.6.5 
2.6.5.1 
2.6.5.2 
2.6 
influence on self-efficacy, attributions and goal-orientation ........... 15 
The conative component of motivation and its relationship to 
goal-orientation, self-efficacy and attributions .......................... 16 
THE VALUE-EXPECTANCY FRAMEWORK ........................ 17 
The value component ........................................................ 18 
The expectancy component ................................................. 19 
THE THE()RY OF A1l1lRI13UTI()NS .................................... 2() 
The attributional process .................................................... 2() 
A ttributional dimensions .................................................... 23 
The role attributional dimensions play in affect and expectations .... 24 
The relationship between attributional dimensions and affect '" ...... 24 
The relationship between attributional dimensions and student 
expectations ................................................................... 25 
Students' control beliefs in motivation ................................... 26 
The relationship between achievement values and attributions ........ 27 
THE INFLUENCE OF AGE, SEX, ENVIR()NMENT AL 
V ARIA13LES AND TASK CHARACTERISTICS ON 
M()TIV A TION .............................................................. 29 
The students' age and attributions in motivation ........................ 28 
Students' gender and attributions in motivation ......................... 3() 
Students' socio-economic status and attributions in motivation ....... 3() 
Classroom structures in motivation ....................................... 31 
Task characteristics .......................................................... 32 
Task content .................................................................. 33 
Task form ..................................................................... 33 
SUMMARY .................................................................. 34 
CHAPTER THREE ... ., ....... ,. ................... ., ...................... ., ., .................... 35 
3. EMPIRICAL STUDY ...................................................... 35 
3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................... 35 
3.2 THE AIM OF THE RESEARCH ......................................... 35 
3.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES .............................................. 35 
iv 
3.4 POPULATION AND SAMPLING ....................................... 36 
3.5 INSTRUMENTATION ..................................................... 38 
3.5.1 Description of the motivational questionnaire ........................... 39 
3.5.2 English marks ................................................................ 43 
3.6 VARIABLES USED ................................... , ..................... 43 
3.7 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ............................................... 44 
3.8 STATISTICAL ANALYSES .............................................. 44 
3.9 PROCEDURE ................................................................ 45 
3.10 SUMMARY .................................................................. 46 
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4. STATISTICAL ANALYSES AND INTERPRETATION OF 
THE RESULTS .............................................................. 47 
4.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................... 47 
4.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SES AND ACHIEVEMENT 
IN ENGLISH .................................................................. 48 
4.3 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE AND SEX, AND 
ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH .......................................... 53 
4.4 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A TTRIBUTIONAL STYLE, 
AFFECT AND ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH ....................... 53 
4.5 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ............................................. 62 
4.5.1 The influence of SES on academic achievement ........................ 63 
4.5.2 The influence of sex on academic achievement ......................... 65 
4.5.3 The relationship between age and academic achievement .............. 66 
4.5.4 The relationship between attributions, affect and achievement 
in English ..................................... '" ............................. 68 
4.5.5 General conclusion concerning the attributional style and level of 
self-efficacy in comparison to achievement and matric results ........ 70 
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5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................... 72 
5.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................... 72 
5.2 SUMMARY OF AND CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE 
LITERA TURE STUDY .................................................... 72 
v 
5.2.2 The conative component of motivation and its relationship to 
goal-orientation, self-efficacy and attributions .......................... 73 
5.2.3 The value - expectancy framework ........................................ 74 
5.2.4 The attributional process .................................................... 74 
5.2.5 Students' age and attributions in motivation ............................. 75 
5.2.6 Students' gender and attributions in motivation ......................... 75 
5.2.7 Students' SES and attributions in motivation ............................ 76 
5.2.8 The influence of student- and task characteristics on 
student achievement ........... , ............................................. 76 
5.3 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE EMPIRICAL 
5.3.1 
5.3.2 
5.3.2.1 
5.3.2.2 
5.3.2.3 
5.3.2.4 
RESEARCH .................................................................. 77 
Summary of the method of research ...................... '" ............. 77 
Summary and conclusions of results ...................................... 77 
The socio-economic status of the school influences achievement 
in English of Standard 8 students .......................................... 77 
Age influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students ....... 78 
Sex (gender) influences achievement in English of 
Standard 8 students .......................................................... 78 
The relationship between attributions, affect and their influence on 
achievement in English ......................................... " .......... 78 
5.3.3 General overview of the research results ................................. 79 
5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ................. 79 
5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .............. 80 
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Moti vational Questionnaire 
ADDENDUM B ............................................................................. 117 
Motivational Questionnaire answersheet. Part I & n. Attributional style, self­
efficacy and affect 
LIST OF FIGURES 
FIGURE 2.1: Motivational self-evaluation. . .............................................. 21 
FIGURE 2.2: The attributional process. .. ................................................. 22 
vi 
LIST OF GRAPHS 
GRAPH 4.1: Mark distribution of students from average to high SES schools. . ... 51 
GRAPH 4.2: Mark distribution of students from average to low SES schools. . .... 52 
LIST OF TABLES 
TABLE 2.1: Attributions within the three-dimensional space. . ....................... 23 
TABLE 3.1: Number of students tested in accordance with the SES of schools. ..37 
TABLE 3.2: Age frequency of students tested. .. ....................................... 38 
TABLE 3.3: Number of students tested according to their gender or sex. .. ........ 38 
TABLE 3.4: Mathematics Attribution Subscales: Means and standard 
deviations. . ................................................................... 41 
TABLE 3.5: MAS Subscale reliability coefficients. . .................................. .42 
TABLE 3.6: Attribution subscales: Means, standard deviations 
and reliability coefficients (Scott). .. ..................................... .42 
TABLE 4.1: Analysis of distributions of marks in English for each school. ....... 50 
TABLE 4.2: Pearson correlation coefficients for age, sex and achievement 
in English. . ................................................................... 53 
TABLE 4.3: Analysis of self-evaluated attributional choice. . ........................ 54 
TABLE 4.4: Analysis of self-evaluated attributional style. .. .......................... 55 
TABLE 4.5: Analysis of self-evaluated self-efficacy and affect. .. ................... 56 
TABLE 4.6: Frequency of students for attributional style and affect. .. ............. 58 
TABLE 4.7: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOV A with attributional 
style and affect x English mark for success. . ............................ 60 
TABLE 4.8: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOV A with attributional 
style and affect x English mark for failure. . ............................. 60 
TABLE 4.9: Results of the two-way ANOVA with attributional style and 
affect x English mark. .. .................................................... 61 
TABLE 4.10: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOVA with attributional 
style and affect x comprehension test mark for success. .. ............. 61 
TABLE 4.11: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOV A with attributional 
style and affect x comprehension test mark for failure. .. .............. 61 
TABLE 4.12: Results of the two-way ANOV A with attributional style and 
affect x comprehension test mark. .. ...................................... 62 
vii 
OPSOMMING 
Die doel met hierdie studie was om: 
i. die aard van attribusies en affek. en die interaktiewe verband tussen die twee 
veranderlikes en akademiese prestasie, vanuit die literatuur te beskryf, 
ii. die verband tussen sosio-ekonomiese status, ouderdom en geslag en prestasie 
in Engels van standerd 8-1eerlinge empiries te bepaal. en 
lll. die verband tussen attribusies. affek en prestasie in Engels van standerd 8-
leerlinge empiries te bepaal. 
Vanuit die literatuurstudie het dit geblyk dat die oorsake (dj. attribusies) waaraan 
leerlinge hulle prestasie (veral swak prestasie) in spesifieke vakke of leertake toeskryf, 
en veral hulle siening van die lokus, stabiliteit en beheer (d.L attribusionele 
dimensies, oftewel attribusiestyl) van sodanige attribusies, affek, as aspek van 
gemotiveerde gedrag, en ook prestasie beinvloed. Leerlinge wat hulle sukses in 
spesifieke take aan interne, stabiele (dj. vermoe) of onstabiele maar beheerbare 
oorsake (dj. inset) toeskryf, toon 'n hoe mate van selfdoeltreffendheid en trots en hoe 
verwagtings dat die sukses herhaal kan word. Mislukking wat aan interne (of 
eksterne), maar onstabiele en beheerbare oorsake (soos inset) toegeskryf word, lei tot 
skuldgevoelens en beinvloed nie selfdoeltreffendheid negatief nie. Mislukking wat 
aan stabiele en onbeheerbare oorsake (soos vermoe of onderrigmetodes) toegeskryf 
word, lei egter tot skaamte of 'n gevoel van hopeloosheid en lae selfdoeltreffendheid. 
Daar bestaan ook • n sterk verband tussen werklike prestasie en die tipe waarde wat 
aan prestasie geheg word (bemeestering of leer, teenoor prestasie of sosiale 
goedkeuring) . 
Die volgende gevolgtrekkings het uit die literatuurstudie voorgespruit: 
attribusiestyl beinvloed emosionele reaksie. verwagtings ten opsigte van 
sukses of mislukking en akademiese prestasie; 
emosionele reaksie verhoog of verlaag die motivering om in verdere 
leerpogings betrokke te raak, en 
viii 
daar bestaan 'n sterk verband tussen prestasiewaardes, attribusiestyl en affek, 
wat uiteindelik die leerling se wil om 'n leertaak te inisieer en vol te hou, 
belnvloed. 
leermotivering word deur intra-, asook inter-individuele verskille tussen 
leerlinge (onder andere, ouderdom, sosio-ekonomiese status en geslag), en 
verskeie klaskamerveranderlikes (onder andere, onderrrigstrategiee, 
evalueringstegnieke en taakveranderlikes), beinvloed. 
Uit die empiriese studie het die volgende geblyk: 
daar bestaan geen verband tussen die sosio-ekonomiese status van die skool, 
die ouderdom en geslag en die prestasie in Engels van die leerlinge wat in 
hierdie studie gebruik is nie; 
daar bestaan geen verband tussen die attribusiestyl, affek en prestasie in 
Engels van die leerlinge wat in hierdie studie gebruik is nie, dog 
daar bestaan wel 'n verband tussen affek en die prestasie van die leerlinge in 
die begripstoets wat In deel van die motiveringsvraelys van die studie gevorm 
het. 
Die resultate moet egter oordeelkundig interpreteer word, as gevolg van die 
klassifikasie wat gebruik is ten opsigte van sosio-ekonomiese status, die aard van die 
vraelys en die redelike hoe gemiddelde prestasie in Engels van die leerlinge wat die 
steekproef verteenwoordig. 
ix 
SYNOPSIS 
The aims of this study were: 
1. to determine the nature of attributions and affect, and the interactive 
relationships between these two composite variables and academic 
achievement, from a literature review; 
11. to empirically determine the relationship between socio-economic status, age 
and sex and achievement in English of Standard 8 students; and 
Hi. to empirically determine the relationship between attributions, affect and 
achievement in English of Standard 8 students. 
From the literature review it was evident that the causes (i.e. attributions) to which 
students ascribe their achievement (especially poor achievement) in specific subjects 
or learning tasks, and their perceptions of the locus, stability and control (Le. 
attributional dimensions, or attributional style) of such attributions, influence their 
affect, as aspect of motivated behaviour, as well as their achievement. Students who 
ascribe their success to internal, stable (Le. ability) or variable but controllable causes 
(Le. effort), experience a high level of self-efficacy and pride and high expectancies 
of future success. Failure which is ascribed to internal (or external), but variable and 
controllable causes (such as effort), leads to feelings of gUilt and does not affect self­
efficacy detrimentally. Failure which is ascribed to stable and uncontrollable causes 
(such as ability or teaching methods), however, results in shame or hopelessness and 
decreased self-efficacy. A strong relationship was also evident between achievement 
and the type of value attached to achievement (mastery or learning values versus 
achievement or social recognition values). 
The empirical study led to the following conclusions: 
there is no relationship between the socio-economic status of the school, the 
age and sex and the achievement in English of the students of this study; 
there is no relationship between the attributional style, affect and achievement 
in English of the students who were used in this study, yet 
x 
there is a relationship between the students' affect and their achievement in 
the comprehension test that formed a part of the motivational questionnaire 
used in this study. 
The results must, however, be interpreted with care, due to the classification used for 
SES, the nature of the questionnaire and the rather high average achievement in 
English of the students who formed the sample. 
xi 
CHAPTER ONE 
1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND 
1.1 INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 
The failure rate in the matriculation examinations among Black students in the 
Republic of South Africa has been unacceptably high over the years (averaging 
56% in 1992). One of the many factors that has contributed to or caused this 
high failure rate the past decade or more, is the plausible assumption that 
students experience little self-confidence when they have to learn through the 
medium of English - a language they not always understand well (Cummings, 
1986: 19). This assumption identifies two related problems, namely an 
inability to learn due to poor understanding of learning content and lack of 
self-confidence. These problems can both be addressed by enhancing 
students' motivation to master the language by giving more attention to the 
subject English and thus through attaining success, gain the necessary self­
confidence to study not only English but also other subjects taught through the 
medium of English. Few students, however, consider feelings (of self­
confidence, self-worth, etc.) as a determinant of learning success. Winograd 
(1988:39, citing Weiner, 1980) states that affect mediates achievement through 
effort expenditure and the cognitive search for the causes of success or failure. 
The cognitive attributions, in turn, influence subsequent affect, expectancies of 
success and effort - in other words, the motivation to learn. 
According to Weiner, Russell and Lerman (1978, 1979, quoted by Ames, 
1984:29) emotions are discriminably related to particular attributions. 
Whereas failure attributed to lack of ability evokes feelings of hopelessness 
and low self-worth, an attribution of lack of effort will result in guilt with 
little effect on self-worth. Forsterling and Rudolph (1988:225) contends, 
furthermore, that if attributions are to lead to functional emotions and 
behaviours, they need to be realistic. 
The central tenet of this study is that cognitions (in the form of attributions) 
and emotions, resulting from attributions, interactionally influence students' 
motivation to learn (Covington, 1981:797-798), as both play a role in the 
1 
value students attach to learning and their expectancies of attaining success 
(Pintrich, 1988:75). According to Pintrich (1988:75) expectancy is related to 
how competent students perceive themselves to be, their level of anxiety, 
perceptions of task difficulty and beliefs and feelings about self-efficacy, 
control and outcomes. It cpn be inferred that students with high expectancy of 
success for a certain task, will become more involved in such a task and 
persevere even when faced with difficulty, than will students with low 
expectancy of success. Task value, on the other hand, includes goal­
attainment value, interest value and utility value (Scott, 1991:2). 
Thus, it is essential that schools empower and equip students to develop the 
ability, confidence and motivation to succeed academically (Cummings, 
1986:23). Students need to value the tasks they embark upon, and should 
expect to succeed in such engagements. Directly related to these values and 
expectations are causal ascriptions students attribute to the causes of their 
failure or success in any task. These attributions evoke certain feelings which 
either motivate -or demotivate students to embark on or abandon academic 
tasks. Izard, Kagan and Zajonc (1984:5) contend that cognitive factors are 
present as sufficient conditions in the generation of emotions, and participate 
as necessary processes in the symbolization and labeling of the emotion and, 
thus, influence emotion expression. 
The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between attributions 
and affect (as two components of motivation) and to determine their combined 
influence on achievement in the subject English. 
The merit of the study is to be found in the possibility of enhancing students' 
feelings of self-confidence and self-worth in the subject English. Such 
feelings may also improve learning in other subjects taught through the 
medium of English. 
Bar-Tal (1978:262) defines an attribution as the deduction that is made or the 
conclusion that is reached by an observer concerning the causes of either his 
own behaviour, or the behaviour of others. This leads to an understanding of 
one's environment and oneself (Heider, cited by Harvey and Weary, 
1984:428). It is not the actual attribution, however, that determines affect, 
but rather how the individual interprets the attribution. Weiner (1979:7, 
2 
1985 :551) has identified three causal dimensions in attributions, namely locus, 
stability and control. 
The locus dimension entails the generalized expectations between causes 
located within a person, such as intelligence, physical beauty and personality; 
and causes considered to be outside the person (environmental factors), such 
as objective difficulty of the task (Ames (b), 1984:20). The stability 
dimension differentiates causes on the basis of temporal consistency (Ames(b), 
1984:21). Luck and mood, for instance, are temporary and can vary, while 
physical beauty or mathematics aptitude is regarded as enduring. This entails 
that outcomes ascribed to ability are more predictive of the future than 
outcomes ascribed to effort. Ames (b) (1984:22, citing Hamilton, 1980) 
posits that the concept of control implies that the actor "could have done 
otherwise". This entails that the student can control the action. Effort, 
therefore, is subject to volitional control, and the student is held responsible 
for effort expenditure, while the converse is true about inherited characteristics 
such as aptitude. 
Research has provided consistent evidence of relationships between causal 
attributions and achievement expectancies, task persistence, task outcomes and 
academic achievement. For instance, students decide to reduce their effort 
because they view this strategy as minimizing their losses in self-worth 
(Covington and Beery, 1976). 
Usually, students who feel threatened by the possibility of failure in an 
activity, will reduce effort expenditure to protect their perceived ability and 
thereby their self-esteem (Jagacinski and Nicholls, 1991: 15). Thus, fear of 
failure appears to determine students I subsequent activities with regard to 
effort expenditure. 
Adolescents have already developed a differentiated concept of ability, in 
which the concepts of effort and ability are differentiated from one another in 
a context of social comparison (Jagacinski and Nicholls, 1987:107, citing 
Nicholls, 1984). Therefore, older children differentiate between effort and 
ability. 
3 
The research studies cited clearly indicate that there is a relationship between 
attributions, affect and achievement, and that although independent, they 
interact. 
1.2 THE AIM OF THE RESEARCH 
The aim of the research was: 
• to determine the nature of attributions and affect - and their interactive 
relationship on academic achievement from a literature review; 
• to empirically determine whether socio-economic status, age and 
gender influence the achievement in English of Standard 8 students, 
and 
• to empirically determine the relationship between attributions, affect 
and achievement in English of Standard 8 students. 
1.3 HYPOTHESES 
Primary hypothesis: 
There is a relationship between attributions, affect and achievement in English 
of Standard 8 students. 
Secondary hypotheses: 
The socio-economic status of the school influences achievement in English of 
Standard 8 students. 
Gender influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students. 
Age influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students. 
1.4 METHOD OF RESEARCH 
The method of research consisted of a literature review and an empirical 
study. 
4 
1.4.1 Literature review 
A literature study was undertaken to determine the nature of attributions and 
affect and their combined influence on academic achievement. A DIALOG­
search was conducted, based on the following key words: attribution, 
attribution style, affect, emotion, attributional dimensions, academic 
achievement. 
1.4.2 The empirical research 
1.4.2.1 Experimental design 
An ex post facto research design was used. 
1.4.2.2 Population and sample 
The target population was Standard 8 students in 19 secondary schools with 
approximately 7600 students, in the Sebokeng/Evaton circuits. 
A sample of 5 schools was first drawn by means of random cluster sampling 
after which one class from each of the 5 schools was drawn by means of 
random sampling. The sample constituted 103 boys and 92 girls (5 students 
did not specify their sex) with ages varying between 13 - 26 years. The socio­
economic status of the sample ranged from very low to high. 
1.4.2.3 Variables 
• The independent variables: 
a. Control variables: Sex, age and socio-economic status (SES) 
b. Experimental variables: Attributions and affect 
• The dependent variables: 
The promotion scores of students in English, consisting of the year­
mark plus the examination mark of students for the fourth term. 
5 
1.4.2.4 Instrumentation 
A questionnaire consisting of the Mathematics Attribution Scale, as adapted 
to English in accordance with the prescriptions of the authors, and an 
adaptation of the Russell Attribution Dimensional Scale, was used. 
1.4.2.5 Statistical techniques 
Correlation analyses, analyses of variance and frequency analyses were used to 
analyse the data. 
1.5 PROGRAM OF RESEARCH 
A questionnaire was constructed and tested in a pilot study to determine its 
comprehensibility. After drawing the random sample, the students completed 
the questionnaire and the data were analysed by means of the specified 
statistical techniques. After obtaining and analysing the results, certain 
conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made. 
1.6 CONCEPT CLARIFICATION OF MOTIVATIONAL VARIABLES 
Since motivation, as described from a social cognitive perspective, deals 
mainly with three constructs, namely self-efficacy, goal-orientation and 
attributions, these three constructs will each be described briefly. 
1.6.1 Se(f-efjicacy 
Self-efficacy is construed as the result of personal judgements of performance 
capabilities in a given domain of activity (Schunk, 1985:219). The 
judgements include a students' confidence in his cognitive skills to perform an 
academic task (Pintrich and Schrauben, 1991: 154). A student will feel 
efficacious if he judges himself capable of organizing and executing courses of 
actions that are required to attain stipulated types of performance. 
Self-efficacy, therefore, is not based on knowing what to do, but on whether a 
student feels capable of doing what he knows (Scott, 1991:34). Schunk 
(1985:209) posits that a student infers efficacy knowledge by evaluating and 
6 
interpreting his own performances, that of similar others, feedback of 
significant others and physiological reactions. High self-efficacy stimulates 
students' effort expenditure, and persistence when encountering problems, 
while low self-efficacy leads to doubts, avoidance techniques and lack of effort 
(Schunk, 1991: 122). 
1.6.2 Goal-orientation 
Goal-orientation is conceived as " ... a set of behavioural intentions that 
determine how students pursue different achievement goals" (Meece and 
Blumenfeld, 1988:515). How a student approaches a task entails his modus 
operandi in attaining a set goal, which in turn, is directly related to the 
specific value a student attaches to a learning task. 
Dweck (1986: 1040) contends that goal orientation entails two classes, viz. 
learning and performance goals. In the first case, students' goal is to increase 
their competence, to understand, to master new material, while the second 
case entails students seeking to gain favourable judgments of their competence 
or avoid negative judgements of their competence. 
1.6.3 Attributions 
Weiner (1985:548) defines attributions as " ... the students' interpretation of 
the causes of success or failure, in his endeavour to understand the 
environment and himself'. This understanding leads to the perception that the 
causes can either be controlled by the student, or not. The controllability, in 
turn, influences emotions, such as self-efficacy. 
1.7 SUMMARY 
Research was necessary to determine whether there is a relationship between 
attributions and affect in student academic achievement in the subject English. 
A literature study and empirical research were undertaken to test this 
hypothesis. The findings of this research might offer reasons why there is 
such a high failure rate in the matriculation examinations among Black 
students in the Republic of South Africa. 
7 \ 
CHAPTER TWO 
2. COGNITION AND EMOTION: AN AITRlBUTIONAL 
PERSPECTIVE 
2.1 INTRODUCTION 
In the context of the school classroom, a student's motivation to learn (Le. 
achievement motivation) is determined by a composite of his personal 
characteristics, social environment of his class, and the characteristics of the 
task he has to learn. Of these three composite variables, the students' personal 
characteristics are the most influential, since volitional and motivated action is 
instigated and sustained by self-evaluative thoughts and the students' resultant 
feelings (Pintrich and Schrauben, 1991:151; Weiner, 1984:17). 
Students rarely engage actively in purposeful learning unless they expect to 
gain something they value from such learning, whether this "something" be 
new skills and competence, knowledge or positive grade ratings (pintrich, 
1988:67-69; Schunk, 1991:2). Student values and expectancies develop 
through a process of repeated experiences from which they gradually interpret 
the causes that determine success or failure and thus form perceptions about 
their own competence (McCombs, 1988:144). These self-perceived causes 
are, however, not only cognitive in nature, but also engender specific cause­
related emotions (Weiner, 1985:548). According to Weiner (1988: 100 and 
1986:234) cognitive self-evaluation of the causes of results (so-called 
attributions) is directly related to values, expectancies of success or failure and 
emotional reactions, and eventually motivates the student to become involved 
in further learning endeavours. Farmer, Vispoel and Maehr (1991:31) also 
found a strong relationship between achievement values and attributions. 
Expectancies and values directly influence how the student directs his will 
(that is, the volitional aspect of motivation). Will-direction (or conation) plays 
an important role in motivation in general, and in achievement motivation in 
particular, as it mediates between motivation and the attainment of a set goal 
(Feather, 1988:381). A student may have a goal set and be motivated to attain 
the goal, but the actual action taken to attain the goal is determined by his 
8 
will-direction at a given time. Thus a student may set himself the goal of 
mastering a mathematical task, be really motivated to do so, but then simply 
not direct his will at initiating learning and will thereby forego the chance of 
realising his goal. 
Motivation and achievement motivation will first be described (par. 2.2), after 
which the main components of motivation, viz. cognition, emotion and 
conation, and their relationships to goal-orientation, self-efficacy and 
attributions will be clarified (par. 2.3). 
In order to understand the attributional theory within which the empirical 
study is conducted, attention will next be given to the value x expectancy 
framework (viz. par. 2.4). The next paragraph will be devoted to an 
exposition of the attributional theory (viz. par. 2.5). 
The relationship between cognition and emotion does not only result in self­
efficacy, goal-orientation and attributional style, but also leads to positive or 
negative affect, which influences a students' motivation to learn. How a 
student thinks and feels is, in turn. influenced by intra- as well as inter­
individual student characteristics, and various classroom variables, such as 
teaching strategies, evaluation techniques, feedback and task characteristics 
(Pintrich and Schrauben, 1991: 152; De Charms, 1984:275), of which age, 
sex, socio-economic status and classroom structures are pertinent to this study. 
These variables will be discussed in paragraph 2.6. 
2.2 ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION 
Since achievement motivation is a broad construct pertaining to all behaviour, 
whether in the areas of sport, social relationships or learning. it will first be 
described in general, after which achievement motivation will be placed within 
the context of the classroom. 
Motivation can be seen as an affective process that impels or drives a person 
(also a student) toward active, integrated and directed behaviour. The term is 
used to account for behaviour either in terms of energy expended in goal­
seeking or in relation to the factors, both internal or external, which help as 
well as maintain organized effort (Halsey and Friedmann, 1985:629). Vernon 
(1969: 1) defines motivation as " ... behaviour in which the individual is clearly 
9 
conscious of a definite end or goal towards the attainment of which his actions 
are consistently, persistently and forcefully directed". According to Wolman 
(1977: 193), motivation refers to the interaction between personality variables 
and the immediate environment as "contemporary determinants of aspiration, 
of effort and persistence when an individual expects that performance will be 
evaluated as success or failure in relation to some standard of excellence". 
In summary, motivation is thus an affective and cognitively conscious process 
during which personal and environmental variables are evaluated in order to 
initiate, direct and sustain active behaviour. This behaviour is characterized 
by: 
• organized and integrated effort; 
• consistency and persistence, and 
• goal-seeking personifying a standard of excellence. 
The standard of excellence is determined by: 
• personal aspirations (values); 
• the realisation that the behaviour will be evaluated, and 
• expectancies of attaining, success or failure. 
Common to all these definitions are the key concepts of emotions, cognitions, 
expectancy and utility value of the task, that will eventually lead to the 
attainment of the desired goal. The person is both internally and externally 
instigated to engage in organised effort to attain desired end states. Included 
in these end states are the concepts of competence and self-control. According 
to McCombs (1988: 148) the more competence and self-control a person 
experiences, the more self-determined or self-motivated he/she becomes. 
When placed within the classroom context, achievement motivation becomes 
even more complex since various factors within the classroom - and family 
environment can influence it. Classroom variables influencing achievement 
motivation include: (i) the personality of the teacher, his teaching-, feedback­
and evaluation strategies; (ii) the type of learning task the students are to 
perform, which can differ according to the subject, conceptual level and 
10 
difficulty level, and (Hi) the personality of each individual student, his 
learning approach, style and strategies and his cognitive, conative and 
emotional reactions to his behaviour and that of others. Achievement (or 
learning) motivation entails "striving to increase or to keep as high as possible, 
one's own ability in all activities in which a standard of excellence is thought 
to apply and when execution of such activities can, therefore, either succeed 
or fail" (Russell, 1972:40). "Striving" implies active achievement, as well as 
a high level of personal control over both personal and environmental factors 
affecting learning tasks. "Own ability" alludes to the endeavour to gain 
competence and self-efficacy by mastering the skills inherent to the specific 
learning task, while "standard of excellence" can refer to a personal 
internalized standard, or an external norm. According to McCombs 
(1988: 143) perceived control influences the actual achievement level which, 
when evaluated in terms of cognitive competence, stimulates an affective 
reaction and the motivation, either to engage in further mastery attempts, or to 
avoid such attempts. Control and competence are thus closely related and 
influence each other reciprocally. 
Therefore, according to McCombs (1988: 143), students need to feel 
competent before they will become motivated to engage in learning tasks. 
This competence is based on past, and present success, and will engender self­
confidence, responsibility and the need to engage in similar and probably more 
challenging tasks in future. 
Control and competence are, however, not the only prerequisites for becoming 
motivated to learn. According to Weiner (1974: 189) the need to achieve, also 
called the motive to achieve, also influences motivation. Therefore, students 
in high motive groups are more likely to initiate achievement activities, work 
with greater intensity, persist longer even in the face of failure, and choose 
more tasks of an intermediate and high level of difficulty than individuals low 
in achievement needs. Achievement motivation thus also includes intensity, 
perseverance, the ability to overcome failures and a predeliction for tasks of a 
certain difficulty level. 
According to Maehr (1974:888) achievement motivation constitutes three 
elements, namely a standard of excellence (entailing cognitive engagement) 
implying that the behaviour can be evaluated in terms of success or failure; 
personal responsibility (emotional involvement), and some level of challenge 
11 
involving some sense of uncertainty. Self-determination and self-regulation 
underpin Maehr's assertion about achievement motivation where elements of 
independence, competence, and responsibility are inherent characteristics. 
In the context of this study, these definitions of achievement motivation fit in 
with the learning-goal (mastery) paradigm which in turn incorporates self­
regulated learning strategies (SRL) , whereby affective (cognitive and 
emotional) activities are used, including deliberate planning, monitoring, and 
attributions that students use when they encounter and attempt to solve some 
academic tasks (Good and Tom, 1985:310). 
Since motivation is such a complex construct, the need to differentiate 
different components arises in order to try to simplify the construct and make 
it more suitable for classroom application. 
2.3 THE COMPONENTS OF MOTIVATION 
The two main components of motivation, namely cognition and emotion, will 
be described first and their influence on self-efficacy, attributions and goal­
orientation discussed, after which conation, or will-direction and its 
relationship to self-efficacy, attributions and goal-orientation will be 
described. 
2.3.1 Cognition 
According to Weiner (1986:7) cognitions entail a broad array of mental 
processes such as information search and retrieval, short- and long-term 
memory, categorization, judgement and decision-making, while Thomas and 
Page (1977:70) conceive of cognitions as " ... an umbrella term for the mental 
processes of perception, discovery, recognition, imagining, judging, 
memorizing, learning and thinking, through which the individual obtains 
knowledge and conceptual understanding or explanation". Cognitions thus 
entail the conscious mental processes of seeking and gaining knowledge. The 
student, however, has to initiate and sustain these cognitive processes if he is 
to make progress with a learning task, and for this he needs to be motivated. 
Cognition functions in a motivational context in the form of, among others, 
goal-setting. The extent of the discrepancy between the set goal and the 
12 
competence and skills the student has before starting the learning task, 
determines whether he will become motivated to initiate the task or not. Goal­
setting, in turn, is mediated by the expectancy of success and the value a 
student attaches to both the goal and the task (see par. 2.4 for a discussion of 
these aspects of motivation). Expectancies and value clarification are both the 
results of self-evaluation (a cognitive process), as are attributions (Scott, 
1991:39). 
Self-evaluation of expectancies, values and attributions and goal-setting as 
cognitive tasks or processes, can only be formed when individuals consciously 
engage the skills of self-regulated learning. These skills invariably include 
cognitive engagements students put to use to learn in classrooms, that is, 
efforts expended by students to "deepen and manipulate the associative work 
in a particular area" (Corno and Rohrkemper, 1985:60). Cognitive 
engagement thus refers to processes used by students to acquire information 
and transform information to knowledge, and to sustain motivation to learn. 
Such students can also be typified as self-regulated learners, meaning that they 
regulate (and motivate) their learning personally. According to Corno and 
Rohrkemper (1985:60) a student can cognitively engage in learning in three 
ways, namely by: 
i. engaging in more transformation than acquisition of information (Le. 
information processing), leading to deep understanding; 
H. managing the available resources through weighing personal resources 
against available environmental resources, and 
lll. recipience which, although characterized by lower levels of both 
acquisition and transformation, still leads to learning or remembering 
learning content. 
In this context transformation entails synthesizing and incorporating acquired 
information into one's cognitive structure; while acquisition entails the 
selective incorporation of available information, and recipience entails 
incorporating information rarely, without even understanding what it means. 
Achievement motivation is thus associated with a particular pattern of 
cognitive functioning, aiding students to have realistic yet positive expectations 
13 
of success (Weiner, 1988: 154). Cognitive functions, therefore, form the basis 
of students' expectancy for success and the utility value of a task. 
Cognitions, however, are not sufficient to motivate students, as any individual 
is as much emotionally as well as cognitively involved in learning, and 
cognitions result in specific emotions which play a crucial role in achievement 
motivation. 
2.3.2 Emotions 
According to Baldwin (1960:316) an emotion is a total state of consciousness 
considered as involving a distinctive feeling and a characteristic trend of 
activity aroused by a certain situation which is either perceived or ideally 
represented. Weiner (1974:52) posits that emotions are a function of an 
individual's perception of his immediate stimulus situation, and that 
expectations are determined by the value he attaches to the attainment of 
success in any given situation. For instance, a student may as a result of a 
successful outcome in an academic task, experience joy which will make him 
proud of his success and confident that he will succeed in similar tasks in 
future. 
Emotions mediate between cognition and motivation as they prompt and direct 
task initiation, and sustain task performance. Emotions, therefore, are 
characterized by the awareness of certain distinct feelings aroused by certain 
situations, that invariably lead to a variety of actions. In learning contexts, 
students are aroused to awareness of certain situations in their learning 
environment, (for instance, success or failure in a test), which will in turn 
result in certain feelings, such as pride or sadness, which will lead to certain 
actions, such as expending more effort in a task or an outright withdrawal. 
This example concurs with Weiner's (1986: 11 9) assertion that emotions are 
presumed to have positive or negative qualities of a certain intensity that are 
frequently preceded by an appraisal of a situation and give rise to a variety of 
actions. The question of intensity and direction of emotion relates emotion to 
motivation, as intensity and direction are two of the main characteristics of 
motivation. 
It is, therefore, evident that emotions play a crucial role in achievement 
motivation, as they determine whether and how a student will continue and 
14 
persist in a task even in the face of failure. Both emotions and cognition play 
an interactive role in achievement motivation, and this role has a direct 
bearing on students I self-efficacy. 
2.3.3 The relationship between cognition and emotions and their influence 
on self-efficacy, attributions and goal-orientation 
Covington and Omelich (1981:797) asserts that although cognitive, emotional 
and motivational components are independent, they also interact and while 
cognitions and emotions are inseparable, their effects are not the same. 
As cognitive factors contribute heavily to every aspect of the emotional 
process, emotional development motivates and facilitates cognitive 
development (Izard, Kagan and Zajonc, 1984:5). Cognitive factors also 
provide a guiding function for emotional expression by labelling (identifying) 
the experienced arousal, and guiding the appropriate emotional feeling 
(Weiner, 1972:282). Cognitions thus assist in the expression of appropriate 
emotions. In learning contexts, students need to understand the various factors 
affecting their success or failure so as to adjust or readjust their learning 
strategies with the hope of attaining success with such adjustments. Weiner 
(1974:21) states that cognitive processes determine the quality and intensity of 
an emotional reaction; and that such processes underlie coping activities 
which, in turn shape the emotional reactions by changing the continuous 
relationship between the person and the environment in a variety of ways. 
The relationship between cognition and emotion (the two constitute affect), 
centres around students I perceived competence and perceived control 
(McCombs, 1988: 143). The former entails a multidimensional construct that 
involves one's perceptions in cognitive, social, and physical domains. The 
latter entails a dynamic cognitive variable that refers to one's understanding of 
who is responsible for task outcomes (McCombs, 1988: 143-144). Self­
perceptions and understanding are the results of self-evaluation of what 
Bandura (1986:390) calls self-reflective or self-referent thought which 
mediates the relationship between knowledge and action. There is therefore, a 
reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy (as an affective variable) and 
cognitive engagements on the one hand, and internal control beliefs and 
cognitive and self-regulatory skills on the other. Students who believe that 
15 
their behaviour and effort influence their performance are likely to use 
effective self-regulatory strategies like comprehension monitoring; and those 
who believe that they have internal control would effectively manage their 
study time, study environment and effort expended on tasks even if these are 
difficult, or boring. They are likely to persevere and persist. 
Students' goal-orientations (see par. 2.3.3) are presumed to be important 
mediators and determinants of behavioural, cognitive, and emotional patterns 
in achievement motivation (Meece and Blumenfeld, 1988:515). Students react 
differentially to learning, and performance goal-orientations. The former goal 
is characterized by intrinsic rationales such as task mastery, challenge, 
learning, and curiosity, while the latter is characterized by extrinsic rationales 
such as obtaining grades, rewards, and external approval (pintrich and 
Schrauben, 1991: 156). Learning goals enhance students' perceptions of self­
control and expectancies of success, while judging success or failure from the 
context of effort expenditure and strategies. Performance oriented students, 
on the other hand refer expectancies to ability, subjective social standards, or 
environmental factors (such as parents, teachers or resources) (Dweck, 
1986: 1040, 1042). 
Meece and Blumenfeld (1988:515) assert that students focusing on task 
mastery persist longer, exhibit adaptive attributional patterns, express positive 
affect toward the task, and use a set of strategies likely to result in conceptual 
understanding. The obverse is true with students whose goals are to 
demonstrate high ability and to gain social approval. They exhibit a lower 
form of cognitive engagement in classroom activities, thus protecting their 
self-image from negative evaluation (Ames and Archer, 1988:260). 
Affects are thus important cues that guide the attribution process, which in 
turn has an influence on students' goal-orientations, and their self-efficacy and 
have therefore motivational significance. 
2.3.4 The conative component of motivation and its relationship to goal­
orientation, self-efficacy and attributions 
Positive affect, an adaptive attributional pattern, positive and realistic self­
efficacy together with a learning or mastery oriented goal-orientation, are not 
sufficient to influence motivation. Students, in addition, need to direct their 
16 
will (a volitional act), thereby manifesting their ability to mobilize and 
maintain self-regulating strategies when need be. Como (1986:335) defines 
conation (will-direction) as " ... action control processes, that is, post 
decisional, self-regulatory processes that energize the maintenance and 
enactment of intended actions". 
Conation processes come into play after a decision has been made to engage in 
a particular task. Conation or will-direction protects the commitment to 
engage with concentration in a task from a variety of competing action 
tendencies and from other potential distractions. Thus a student who has 
consciously decided to direct his will at solving a mathematical problem, will 
be less easily distracted by his peers than one who has not directed his will at 
the task. This "protective" act is characterized by purposive striving, and 
learning is its goal rather than performance (McCombs, 1988: 148; Como, 
1986:335; Graham and Golan, 1991:187). Conation thus results from 
students' perceptions of themselves and their perceptions of control over 
learning (McCombs, 1988: 148). Such students have what Schmeck 
(1988:326) calls a meaning-orientation, and are inclined to learn out of interest 
and not for the sake of social recognition. This intention to learn and to 
understand, in spite of personal and environmental distractions, is linked to 
subsequent learning processes necessitated by that intention. 
The implications of these orientations are that students with learning 
orientations are more willing to invest cognitively and behaviourally in a task 
than students with a performance orientation, who will focus attention on 
obtaining good grades, but might be less willing to make an investment in 
learning. This could be prompted by low self-efficacy, maladaptive 
attributions, resulting in negative success expectancy and a low task utility 
value, plus negative affect (Pintrich and Schrauben, 1991: 155). 
The three components, as manifested in goal-orientation, self-efficacy, 
attributions and control, can be structured in what is generally known as the 
value x expectancy paradigm or framework. 
2.4 THE VALUE-EXPECTANCY FRAMEWORK 
The value-expectancy framework relates the motivation to act to the perceived 
attractiveness and aversiveness of the task and its expected outcomes and to 
17 
the subjective value the student attributes to tasks and outcomes of 
performances (Berndt and Miller, 1990:320; Feather, 1988:381). Students 
who attach value to certain subjects expend more effort, and spend more time 
in learning these subjects. They have confidence of succeeding (i.e. high 
expectancies) in their attempts and would, therefore, persist in these subjects 
even when they meet obstacles. The obverse obtains when they attach no 
value, and expect no successful outcomes to result from task engagements 
(Berndt and Miller, 1990:320). 
2.4.1 The value component 
The value component refers students' goals to the importance, utility, or 
interest of a task (Pintrich and Schrauben, 1991:155), and two general aspects 
of value beliefs can be discerned, viz. goai-orientation and task value. 
Goal orientation 
Pintrich and Schrauben (1991: 155) posit that goals can be seen as affective 
representations of different purposes why students learn relating to different 
achievement situations, while goal-orientation refers to the students' general 
goals for learning a specific course or subject. Affective implies that 
differentiating the purpose of learning evokes an emotional reaction that forms 
a part of the value-system. Meece and Blumenfeld (1988:515) conceive of 
goal-orientations as a set of behavioural intentions that determine how students 
approach and engage in learning activities, and further contend that students 
pursue different achievement goals depending on their individual needs and 
competencies or on the demands of the situation. 
Goal-orientations are generally classified into performance versus mastery 
goals. A student with a mastery goal-orientation attaches importance to 
developing new skills, while valuing the process of learning, and the 
attainment of mastery is seen to depend on effort. Conversely, with a 
performance goal-orientation the student is concerned with being judged able, 
being a success by showing evidence of ability, by outperforming others and 
by achieving success with little effort (Ames and Archer, 1988:260). The 
former goal is intrinsically (generated from within the self) instigated, while 
the latter is extrinsically (motivated by external factors) instigated. Mastery 
18 
goals entail a willingness to invest cognitively in the task, using deeper 
processing strategies like summarizing, and paraphrasing, while the latter goal 
entails focusing on obtaining good grades, thereby being praised for 
manifesting ability. Students in this case tend to use more suiface processing 
strategies like rehearsal (Pintrich and Schrauben, 1991: 157). 
Task value beliefs 
Task value entails students' beliefs in the importance and interest of the 
content of the course, or subject in school settings (pintrich and Schrauben, 
1991: 158). The students' perceptions of the importance of the task, the utility 
value of the task for future goals (e.g., will passing a subject or subjects 
enable a student to qualify for university admission), and an intrinsic interest 
in a task, constitute three components of task value. The more importance the 
student attaches to the task or subject, and the more he believes that the 
task/subject is useful, the more motivated he will become, not to obtain high 
grades, but to master the skills and competencies constituted by the task. 
2.4.2 The expectancy component 
According to Pintrich and Schrauben (1991: 154) the expectancy component 
includes students' beliefs about their ability to perform a task, their 
judgements of self-efficacy and control, and their expectancy of attaining 
success. Expectancy of success thus focuses on three types of motivational 
beliefs, viz. beliefs about self-efficacy, control beliefs, and attributional 
beliefs. 
Students are more willing to exert effort and become cognitively engaged in a 
task if they feel efficacious about learning and believe they can control their 
learning. Such self-efficacy is domain-specific in that students' beliefs about 
how efficacious they are, differ from one course (such as maths) to another, 
(such as English) (Schunk, 1991: 14). Students may judge themselves 
efficacious in one or more subjects, in certain domains of functioning or 
across a wide range of activities or situations (e.g .• in different subjects, sport 
and cultural activities) (Bandura, 1986:396). Self-efficacy in English in the 
context of this study is important, because if students do not feel efficacious in 
19 
the language, they will not be motivated to learn, not only English, but also 
other subjects taught through the medium of English. 
Control beliefs form a key component of self-efficacy and refer to how 
students judge their ability to influence the environment and their own actions 
and thus also learning outcomes (pintrich and Schrauben, 1991: 154). Students 
should thus believe that their own efforts to learn will result in positive 
outcomes, in particular, that outcomes in the classroom are contingent on their 
own effort. 
Attributions entail students I understanding of the causes of their success or 
failure in specific tasks. Related to these ascriptions are three attributional 
dimensions, viz. (i) locus of control (internal or external); (ii) stability, and 
(Hi) controllability. These attributional dimensions determine whether a 
student values and expects success or failure in a task, or will persist or 
withdraw from a task. For instance, if success is attributed to a stable, 
internal and controllable variable such as ability, a student would experience 
pride, and have high expectancies of success in future. 
As the attributional theory deals with, not only the causes of results, but also 
with the whole, question of control, this theory will be used to relate the 
cognitive aspects of motivation, to the affective aspects, and specifically to 
self-efficacy. 
2.5 THE THEORY OF AITRIBUTIONS 
2.5.1 The attributional process 
Weiner (1972:310) contends that" ... attribution theory concerns the process 
by which an individual interprets events as being caused by a particular part of 
a relatively stable environment" . 
"Process" alludes to cognitive processes, among others metacognition and self­
evaluation, whereby a student in his/her own unique way interprets the most 
possible causes for manifested events, by evaluatively thinking about the 
various causes. In learning contexts, "events" refer to performance and 
performance outcomes, whether successful or unsuccessful. Evaluative 
thinking seeks to answer the questions depicted in figure 2.1: 
20 
STUDENT: 
Prior 
experiences 
Age 
Sex 
SES 
Self-efficacy 
VALUES 
M/y do I want to 
dollearn the tasK! 
.; Skills r--
11, • Competence 
, • Knowledge 
I .. Good grades 
I .. Social approval 
It 
A 1TRIBUTIONS 
Can I do fhe task? 
Expeclallcy &. Do Cognitive &. 
.. Ability 
Cognitive and 
affect, such as 
Motivation 
task and 
IaIllly cons 
-> 
• Effort c-b> affective reaction - t--> perseverance -->eval uate Affective 
evaluation of 
the task in 
terms of: 
.. Teaching method 
10 self -evaluation self-efficacy, 
pride, etc. 
strategies resu! ts 
• Help from outside 
.. Vicarious evalua-
tion of peers 
.. Difficulty level 
EMOTIONS 
,jJ Do I like lhe lasK! 
• Predilection 
-
.. Aversion 
FIGURE 2.1: Motivational self-evaluation. 
Any event, like academic success or failure, in a school setting, must have a 
reason for its occurrence. The evaluative process identifies the cause and 
attributes its occurrence to something which, when identified, is called a 
causal attribution (Weiner, 1988:99). 
In lay terms causal attributions can be described as influential aspects of a 
situation within which a particular event occurs (see figure 2.2). Within the 
classroom context learning results are, according to Van Overwalle (1989:400) 
mostly ascribed to teaching methods, peer pressure, own effort, intelligence 
and personal state of health (Scott, 1991 :32-33). The choice of attribution 
depends, to a great extent, on which properties the student perceives each 
attribution to have. These properties are described by Weiner (1985:548), as 
its locus, stability and controllability, and determine a students' affective 
21 
reaction and state of expectancy more than the actual choice of attribution does 
(Weiner, 1988: 100). 
A hierarchy of cognitive awareness thus exists which begins with the more 
stimulus-bound recognition of "facts", and this awareness gradually goes 
deeper into the underlying causes of these facts (Weiner, 1972:312). The 
cognitive awareness is instigated by prior outcomes (see figure 2.2) that 
resulted in positive- or negative affect. Thus, prior experiences determine 
whether events are interpreted as successes or failures. The individual will 
then impose ascriptions to responsible causes for the results. The ascriptions 
as such will inevitably lead to a change in thinking, which will in turn lead to 
a change in affect and action. 
Affect thus not only directs the causal search, but is also a result of the 
outcome of the causal search. 
Performance and/or Results 
VI 
Attribution 
J; 
Locus 
I 
-!­
Stability 
1 
Affective reaction 
J, 
Control 
I 
Motivation for new task 
r 
Expectancy 
~ 
~----------------------~) Value 
FIGURE 2.2: The attributional process. 
Festinger (1954: 117) posits that each human being has the drive to evaluate 
his opinions and abilities. His cognitions (his opinions and beliefs) about the 
situation in which he exists and his appraisals of what he is capable of doing 
(his evaluation of his capabilities), will have a bearing on his behaviour. 
22 
2.5.2 Attributional dimensions 
TABLE 2.1: Attributions within the three-dimensional space. 
WCUS 
, 
Internal External 
Controllability Controllability 
Stability Controllable Uncontrollable Controllable Uncontrollable 
Stable Ability Task difficulty Teaching method 
Variable Effort Health Help from peers Luck 
Learning 
strategies 
According to Scott (1991 :4) -attributions, in themselves, do not influence 
motivation as much as does students' attributional style (which refers to their 
interpretation of the locus, stability and control of attributions); (see table 
2.1). Locus entails those variables that are either internal or external to the 
perceiver, while stability refers to those variables that are consistent or 
variable over time, and controllability to those that are within or beyond an 
individual's control (Winograd, 1988:39). Once a cause for success or failure 
has been identified, it is interpreted (as indicated above) within a dimensional 
space. 
The attribution dimensional locations evoke various affects from one person to 
another. For instance causes of failure attributed to ability may lower a 
persons' self-esteem and success expectancy, because ability is regarded as 
internal, invariable and uncontrollable. Effort on the other hand is perceived 
as internal, variable but controllable. Lack of ability will give rise to low 
expectation of future success (which is produced by a stable attribution for 
non-attainment of a goal) (Weiner, 1988:99). 
Causal ascriptions and attributional dimensions interactionally influence affect 
in motivated behaviour. The linkages between attributions and affect will be 
dealt with next, followed by the role causal ascriptions and dimensions play in 
student expectations. 
23 
2.5.3 The role attributWnal dimensions play in affect and expectations 
2.5.3.1 The reiatWnship between attributWnal dimensions and affect 
In learning contexts students search for causes to explain why their efforts 
expended were successful or not. These attributions invariably influence 
subsequent affect and efforts (Winograd, 1988:39). These attributions will 
further dictate a person's (student's) feelings about an experience and 
consequently his/her motivation with regard to future experiences. 
Student motivation is primarily centered on their perceptions of ability and 
effort as attributions. Ames and Ames (1984:5) contend that, " ... While 
attributions to ability may inhibit or enhance motivation, depending on the 
situational context, an attribution to effort is seen as the cognitive element 
leading to proactive intentional action". Weiner (1984:27) posits that 
ascriptions of failure to lack of effort or to poor strategy are adaptive as these 
. factors are unstable and subject to volitional control. Covington and Omelich 
(1979:446), however, contend that effort attribution is a "two-edged sword" 
which may lead to what they call a "failure-avoiding-", and "failure -
accepting" mode for coping with achievement demands. The authors purport 
that students experience greater shame at failure under high effort conditions, 
in contrast to Weiner's (1984:17,18) assertion that increased shame is 
experienced in low-effort expenditure. Students can either refrain from 
exerting effort to protect their sense of worth, or adapt the perception that 
their ability is stable, internal, and is not affected by effort or hard work. 
Hopelessness results in the latter case. Farmer et al. (1991: 128) concur by 
stating that feelings of learned helplessness are experienced when one believes 
that failure is insurmountable and inevitable, resulting in impaired 
performance, and decreased persistence on an achievement task. 
Weiner (1985:560) posits that affect can be categorized into three groups, viz. 
outcome-dependent, attribution-dependent, and dimension-linked affects. The 
latter forms the main part of the empirical study. 
Outcome-dependent emotions entail the less cognitively differentiated 
reactions to success or failure outcomes which are determined by the 
assignment of causal responsibility, like pride and gratitude. The emotion 
expressed is determined by the outcome of an action regardless of the cause of 
24 
that outcome (Weiner, 1985:560). For instance, a student may, in a less 
differentiated cognitive sense, feel a sense of pride at academic success, even 
if such success is due to an easy task, or perhaps due to pure luck, where no 
ability or effort expenditure is involved. 
Attribution-dependent emotions are those feelings that are determined by the 
perceived cause of prior outcome. In this case there is therefore an increased 
cognitive involvement that generates more differentiated emotional 
experiences. Students I successes or failures are among other things either 
attributed to low/high ability, sufficient or insufficient effort; luck/ill-luck, or 
task difficulty. In each of these ascriptions, negative or positive feelings that 
raise or lower a person's self-esteem or self-worth are evinced. 
In dimension-linked emotions, differential emotions are evoked when causes 
of success or failure are attributed to stable/unstable, internal/external, or 
controllable/uncontrollable factors (Weiner and Graham, 1984: 178; Weiner, 
1985:561). Feelings of pity are evoked when a person's failure is due to 
stable and uncontrollable factors, such as a lack of requisite ability, but 
feelings of anger are evoked when such failure is attributed to lack of effort 
expenditure. To a person experiencing such failure, feelings of helplessness 
for lack of requisite capability, and feelings of gUilt will be experienced for 
not expending the required effort on a given task, because this is a variable but 
controllable factor (Weiner, 1985:561). 
2.5.3.2 The relationship between attributional dimensions and student expectations 
Students who perceive success to be due to high ability know that they have 
the required competence in a specific task, and therefore, have higher 
expectancies for future success (Zaleski, 1988:563), than when ascriptions are 
made to a less stable factor like effort. 
The ascription of success to unstable and controllable factors results in higher 
expectancy of future success following a failure (Weiner, 1984:27). The high 
expectancy of success then has a positive motivational influence in terms of 
goal-orientations (discussed in par. 2.4.1), and the intensity, quality, and 
persistence of behaviour. Winograd (1988:39) concurs with this view when 
he asserts that causal attributions dictate a student's expectation for event 
outcomes. For instance: a student who attributes his failure at a certain task 
25 
to bad luck (usually classified as an external and unstable factor)t may not 
expect to fail in future. The obverse is truet when failure is attributed to low 
ability (usually classified as an internal and stable factor), as he will expect to 
fail in future. 
2.5.3.3 Students' control beliefs in motivation 
According to Hierbert, Winograd and Dauner (1984: 1139) high achieving 
children attribute their success to ability and effort, while failure is attributed 
to lack of effort or external factors. Low-achieving children, more often than 
not, attribute success to factors beyond their control such as luck or task 
difficulty while failure is attributed to lack of ability (internal, yet mostly 
viewed as uncontrollable). 
The latter group internalizes failure and externalizes success. These students 
feel that no matter how hard they try, they are not going to attain any success 
since they lack the requisite capability of performing the task: The situation, 
thereforet is perceived as beyond their scope of control. 
Skinner, Wellborn and Connel (1990:24) posit that students who believe that 
academic achievement outcomes are under their personal control would be 
more engaged in school and earn better grades and achievement scores. The 
converse is true with those students who believe that success or failure in 
school is beyond their control. This belief has detrimental motivational effects 
in that students' engagement in school-related tasks is undermined t thus 
negatively influencing their actual cognitive performance. Students' active 
engagements in learning activities is a mediator between perceived control and 
actual accomplishments (Skinner et al., 1990:24). There seems, therefore, no 
way of assessing students' accomplishments without warranting their initiation 
of directed action, effort and persistence in school work. 
Johnston and Winograd (1985:282) contend that high achieving students in 
success situations attribute task accomplishment to internal and controllable 
factors (e.g. effort), suggesting that such successes were replicable. On the 
contrary, low achieving students attribute success to external factors (e.g. 
luck, easy task or teacher skill), suggesting that performances are not 
replicable. 
26 
The impact of detrimental control beliefs can be categorized into three 
domains, viz. cognitive, emotional, and motivational areas. Failure in the 
cognitive domain would have the following effects: students will have 
difficulties in identifying relationships between elements in tasks, perform 
badly even in problems solved earlier, and will underestimate or overestimate 
the frequency of success and failure respectively. Students will further fail to 
use task-appropriate strategies effectively and will fail to monitor their own 
performance (Johnston and Winograd, 1985:283). 
In the emotional area students tend to suffer from low self-esteem and low 
self-efficacy, resignation, apathy and depressed affect; make many negative 
affective statements, and few positive ones while performing learning tasks, 
and are inclined to be performance-oriented and not mastery-oriented (see par. 
2.3.3). 
In the motivational area students tend to attribute the cause of response­
outcome independence to low ability, believing that ability is fixed; have low 
expectancy of success, externalise success, and do not persist in the face of 
failure (Bandura, 1986:392). 
2.5.4 The reIatWnship between achievement values and attributions 
Farmer, Vispoel and Maehr (1991:28,31) found a strong relationship between 
achievement values and achievement attributions, and identified two categories 
of achievement values, viz. mastery or learning values, and performance or 
social approval values. 
Mastery values are intrinsically instigated while performance values are 
extrinsically instigated (see par. 2.3.3.2). In the former case, students engage 
in a task for its own sake, enjoy exerting effort, seek challenges and persist in 
the face of obstacles. In social approval values, however, students tend to 
display negative affect such as anxiety and avoid/withdraw from challenge 
(Dweck, 1986: 1041). 
Mastery values are then associated with attributing success to effort more than 
to ability. The converse is true with performance values where success is 
associated with ability attributions rather than with effort (Farmer et al., 
1991:31). The strongest relationship was found between achievement values 
27 
and achievement attributions, which included ability, effort, task difficulty and 
luck. 
The implications for education would be that students who believe that ability 
(like intelligence) is a fixed trait, opt for performance values where they 
would gain favourable judgements; whereas students who believe intelligence 
is a flexible quality tend to opt for mastery values, which emphasize personal 
competence (Dweck, 1986:1041). The former group is extrinsically 
motivated, while the latter group is intrinsically instigated to engage in 
academic tasks. 
From the review of the literature pertaining to the relationships between 
values, expectancies and the attributional model, the following conclusions can 
be drawn: 
i. attributions influence expectancies for success or failure and emotional 
reactions; 
11. the affective reactions either enhance or inhibit the motivation to 
become involved in further learning attempts, and 
Hi. there is a strong relationship between achievement values and 
attributions which eventually determine and underpin a student's will 
to engage in academic tasks. 
Student motivation is interactionally influenced by intra-, as well as 
interpersonal-, and environmental variables. The variables age, sex, socio­
economic status and classroom structures in motivation are discussed. 
2.6 THE INFLUENCE OF AGE, SEX, ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES 
AND TASK CHARACTERISTICS ON MOTIVATION 
Intra-, as well as inter-individual student characteristics, and various classroom 
variables, viz. teaching strategies, evaluation techniques, ,feedback and task 
characteristics, influence student motivation. Weiner (1984: 16) contends that 
.. ... a theory of motivation is responsible for examining the experiential state 
of the organism and the meaning of an action; hence, the theory must 
embrace phenomenology and accept that one acts on the perceived, rather than 
the real, world". 
28 
In learning context, the issue of students' self-perceptions play a crucial role in 
learning motivation. These perceptions are manifested in students' efficacy 
feelings, attribution patterns and goal-orientation, which in turn determine and 
influence their success expectancies and task utility value. 
The interactive influence of environmental variables (age, sex) and task 
characteristics can either enhance or inhibit students' self-perceptions and 
either raise or lower students' level of achievement motivation. 
2.6.1 The students' age and attributions in motivation 
Weiner and Graham (1984: 173) posit that causal thoughts precede or change 
the experience and understanding of emotions, and further contend that " ... 
the experience and understanding of these emotions are due to age-related 
changes in linkages between causal ascriptions and affective experiences. 
Emotional experiences follow a sequence in which. cognitions of higher 
complexity enter into the emotion process to further refine and differentiate 
experience. The contention is that older children (from the 12th grade up), 
would react differently than younger children (from lower primary schools up 
to the 9th grade children), would do in a similar outcome situation (Weiner, 
1985:560). Younger children's conception of ability is self-referenced rather 
than social-norm referenced. To these children, success implies expending 
more effort. They have not as yet developed the differentiated conception of 
ability that evaluates people's capacity of performing well compared to others 
(Nicholls, 1979:95). 
Whitley and Frieze (1985:608) posits that children beyond primary school 
(including students in junior and senior secondary school, age group + 13 
year old to + 21 years), adopt egotism attributions. The latter refers to a self­
enhancing motive that attributes success to internal factors, such as ability and 
effort, and failure to external factors such as luck and level of task difficulty. 
Wigfield (1988:79) concurs when asserting that this group of older children 
attributes success more to internal causes (in the self-focusing condition), than 
do children in the task-focus condition. 
These self-focus and task-focus conditions have a direct influence on students' 
goal-orientations (see par. 2.3.3). A self-focus condition occurs when a 
29 
person is made aware of himself, as happens in evaluative situations. A task­
focus condition occurs when a person directs his attention to the task at hand. 
It can be deduced that students adopting the former mode would be 
characterized by maladaptive motivational patterns that could result in negative 
self-evaluations. A task-focused (mastery-focused) student is intrinsically 
instigated to perform a task for purposes of gaining competence. 
Newman and Stevenson (1990: 197) contends that children's causal schemata 
concerning effort and ability undergo a change during elementary school 
years. It is, therefore, postulated that meaning and importance of academic 
achievement for children vary with age. Farmer et al. (1991:34) found that 
younger students (9th grade) compared with older students (12th grade) 
preferred school achievement contexts (e.g. getting good grade) significantly 
more than work achievement (mastery of work) contexts. This may be due to 
the younger children's undifferentiated causal ascriptions to effort and ability. 
2.6.2 Students' gender and attributions in motivation 
Sex differences in attributions have been found in a number of domains, such 
as differences pertaining to attributions related to expectancies, and 
attributions related to success or failure. 
Research findings (Newman and Stevenson, 1990: 199), indicate that girls are 
less likely than boys to attribute success to ability; are more likely to attribute 
success to luck or task ease; and are further less likely to attribute failure to 
lack of effort and are more likely to attribute failure to lack of ability. 
On domain-specific attributions girls are relatively more maladaptive in 
mathematics yet relatively more adaptive in languages and arts, and show less 
perseverance when faced with obstacles than boys (Newman and Stevenson, 
1990: 199; Bandura, 1986:350; Dweck, 1986:1044). Consequently, girls 
would tend to have low self-esteem and would tend to become helpless when 
exposed to or facing continued failure. 
2.6.3 Students' socio-economic status and attributions in motivation 
Cooper and Tom (1984:213) reviewed various research results and literature 
on students' socio-economic status and how it affects achievement motivation. 
30 
On the whole achievement motivation was found to be the strongest in middle 
- to high SES children. The reason could be that parents with a high SES 
endowed their children with and fostered early self-reliance and mastery in 
their children. Consequently these students learn to be independent, and self­
confident, and possess a high sense of self-esteem. Invariably their goal­
orientations would be more mastery-oriented, aimed at acquiring and using 
appropriate learning skills that increase competence. 
On the contrary, students from low SES families prefer to adopt a 
performance goal-orientation, seeking to gain approval for their performance. 
External rewards are regarded as more important. Farmer et al. (1991:35) 
found that students from low SES homes preferred work achievement contexts 
significantly more than school achievement contexts. The content of work in 
the former contexts entail an external reward structure where a task is 
performed to receive approval from powerful others. In contrast, the school 
achievement context entails student mastery of subject content and acquisition 
of mastery skills that indicate that a student is competent for a specific task. 
2.6.4 Classroom structures in motivation 
Student satisfaction or enjoyment of learning is greater when classroom 
environments are perceived as encouraging student involvement (Ames and 
Archer, 1988:261). Zimmerman (1989:336) concurs when stating that 
learning (and motivation) is highly dependent on the social (and classroom) 
environment from which it sprang. Students' task values are attached to their 
learning orientations, and success expectancies in future. The classroom 
variables then determine and shape these task values. Goal structures such as 
competitive, individualistic, and cooperative structures determine and 
influence learning motivation in the classroom (Ames, 1984: 179). 
A competitive structure entails a situation of negative interdependence among 
students,students compare their own performance with that of others. This 
act inevitably forces students into a situation of forced' social comparison 
(Ames, 1984: 179). 
In individualized settings, the emphasis is on individual mastery of learning 
content. Realistic goal setting and expectancies are dependent on one's prior 
performance. This trend could then either have a positive or negative 
31 
motivational influence, depending on whether it was a success or failure. 
One's present level of performance is compared with one's previous 
achievement and not with that of others. Each student attains rewards in equal 
terms across the board (Ames, 1984: 179). 
Cooperative structures foster a positive interdependence among students who 
jointly work on a task as a group. Students share rewards and punishments of 
this combined group performance. A students' sense of self-worth and self­
efficacy is reflected by that of the group (Ames and Archer, 1988:261). 
Teaching strategies, evaluation techniques, and feedback form part of the 
environmental variables of classroom motivation. For instance, in competitive 
goal structures rewards are reserved for those students who get the answers 
right; the emphasis is on outperforming another person. This invariably leads 
to students adopting a performance goal-orientation, with the resultant self­
directed negativism when failure occurs (Ames, 1984: 179). In contrast, in 
individualistic goal structure, the emphasis is on mastery of the subject 
content, resulting in positive self-perceptions even if success is not attained 
(Ames and Archer, 1988:261). 
2.6.5 Task characteristics 
Task characteristics are important in determining students' reactions to and 
cognitions for school tasks (Pintrich, 1989: 136). The tasks that students do 
are assumed to: 
* have a potent influence on student learning; 
* serve as a means by which the curriculum is enacted by the teacher 
and the student; 
* engender the use of different cognitive and metacognitive strategies by 
students; and 
* engage different motivational orientations of students (Pintrich, 
1989: 136). 
32 
Thomas (1988:5) contends that the degree of engagement in learning activities 
depend to a large measure on the demands placed on students by task features 
of a course or subject. 
Task characteristics could be distinguished by two general aspects, viz. 
content and/orm (pintrich, 1989:137; Pintrich and Schrauben, 1991: 154). 
2.6.5.1 Task content 
Content of the task refers to the nature of the actual material that students have 
to learn. From a motivational perspective, the nature of the material will 
either enhance or inhibit students' motivation to learn a particular task. The 
complexity and difficulty of the material to be learned influence students' use 
of strategies, while the difficulty level and familiarity of the material will 
influence students' perceptions of efficacy and expectancy, and the interest 
level of the material will evoke students' interest or value for the task 
(Pintrich, 1989: 137). 
2.6.5.2 Task/orm 
Pintrich (1989: 138) has identified three form dimensions of task aspects, viz. 
the product, available resources, and the social organisation of the task. 
The product dimension of a task involves the actual production of some 
response to the task, entailing that students need to use a variety of learning 
strategies, employing certain types of cognitive and metacognitive strategies in 
completing a task. For instance, students required to write essays require 
more metacognitive strategies, while those required to respond to multiple­
choice questions basically have their recall tapped more that it does in 
questions related to application, analysis, or synthesis of material (pintrich, 
1989: 138). 
Available resources entail the different· types, and amounts of material 
students need to perform and complete a task, while the social organisation of 
a task entails a particular classroom context that defines how a task is 
experienced by students. 
33 
Task characteristics thus determine the nature of students' rei 
demands, influence students' efficacy and expectancy and the v ....... 
to the task. 
2.6 SUMMARY 
The motivation of pupils to learn is determined by personal learning 
characteristics, environmental variables and task characteristics. 
Motivation is, therefore, instigated by the relationship between emotions and 
cognitions. The role of conation is found to be mediating between affects and 
motivation in learning situations. Affect has a crucial and direct influence on 
achievement motivation. 
Students' causal ascriptions and attributional style interaction ally influence 
student achievement motivation. Other variables such as students' 
characteristics, social and environmental. factors need to be taken into 
consideration in learning and teaching situations. The classroom structures 
affect students' attributions and consequently their affective reactions and 
future expectancies. 
34 
CHAPTER THREE 
3. EMPIRICAL STUDY 
3.1 INTRODUCTION 
In the previous chapter the nature of attributions and affect and their 
relationship with each other, and with academic achievement were discussed 
from a literature review. 
This chapter is devoted to a description of the empirical investigation of the 
same topic. The aim of the study is stated in paragraph 3.2, the hypheses are 
given in paragraph 3.3 and the population and sample are described in 
paragraph 3.4. In paragraph 3.5 the questionnaire that was used is described; 
followed by the variables (par. 3.6) and experimental design (par. 3.7). 
Finally attention is given to the procedure for collecting the data (par. 3.9) and 
the statistical techniques used to analyse the data (par. 3.8). 
3.2 THE AIM OF THE RESEARCH 
The main aim of the research (see par. 1.2) was to determine whether there is 
a relationship between attributional style and affect and academic achievement 
in English of Standard 8 students in the Sebokeng/Evaton circuits. 
3.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 
To attain the aim specified in paragraph 3.2 the following hypothesis was 
tested: There is a relationship between attributions, affect and the 
achievement in English of Standard 8 students in the SebokenglEvaton circuits. 
Since socio-economic status (see par. 3.4), age and sex have repeatedly been 
found to influence achievement (Hanck and Finch, 1993:74-75), three 
secondary hypotheses were stated: 
1. The socio-economic status of the school influences the achievement in 
English of Standard 8 students in the Sebokeng/Evaton circuits. 
35 
2. Gender influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students in 
the Sebokeng/Evaton circuits. 
3. Age influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students in the 
Sebokeng/Evaton circuits. 
3.4 POPULATION AND SAMPLING 
The population of this research constituted nineteen (19) secondary schools in 
the Sebokeng/Evaton circuits. The schools are located in an urban industrial 
area representing all socio-economic levels of society, from very low to 
relatively high. Almost 65% of the languages in South Africa are represented, 
viz. South Sotho, Tswana, Zulu, Xhosa, North Sotho, and a few Tsonga­
speaking people. Venda, Swati and Ndebele, though spoken in some families, 
are not formally taught as school subjects in this area. The population can be 
said to be representative of South African African language groups that use 
English, although a second language, as a medium of instruction in secondary 
schools. 
Most of the schools have an average of 1 290, or more, students per school, of 
which approximately 400 per school are in Standard 8. 
A random cluster sample of five schools was drawn from the 19 schools. 
After the sample had been drawn, it was found that the five schools differed in 
socio-economic status. Three of the schools were situated in areas consisting 
of families with a very low to average income level, while two schools were 
situated in more affluent parts of Sebokeng, where more of the parents owned, 
or were partners, in businesses, or had jobs of a more professional nature. 
Upon further inquiry, it was found that the school fees paid at the two more 
affluent schools were somewhat higher than those paid at the other three 
schools. It was decided to classify the schools according to socio-economic 
status, by using the following three indices: 
• the geographical location of the school; 
• the amount of school fees paid at the school, and 
• the type of school. 
Socio-economic status was thus determined in an ex post facto manner. and 
inserted as a control variable after the sampling of schools was done. 
36 
One Standard 8 class per school was randomly selected from each one of the 
five schools, giving a total of 273 students. These were then the students who 
completed the motivational questionnaire. Since not all the students completed 
the questionnaire satisfactorily, the data of some of the students had to be 
ignored when the analyses were done. The d~ta of the 200 students with the 
most completed items, therefore, were included in the analyses. The SES of 
each of the five schools, as well as the numbers of students are given in table 
3.1 : 
TABLE 3.1: Number of students tested in accordance with the SES of 
schools. 
School SES No. tested No. selected No. excluded 
No. 
1 Aver. to high 61 60 1 
2 Aver. to low .56 41 15 
3 Aver. to low 54 35 19 
4 Aver. to high 45 26 19 
5 Aver. to low 57 38 19 
TOTALS 273 200 73 
Although the responses of seventy-three students were excluded, the data of 
the two hundred (200) remaining students can still be accepted as 
representative of the Standard 8 students of the selected area, since the whole 
spectrum of control variables (viz. SES, table 3.1; age range, table 3.2 and 
sex, table 3.3) is still represented. Of the 200 students 86 attended schools of 
an average to high SES, whereas 114 were from schools of an average to low 
SES (see table 3.1). 
The age frequencies of students varied between 13 and 26 years (see table 
3.2). Seven of the students (3,5%) were very young to be in Standard 8, 
since the average Standard 8 student is mostly older than 15 years. One 
hundred and sixty-three students (81,5 %) were of an average age (thus 
between 15 and 18 years), while the ages of 30 students (15%) ranged 
between 19 and 26 years. These latter students mostly have a history of 
failure, or started school at a very late age. 
37 
TABLE 3.2: Age frequency of students tested. 
Age Frequency Percent Cumulative Cumulative 
Frequency Percentage 
, 
13 1 0,5 1 0,5 
14 6 3,0 7 3,5 
15 25 12,5 32 16,0 
16 65 32,5 97 48,5 
17 41 20,5 138 69,0 
18 32 16,0 170 85,0 
19 15 7,5 185 92,5 
20 4 2,0 189 94,5 
21 5 2,5 194 97,0 
22 3 1,5 197 98,5 
23 2 1,0 199 99,5 
26 1 0,5 200 100,00 
TABLE 3.3: Number of students tested according to their gender or sex. 
Sex Frequency Percent Cumulative Cumulative 
Frequency Percentage 
0 5 2,5 5 2,5 
Male 103 51,5 108 54,0 
Female 92 46,0 200 100,0 
Of the 200 students, five failed to indicate their sex (see table 3.3). It is 
evident that both males and females were very well represented in the sample. 
3.5 INSTRUMENTATION 
The experimental variables, namely attributions and affect were measured by 
means of a motivational questionnaire (see par. 3.5.1), while the dependent 
variable (English mark; see par. 3.5.2) was obtained from the cumulative 
record of each student. 
38 
3.5.1 Description of the motivational questionnaire 
A two-part questionnaire was developed to assess the attributional style of 
students (part one), and their level of self-efficacy and emotional responses 
(part two). 
Part one 
Part 1 consisted of two aspects, namely attributional choice (identified by the 
question indicated by (a) and attributional style (identified by the questions 
indicated by (b) and (c». 
Attributional choice was measured by means of an adaptation (according to the 
instructions of the authors) of the Mathematics Attribution Scale (MAS) 
constructed by Fennema, Wolleat and Pedro (1979), for measuring subject 
specific attributions for success and failure. It consisted of eight events, of 
which four depicted successful performance of a learning task and four 
unsuccessful performance. Each of the eight events were followed by four 
items or possible causes for success or failure. 
The MAS and its adaptation were thus composed of eight sub scales with 
success and failure events paired with each of the four attribution categories 
(task, environment, effort and ability) (Fennema et al., 1979:4). The 
sub scales were thus classified as: 
Success - Task; Failure - Task; Success - Environment; Failure­
Environment; Success - Effort; Failure - Effort; Success - Ability; and 
Failure - Ability. 
Ability sub scales included attributions related to having inherent skill, talent, 
or the capability to understand an idea. Task sub scales pertained to 
attributions stated in terms of ease, or difficulty of the task. Attributions that 
denoted effort comprised the amount of time spent on an academic task by 
students as well as learning strategies, while environment sub scales included 
attributions related to teacher and peers. 
In answer to (a), namely: Rate each item as a possible cause for your success 
or failure, the students had to indicate (yes or no) on the answer sheet (see 
39 
appendix) whether they viewed each of the four items as a possible cause of 
success (where applicable) or failure (where applicable). 
In Example 1 a success event and its four items are depicted, while in 
Example 2 a failure event with its four items are depicted. 
Example 1 - Event A (Success) 
You got the semester mark you wanted for English, because: 
1. the lessons and tests were easy 
2. you spent a lot of time learning and working on English each day 
3. the teacher explained the work very well 
4. you have a talent for learning English 
Example 2 - Event B (Failure) 
You had trouble doing some parts of your English homework, because: 
1. you didn't have time to get help from others 
2. you never think logically when doing English 
3. you didn't even try to get answers from the textbook 
4. the troublesome parts were more difficult than the rest 
The attributional style of students (Le. a predilection for viewing the causes of 
success or failure as internal vs. external, stable vs. variable, and controllable 
vs. uncontrollable) was measured by means of an adaptation of the Russell 
Attributional Dimension Scale (see Van Overwalle, 1989). Under question (b) 
students first had to indicate (by crossing the number of the item on the 
answer sheet) which one of the items, given as possible causes for the results 
of each of the events, they saw as the most possible (or salient) one. Under 
question (c) the students had to indicate their perceptions of the locus, stability 
and controllability of the attribution they perceived to be the most salient for 
each event depicting success or failure. This was done by crossing either 
internal or external, stable or variable and controllable or uncontrollable on 
the answer sheet for the attribution chosen for each of the eight events. 
The three questions students thus had to answer in part 1 were: 
(a) Rate each item as a possible cause for your failure. 
40 
(b) With which ONE of the causes do you AGREE MOST? 
(c) Is the cause internal or external, stable or unstable, and controllable 
or uncontrollable? 
The validity and reliability of the adapted MAS can be deduced from the 
figures quoted by Fennema et al. (1979:6-7) for secondary schools in the USA 
(see tables 3.4, for the means and standard deviations and 3.5, for the sub scale 
reliability coefficients), and Scott (1991:138-140) for tertiary students in the 
RSA (see table 3.6 for means, standard deviations and reliability coefficients). 
The means out of a possible 20 of tables 3.4 (ranging from 10,81 to 13,91) 
and 3.6 (ranging from 9,61 to 15,19) indicate that all four the attributions 
were seen to be possible causes of success and failure. The reliability 
coefficients quoted for the Fennema et al. (1979) study vary between 0,39 to 
0,79, and are not very high. In the Scott (1991) study, however, all the 
reliability coefficients are acceptable, except for that of environment, as a 
possible cause of failure (0,38). 
TABLE 3.4: Mathematics Attribution Subscales: Means and standard 
deviations. 
Subscale 
Success 
Ability 
Effort 
Task 
Environment 
Failure 
Ability 
Effort 
Task 
Environment 
* Female n = 647 
** Male n = 577 
-X 
12,07 
13,54 
13,36 
13,91 
12,34 
12,98 
13,85 
10,89 
Female* 
SD 
3,31 
3,49 
2,46 
3,04 
3,02 
3,30 
2,73 
3,04 
41 
Male** 
X SD 
13,20 3,14 
12,22 3,41 
13,03 2,47 
13,70 2,91 
11,49 3,00 
13,08 3,08 
13,35 2,72 
10,81 2,80 
TABLE 3.5: MAS Subscale reliability coefficients. 
Subscale Female Male Total 
Success 
Ability 0,78 0,76 0,77 
Effort 0,79 0,77 0,79 
Task 0,42 0,36 0,39 
Environment 0,51 0,45 0,48 
Failure 
Ability 0,64 0,61 0,63 
Effort 0,70 0,62 0,66 
Task 0,51 0,45 0,48 
Environment 0,51 0,45 0,48 
TABLE 3.6: Attribution subscales: Means t standard deviations and­
reliability coefficients (Scott). 
Subscale Means SD r 
Success 
Ability 15,19 2,63 0,76 
Effort 14,31 3,42 0,89 
Task 12,79 2,79 0,67 
Environment 11,72 2,92 0,74 
Failure 
Ability 09,61 2,88 0,67 
Effort 11,76 2,94 0,74 
Task 12,34 2,91 0,67 
Environment 10.59 2,73 0,38 
Pan two 
Part two of the questionnaire consisted of 12 comprehension passages, of 
which two were used as sample passages to orientate students to correctly 
42 
complete this part of the questionnaire. All the passages were selected in 
accordance with the criterion that they describe events similar to the culture of 
the subjects (Schunk and Rice, 1991:355; Mathebula, 1992:55). The first six 
passages (on which questions 1 to 13 were based) (excluding the sample 
passages) were evaluated as of a less difficult level than, the last four passages 
(on which questions 14 to 25 were based). 
This second part of the questionnaire measured comprehension of English, 
self-efficacy level and the resultant affect and consisted of three sections, 
namely: 
(a) comprehension of English; 
(b) self-efficacy perceptions, and 
(c) the resultant affect for either successful or unsuccessful performance. 
Comprehension of English (a) were tested by means of two to three questions 
with multiple choice answers set on each passage. Students had to choose the 
correct answer and indicate their choice by crossing it on the answer sheet. 
Self-efficacy (b) was tested by having students indicate (by crossing 1 for 
"CERTAIN" or 2 for "UNCERTAIN" on the answer sheet) how confident 
they were about getting the answer right or wrong. Hereafter students had to 
indicate their affect (c) by crossing (on the answer sheet) one emotion from 
the list of emotions supplied on the questionnaire. Both parts of the 
questionnaire are given in the appendix. 
3.5.2 English marks 
Marks obtained for English in the end-of-year (4th term) examination, 
consisting of the year mark and examination mark, were used as the dependent 
variable in this study. The mark obtained for the comprehension test included 
in the questionnaire was later added as a second dependent variable. 
3.6 VARIABLES USED 
Independent (i.e. experimental and control) variables 
Attributional choice 
Attributional dimensions 
43 
Affect (including self-efficacy) 
Sex (gender)* 
Age* 
SES* 
Dependent variables 
Marks in English 
Marks for comprehension test included in the self-efficacy questionnaire (see 
appendix) 
3.7 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN 
An ex post facto design with analysis of variance was used to determine the 
interaction between attributions, affect and achievement in English. 
3.8 STATISTICAL ANALYSES 
The data was computed with the mainframe computer of the Potchefstroom 
University for Christian Higher Education. 
A series of univariate distribution analyses, using PROC UNIV ARIA TE of 
SAS (SAS Institute, Inc., 1985) were performed on the dependent variable 
(marks in English) to determine whether the marks for all students, and for 
schools separately, were evenly distributed, thus indicating a normal standard. 
A series of frequency analyses (PROC FREQ, SAS Institute, Inc., 1985) were 
performed to determine the most salient attributions for success and failure, as 
well as the dimensionality (locus, stability and controllability) of the 
attributions for all students, as well as for each school separately. 
In order to determine whether age distribution and sex have any influence on 
English marks, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients (r), means 
and standard deviations were computed (PROC CORR of SAS, SAS Institute, 
Inc., 1985). 
* Age, sex and SES are control variables 
44 
The relationship (here indicating interaction) between attributions (Le. 
attributional style), affect and achievement in English for success and failure 
separately was determined by means of two series of analyses of variance, 
using PROC GLM (SAS Institute, Inc. 1985). The effect size of the 
interaction was also determined. 
3.9 PROCEDURE 
Standard 8 students were selected for the empirical research because they have 
already completed one academic year at a secondary school (except for the 
three at an intermediate school). 
The empirical research was scheduled to take place per school during three (3) 
days in the last week of August 1992. The testing took place as scheduled 
except for school no. 5. Problems were encountered at this school, situated in 
the very low socio-economic environment, and testing had to be postponed 
twice, due to shooting incidents in the vicinity of the school. Only a handful 
of students turned up for the second testing session, and testing had to be 
postponed again, but eventually took place the following day. Although 57 
students of this school were tested initially, only 38 responses could be used, 
probably due to the incident described. Since this school is also on the platoon 
system, and starts its classes at l2hOO, fatigue crept in sooner than in previous 
groups, and quite a high number of errors therefore occurred. 
The researcher went through the whole questionnaire together with each of the 
five groups of students. The students were not allowed to discuss questions or 
answers with each other, to make sure that opinions expressed were their own. 
The students initially had problems interpreting the questionnaire and the 
answer sheet which were both novel to them. These problems were 
eliminated, however, after the researcher had treated the examples. 
Most of the students were able to interpret the first part of the questionnaire 
dealing with attributional choice and attributional style, .after the concepts 
internal-external, stable-unstable, and controllable-uncontrollable had been 
explained in context. 
After completion of the first part of the questionnaire, the two example 
passages (El and E2) of the second part of the questionnaire were completed 
45 
under the guidance of the researcher. Before starting on passages 1-10, it was 
impressed upon students once again that they had to work independently and 
were not to enlist any assistance in answering the questions. They were to 
read each comprehension passage, then turn the page and answer the questions 
pertaining to the passage without turning back to the passage again. After 
indicating· whether they were certain, or not, of their answers, the researcher 
read the correct answers to the comprehension questions, after which students 
selected how they felt about getting the answers right or wrong, and turned the 
page to continue with the next passage in the same manner. 
The duration of the testing time varied between 2 hours 21 minutes for the 
first school tested to 2 hours 45 minutes for school number 05. 
3.10 SUMMARY 
The aim of the study was to determine the nature of attributions and affect and 
their relationship with each other, and with academic achievement. The 
chapter was devoted to a description of the empirical investigation of this 
topic. The population and sample were discussed first after which the 
motivational questionnaire, statistical analyses, and procedure were discussed. 
46 
CHAPTER FOUR 
4. STATISTICAL ANALYSES AND INTERPRETATION OF THE 
RESULTS 
4.1 INTRODUCTION 
The main aim of this study was to determine the relationship between 
attributions (i.e. attributional style for the purpose of this study), affect and 
achievement in English of Standard 8 students in the Sebokeng/Evaton circuits 
(see par. 1.3). 
To achieve this aim, and also to control for the influence of socio-economic 
status, age and gender, the following three secondary hypotheses were first 
tested: 
* The socio-economic status of the school influences achievement in 
English of Standard 8 students. 
* Age influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students. 
* Sex (gender) influences achievement in English of Standard 8 
students. 
The distribution of marks for English (the dependent variable) for all students 
(see table 4.1), and each school separately (see graphs 4.1 and 4.2) was first 
calculated by means of the PROC UNIV ARIATE of SAS (SAS Institute, Inc., 
1985). This was to determine whether SES, as constituted by the fees, and 
areas in which the schools are situated (see par. 3.4.1 for a description of the 
criteria used to classify schools), had any influence on achievement in English. 
The correlation coefficients between academic achievement and the age 
groups, and the two sexes were next calculated (see table 4.2) to determine 
whether these two control variables had any influence on academic 
achievement in English. 
In order to gain a holistic view of the most salient attributions for success and 
failure (see table 4.3), the attributional dimensions of each (see tables 4.4 and 
4.6), and the frequencies of the different affects chosen for success and failure 
47 
(see tables 4.5 and 4.6), a series of frequency analyses were next performed. 
The interactions between attributions (Le. attributional style), affect and 
achievement in English (primary hypothesis) (see tables 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9) and 
achievement in the comprehension passages included in the questionnaire (see 
table 4.10, 4.11 and 4.12), were lastly calculated by means of a series, of 
analysis of variance. 
4.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SES AND ACHIEVEMENT IN 
ENGLISH 
Very few differences were found between the means and medians, or 
minimum and maximum marks, of the two schools classified as of an average 
to high SES (schools 01 and 04), as contrasted to those of the three schools 
(02, 03 and 05) classified as of an average to low SES (see table 4.1). 
Although the means of two of the average to low SES schools (viz. 02:58% 
and 05:60%) were somewhat lower than those of the average to high SES 
schools (viz. 01:66% and 04:63%), the mean of the third average to low SES 
school, 03, was much higher at 70%. The range of mark distribution was 
generally, despite SES, very wide, and varied from 34 - 96 for school 05 to 
53 - 87 for school 04. 
The normality of the distribution of marks is indicated by the difference 
between the mean and the median (the nearer they are, the more normal is the 
distribution), as well as by the indices of skewness and curtosis (the nearer to 
0, the more normal is the distribution). 
The difference between the mean (63,46) and the median (62) of the marks of 
the full sample (Le overall) (see table 4.1), was negligible (a difference of 
1,46), as were the indices of skewness and curtosis, thus indicating a normal 
distribution of the marks. 
When the data on the distribution of marks of each of the schools were 
analysed separately, it became evident that the distribution of the marks of the 
two schools classified as of an average to high SES was negatively skew in 
favour of low marks (curtosis respectively -1,189 for school 01 and 2,892 for 
school 04). The skewness is also evident in the difference between the means 
and medians of each of the two schools, as well as in the percentage of 
students from each of the two schools who performed below the average. The 
48 
skewness index of school 05 (0,595), as well as the difference between its 
mean and median (3,90) indicate a skew distribution in favour of low marks. 
Since schools 01 and 04 have been classified as of an average to high SES and 
school 05 as of an average to low SES, the conclusion can be reached that SES 
does not differentiate between achievement.in this study. The mean of school 
03 (70,30), however, was well above the overall mean of all the schools 
together, indicating that, in the context of the mean of the full sample, its 
marks were positively skew. It thus appears as though only school 02 showed 
a realistic mark distribution. 
What is noteworthy is that no student obtained marks below 33,3% set as a 
minimum requirement for passing this subject, in any of the schools. 
The general picture obtained from this analysis, was that no significant 
difference in achievement could be determined based on differences between 
the SES of the five schools. 
SES (as classified in this study) thus did not influence achievement and was 
consequently not used as a control variable in any further analyses. 
49 
VI 
o 
TABLE 4.1: Analysis of distribution of marks in English for each school. 
SES of school Min. Max. X Median Difference 
between X 
& median 
School 01 37 96 65,78 64 1,78 
School 04 53 87 63,30 61 2,30 
School 02 42 75 57,61 58 0,39 
School 03 46 94 70,30 70 0,30 
School 05 34 96 59,94 56 3,90 
Overall 34 96 63,46 62 1,46 
SD Skewness Kurtosis % students % students 
above X below X 
15,65 0,071 -1,189 46,67 53,33 
7,61 1,347 2,892 47,83 52,17 
7,75 0,017 -0,201 54,77 45,23 
12,61 -0,231 -0,397 52,80 47,20 
14,31 0,595 0,108 46,16 53,84 
13,35 0,356 -0,463 46,50 53,50 
- -
16 
14 
12 
Cl') 10 
ffi § 
~ 8 
V\ Cl') 
_J:I.. 
o 
~ j:Q 
::g 6, 
~ 
4 
2 
GRAPH 4.1: Mark distribution of students from average to high SES schools. 
fin'·' 
'1/ 
Yillnll~lH 
H.lJUtUl"j 
I 
.J 
-. ·1\1= 
M Y M x 
TlT1l1rOj411!ltnf1iTrl 
11! I' 
IIIIII : III 
I" 
.!It. ' 
\ 
H-++I+'-l'-ntlft1~ll1-i-I-+- ~11\ 
~ 
'XULLI/J l"'-"~ ..... ~~ .. 1-
'-'ill TT-:'''-
1\ 
~fi; mlnw 
J ._U1UJ.LUillUllUt.LU.LQJJILLLI.lj 1llllllllllllllllliWJllillllUJilllillUWJJJ1UJ. 
35 40 45 
= SCHOOL 01 
= SCHOOL04 
50 55 60 
MARKS 
65 I 70 75 80 I 85 90 91+ 
,:= X I -=- M , 
I 
GRAPH 4.2: Mark distribution of students from average to low SFS schools. 
16 cM X ~Za5 
=romnIT Tllm I i
i I 
~XOJ I -'-'~-r~r lmTmlTnmrlllllTI]-lI1llmrrITflTfllllTml 
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o 
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~ 
~ 6 
, II!! ., 
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t ""i' I1 t 1+ J.i'~~ -I-'.L m~ --t - ·1·-.-H I· I I I', I 1'1 . t ~  I 1' 11 , , . -) ... -[l'+ I· -j- - t - =. 1. ' It 1I 11J--l lil-- --- -'," I-I J 
1-1'}. ,-H +~-l- W 
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. ! 
.•.• '1 
-··t+·+-++++++-++-++++t+t+++++-+-H+I++++++ti-++I+f-
-r-~ _I_t .. ~ ... H++t+++++H+t l-H+H 
I 
·_·lit··- ·-··-·---IH++1--1 
, 
I 
-... I . , .. , .. -. ~ ... ~ .-~-
.1- 11TlI'!'1 HtUflJ~-h-'-.-
_., ._._, ~ ........ ,\ 
14·.+.+1-+4+ 1+ I I I I I I I I I I I I I 4 I I I I I 1-1\++-+ h 
*' I " 
11 I Lf' 11 . H' 
4 I~DmmrIJ)·. . -JI~~llmTlnnm-<'r 
ID
!-.:! 1 .. -' - : . - -. -:- : t- ~. /·r".r t ~I- ,. 
v, ,..4··._4·· ........ -1 -"-H-H-H-t-t--t-t-f r-nt 
1\ 
, .. 
2 
'. .• - . I~-' - - - - ~: '1 -. . - --'t' . +f --+-1" 
• "'1 -:. I - - _. f-' - -'. - I T.- _ .. -
. i" 11 
.. ·-1"··'·· .. ·_·· 
++lll,'IIIHIH .. -- . . . - I 
. - i' .. ·11' . I I . .. '11 . I" 'i _. . I ., _. 1 
,r .. ··-1 •.•. - -< --- I !i[ T, ill 1m1111111nmm,rllullillJ 
35 40 45 
= SCHOOL02 
- - - - - = SCHOOL 03 
= ~rHOOL05 
50 55 60 65 
MARKS 
70 I _ 
t= X 
I 
75 80, 85 
,= M 
1 
90 91+ 
4.3 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE AND SEX, AND ACHIEVEMENT 
IN ENGLISH 
TABLE 4.2: Pearson correlation coefficients for age, sex and achievement 
in English. 
, 
Control variables N SD r with mark for English 
Age 200 1,84 - 0,03296 
Sex 200 0,55 - 0,05869 
* 5 % level of significance = 0,138 
The correlation coefficients (see table 4.2) were both· not significant (r = < 
0,138). Since neither of the correlation coefficients were significant, it was 
deduced that there was no relationship between age, sex and the achievement 
in English of the subjects used in this study, despite the fact that both these 
variables have previously been found to be significant determinants of 
academic achievement (Feather, 1988:381; Nicholls, 1984:40; Farmer, 
Vispoel and Maehr, 1991:26; Harter, Whitesell and Kowalski, 1992:777-
779). 
As all tht.:ee control yariab!es (viz. SES, ag~ and sex) showed no relationship 
with achievement in English, these variables were not used when the primary 
hypothesis was tested. 
4.4 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE, AFFECT 
AND ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH 
Before the hypothesis could be tested, an initial analysis of the attributional 
choice, attributional dimensions (denoting attributional style) and responses on 
affect of the students were made by means of a series of frequency analyses 
(PROC FREQ, SAS Institute, Inc., 1985). 
A summary of the students' responses to the choice of the most salient 
attribution for each event is given in table 4.3. 
53 
TABLE 4.3: Analysis of self-evaluated attributional choice. 
Attributional choice variables 
A. Success events n Environ- Effort Task Ability 
ment 
Event A You got the semester mark 200 46% 33% 10% 8% 
you wanted for English 
Event D You completed the last few 200 28% 32% 27% 13% 
homework assignments quite 
easily 
Event F Unlike some other students, 200 45% 32% 10% 13% 
you've passed the last few 
tests with no trouble 
Event G You were able to understand 200 25% 27% 30% 18% 
a difficult part/unit 
Overall scaling for success 200 36% 32% 20% 12% 
B. Failure events 
Event B You had trouble doing some 200 29% 17% 35% 18% 
parts of your English 
homework 
Event C You have been unable to 200 38% 36% 11% 15% 
keep up with most of the 
other students in the class 
in English 
Event E You received a very low 200 19% 44% 27% 10% 
mark on the monthly 
English test 
Event H There were times when you 200 27% 31% 23% 19% 
just couldn't get to work 
out grammar questions 
Overall scaling for failure 200 28,2% 32% 24% 15,5% 
54 
It can be concluded that for the 4 success events environmental variables and 
effort seemed to be the most salient attributions (respectively 36% and 32 %), 
followed by task variables (20%) and lastly ability (12%). It would appear 
, 
that students were very dependent on the teacher for success and would, 
therefore, manifest performance goal-orientations. 
For the 4 failure events effort and environmental variables seemed to be the 
most salient variables (respectively 32% and 28,2%), followed by task 
variables (24%) and lastly ability (15,5%). Students seemed to accept 
responsibility for their failure, although external factors also play a prominent 
role. As Weiner (1988:560-561) states, locus relates to pride and self­
efficacy, and control to guilt, shame and hopelessness or self-helplessness. 
The aim of the study being to determine the relationship between attributions, 
affect and achievement, only locus was used as the denominator for 
attributional style for success, and control for failure. A summary of the 
students' responses for attributional style is given in table 4.4. 
TABLE 4.4: Analysis of self-evaluated attributional style. 
Success Ability Effort Environment Task 
Internal 84% 83% 34% 46% 
External 16% 17% 66% 54% 
Stable 64% 64% 55% 38% 
Unstable 36% 36% 45% 62% 
Controllable 67% 84% 67% 60% 
Uncontrollable 33% 16% 33% 40% 
i 
Failure Ability Effort Environment Task 
Internal 60% 62% 30% 46% 
External 40% 38% 70% 54% 
Stable 44% 36% 32% 38% 
Unstable 56% 64% 68% 62% 
Controllable 53% 69% 53% 50% 
Uncontrollable 47% 31% 47% 50% 
55 
Since students rated environmental variables and effort as the most salient 
attributions for success (see table 4.3), the dimensional properties attributed to 
these variables were important when the attributional styles of the students for 
success were determined. The majority of students (83 %) viewed effort as 
internal, while only 17% of the students saw effort as external (see table 4.4). 
Sixty-six percent of the students viewed environmental variables as external, 
in contrast to 34 % who viewed them as internal. Although environmental 
variables (Le. teacher- and peer-related causes) were perceived as external, 
67% of the students viewed these variables as controllable, thereby 
manifesting a more adaptive attributional style for success than that of the 33 % 
who viewed these variables as uncontrollable. 
Students rated environmental (32%, see table 4.3) and effort (28,2%) 
variables as the most salient causes for failure as well. Whereas 69 % (see 
table 4.4) saw effort as controllable, only 53% saw environmental variables 
for failure as controllable, contrasted to 47% who rated them as 
uncontrollable. This latter percentage of students would thus tend to become 
helpless when faced with failure. 
The analysis of the students' responses to self-efficacy and affect is tabulated 
in table 4.5. 
TABLE 4.5: Analysis of self-evaluated self-efficacy and affect. 
Types of Difficult,Y level All questions 
affect .Low (1-12) Average (13-24) 
Certain Uncertain Certain Uncertain Certain Uncertain 
Happy 28,35% 2,42% 25,01 % 4,75% 26,26% 3,88% 
Proud 52,55% 7,05% 48,55% 7,55% 50,05% 7,36%* 
Guilty 1,51 % 1,02% 0,84% 0,84% 0,92% 0,91 % 
Ashamed 2,51 % 1,72% 2,60% 0,81 % 2,56% 1,15% 
Angry 0,69% 0,38% 1,10% 0,15% 0,95% 0,24% 
Hopeless 1,05% 0,24% 1,03% 0,38% 1,04% 0,32% 
Self-efficacy 81,78% 13,86% 
* 4,36% of the students gave no response. 
56 
From table 4.5 it can be concluded that 2,42 % felt happy, although 
uncertain, about getting the answers to questions 1-12 right, compared to 
4,75% who felt happy, although uncertain, about getting the answers to 
questions 13-24 right. 28,35 % felt certain and happy about getting the 
answers to question 1-12 right, compared to 25,01 % for the, answers to 
questions 13-24. One can thus deduce that a smaller percentage of students 
who were uncertain (2,42 %) felt happy about getting the answers to questions 
1-12 right as against an almost doubled percentage of students (4,75%) who 
were uncertain but felt happy about getting the answers to questions 13-24 
right. More students felt happy, although uncertain, about getting answers to 
questions 13-24 right as against a smaller percentage (25,01 %) of those who 
felt certain that their answers were right, as compared to 28,35% who were 
certain that their answers were right for questions 1-12. 
A similar pattern obtains for those who felt proud, with almost no difference 
between those who were uncertain of the correctness of their answers, viz. 
7,05% and 7,55% for questions 1-12 and 13-24 respectively. 
Those who were certain, 52,55% felt proud for getting answers to questions 1-
12 correct, while 48,55 % felt proud about getting answers to questions 13-24 
right. 
What is disturbing, however, is that many students felt proud of getting 
answers correct, viz. an average of 50,05% (certain) against 26,26% (certain) 
who felt happy. Perhaps students did not understand the difference between 
the concepts happy and being proud. 
It can be safely concluded that on the whole the students tested have a very 
high sense of self-efficacy, 81,78% as against 13,86% who manifested a low 
sense of self-efficacy. 
In both groups of questions students felt more proud about getting the answers 
right than feeling happy, even though the questions were easy (this is 
evidenced by the large percentage of correct answers received by students). 
This appears to be discrepant with the view that people usually feel proud of 
successful outcomes when the task is perceived as difficult. The results would 
be congruent if the feelings of pride applied to questions 13-24 which were 
slightly more difficult. 
57 
In order to test the primary hypothesis concerning the relationship between 
attributional style, affect and achievement in English, students were divided 
(by means of a series of frequency analyses [pROe FREQ of SAS Institute, 
Inc., 1985]) into various groups in accordance with their attributional style 
(see table 4.6). Students were also grouped for affect (see table 4.6.). The 
groupings on affect were based on the marks obtained for affect after the 
comprehension test was marked. 
TABLE 4.6: Frequency of students for attributional style and affect. 
Attributional style N % 
1. Adaptive for success (internal locus) 87 43,5 
2. Adaptive for failure (controllable) 95 47,5 
3. Adaptive for success and failure (internal/success and 43 21,5 
controllable/failure) 
4. Maladaptive for success (external locus) 54 27,0 
5. Maladaptive for failure (uncontrollable) 55 27,5 
6. Maladaptive for success and failure (external/success 16 08,00 
and uncontrollable/failure 
Affect N % 
1. Positive and realistic for success (16-22) 70 35,0 
2. Positive, but unrealistic for success (8-15) 81 40,5 
1. Negative, but acceptable for failure (23-29) 26 13,0 
2. Negative, but unacceptable for failure (30+) 19 09,5 
With reference to attributional style (see table 4.6), a small percentage of 
students (21,5 %) manifested an adaptive attributional style (Le. internal locus 
for success and control for failure) for both success and failure, compared to a 
much smaller percentage of students (16/200 = 8%) who showed a generally 
maladaptive or selfhelpless attributional style (Le. external locus for success 
and no control over failure). Of all the students, 47,5% (95/200) had an 
adaptive style for failure, while 27% (54/200) of the students were uncertain 
as to whether they have control over factors causing failure. Of all the 
58 
students, 27,5 % (55/200) could thus be classified as risk cases (i.e students 
with a maladaptive style for failure who are apt to become selfhelpless). 
With reference to affect, Weiner (1985:548; 1986:240) states that affective 
reactions are dependent on whether students are able to evaluate the difficulty 
level of the learning task realistically or not. Students experience pride (a 
more cognitively differentiated emotion) after performing a difficult task 
successfully, but only happy (a less cognitively differentiated emotion) after 
performing an easy task successfully. For failure, feelings of shame, anger or 
hopelessness are experienced when students perceive that they have no control 
over factors that cause their failure. On the other hand, a perception of 
control over such causal factors leads to feelings of guilt which motivate 
students to strive to control failure causes so as to attain success in successive 
tasks. 
The following came to light from the analyses of the students' affective 
reactions: 
Of the students who manifested positive affect, 35 % were able to evaluate the 
difficulty level of the comprehension passages realistically, while 40,5% 
(81/200) showed an inability to evaluate the level of difficulty realistically (see 
par. 3.5 for a classification of the difficulty levels of the comprehension 
passages). 
Thirteen percent of the students showed an adaptive motivational pattern for 
failure, despite having performed poorly in the comprehension test and 
experiencing negative affect (viz. feeling guilty). Of the students, 9,5% 
experienced maladaptive affect (anger, shame and hopelessness) after failure, 
implying that they internalize failure. 
With reference to the primary hypothesis, two-way analysis of variance 
(ANOV A) was used as a technique to determine the effect of attributional style 
and affect on academic achievement. Using PROe GLM (SAS Institute, Inc., 
1985), a series of two-way analysis of variance were done for success and 
failure, with the English mark as the dependent variable (see tables 4.7, 4.8 
and 4.9), followed by the mark students obtained for the comprehension test in 
the questionnaire as a second dependent variable (see tables 4.10, 4.11 and 
4.12). The comprehension test mark was used as a second dependent variable 
59 
to test whether marks obtained on a learning task just completed, would show 
a different interaction with attributional style and affect than would marks that 
had been obtained some time previously. 
TABLE 4.7: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOVA with attributional 
style and affect x English mark for success. 
Success 
Attributional style 
Affect Adaptive Maladaptive 
N X SD N X SD 
Positive, realistic 32 63,5 14,51 22 66,41 15,17 
Positive, unrealistic 38 66,37 12,74 21 60,29 l3,75 
TABLE 4.8: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOVA with attributional 
style and affect x English mark for failure. 
Failure 
Attributional style 
Affect Adaptive Maladaptive 
N X SD N X SD 
Negative, but acceptable 11 64,00 8,28 6 55,66 14,89 
Negative, but unacceptable 7 60,71 10,93 7 64,71 18,75) 
Although the achievement means differed with 6,12 % for success (see table 
4.7) and with 9,05% for failure (see table 4.8) between the lowest and the 
highest percentages obtained in the four cells, these differences were not 
significant, since the effect sizes of both attributional style and affect on 
English marks, for success and failure (see table 4.9), were bigger than 0,05 
(p-values at a 5 % level of significance). 
60 
TABLE 4.9: Results of the two-way ANOVA with attributional style and 
affect x English mark. 
Source DF TypeffiSS F Value P>F 
Success 1 66,860 0,34 0,558 
Affect - (P) 1 70,331 0,36 0,548 
Success x affect 1 536,728 2,76 0,099 
Failure 1 279,981 1,63 0,211 
Affect - N 1 34,563 0,20 0,656 
Failure x affect - N 1 61,108 0,36 0,555 
TABLE 4.10: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOV A with attributional 
style and affect x comprehension test mark for success. 
Success 
Attributional style 
Affect Adaptive Maladaptive 
N X SD N X SD 
Positive, realistic 32 20,71 1,32 22 20,63 2,03 
Positive, unrealistic 38 22,65 1,32 21 21,42 1,80 
TABLE 4.11: Cell distribution of the two-way ANOVA with attributional 
style and affect x comprehension test mark for failure. 
Failure 
Attributional style 
Affect Adaptive Maladaptive 
-N X SD N X SD 
Negative, realistic 11 19,45 2,97 7 19,42 2,81 
Negative, but unrealistic 7 18,00 2,51 6 20,16 2,31 
61 
Although the highest and lowest achievement means for the comprehension 
test mark (out of a possible 24) for failure differed with 2,16 (see table 4.11), 
this difference was not significant (see table 4.12) and no interactions were 
found between attributional style, affect and achievement (all p-values being 
higher than 0,05). These results, however, have to be interpreted in the light 
of the fact that very few students achieved poorly on the comprehension test 
included in the questionnaire. 
A significant relationship was found, however, between affect and the 
comprehension test mark (p = 0,0002; see table 4.12). It thus appears as 
though affect is more closely related to tasks that have just been performed, 
than to tasks that have been performed some time previously. As attributional 
style was only tested in accordance with hypothetical situations (see par. 3.5.1 
for a description of the attributional style aspect of the questionnaire), this 
supposition could not be tested for attributional style. 
TABLE 4.12: Results of the two-way ANOVA with attributional style 
and affect x comprehension test mark. 
Source DF Type ID SS F Value P>F 
Success 1 11,421 3,54 0,062 
Affect - (P) 1 49,524 15,37 0,0002* 
Success x affect P 1 8,732 2,71 0,102 
Failure 1 0,944 0,13 0,724 
Affect - N 1 8,434 1,13 0,296 
Failure x affect - N 1 8,849 1,19 0,285 
4.5 DISCUSS/ON OF RESULTS 
The main aim of this study was to determine the nature of attributions and 
affect and their relationship with each other, and with academic achievement. 
Attention will first be given, however, to a discussion of the results of the 
three control variables (viz. socio-economic status, par. 4.5.1; sex, par. 4.5.2; 
62 
and age, par. 4.5.3) on achievement in English, since research studies have 
repeatedly shown that these variables, among others, influence not only 
academic achievement, but also motivation (Hanck and Finch, 1993:74-75), 
and more specifically, students' attributional styles, affect, goal-orientations, 
expectancies, and task value. 
The relationship between attributional style, affect and academic achievement, 
the primary hypothesis, will be discussed in paragraph 4.5.4. 
4.5.1 The influence of SES on academic achievement 
Socio-economic status was included in the empirical study as a control 
variable, as various research studies in America, including that of Ames and 
Ames (1984:7), have found SES to be an important determinant of 
achievement and achievement motivation. Various American studies, among 
others those of Patterson, Kupersmidt and Vaden (1990), Farmer, Vispoel and 
Maehr (1991) and Graham and Golan (1991), will be used in- this discussion of 
the results of this empirical study, since there are similarities between low SES 
families of American origin and those of a black South African origin. 
According to Patterson et al. (1991:485) most families of a low SES are 
black, with a single parent (mostly a mother) and live below the poverty line. 
It can therefore be accepted that the results of research studies dealing with 
SES done in the USA, can be used, though with care, to contextualise the 
results of this study. 
It needs to be reiterated, however, that the students of this study were not 
individually grouped on SES, but were grouped according to the area in which 
the sampling was done (see par. 3.4). No relationship was found between this 
measure of SES and the achievement of students in English as a second 
language (see par. 4.2). These results are in direct contrast to those of 
Patterson et al. (1991) and Farmer et al. (1991). 
According to Patterson et al. (1991:485-494) income level is a very good 
predictor of academic achievement and motivation, since low SES does not 
only affect achievement detrimentally, but also feelings and beliefs of 
competence or self-efficacy (important motivational variables). Farmer et al. 
(1991) also found a significant difference between the academic achievement 
of students from low and those from high SES backgrounds. These authors 
63 
(i.e. Patterson et al. 1991 and Farmer et al. 1991) argue that poor 
achievement and low self-efficacy are directly related to reduced parental 
involvement in the schooling of their children, which is probably the result of 
economic hardship and stress, which can be viewed as stable and 
uncontrollable variables. Graham and Golan's (1986:6-10) results indicate 
that students from a low SES background perceive the causes of failure as 
stable and consequently suffer negative expectations of future results, leading 
to a maladaptive attributional style and self-helplessness. 
The difference between the results of this study and the three studies 
mentioned above may be due to: 
* the unsophisticated measure that was used in this study to classify 
students on SES; or 
* more differences existing between black families of a low SES in 
South Africa and those in America, than this study gave credit for. 
The difference between this study and the three mentioned above is not only 
limited to the fact that no relationship was found between SES and 
achievement. From the results of the achievement scores given in table 4.1, it 
is clear that most of the students from low SES schools used in this study (viz. 
schools no. 02, 03 and 05) not only achieved well, with means varying 
between 58 % for school no. 02, 60% for school no. 05 and 70% for school 
no. 03, despite socio-economic level, but also manifested high levels of self­
efficacy (see table 4.5). Since these three schools are situated in average to 
low SES areas, one would have expected the average achievement, as well as 
the self-efficacy level of the students to be lower. Students, however, almost 
uniformly manifested high levels of self-efficacy despite differences in SES. 
The high levels of self-efficacy are explained, however, by the fact that only 1 
of the 200 students used in the sample, failed (a pass-mark being 33,33%), 
only 21 (10%) obtained a mark of less than 50%, while 61 (31 %) had a mark 
of 70% or more - once again irrespective of SES. 
The above results lead to some concern when considered in the context of the 
very poor pass rate of black matriculants in South Africa the past few years. 
One can interpret the results in two ways, namely, that the sampJe tested is, 
despite the random sampling, not representative of the average black students, 
64 
or, the standard set in Standard 8, on which students' self-efficacy levels are 
based, is vastly discrepant with what students are expected to attain in matric. 
4.5.2 The influence of sex on achievement 
Sex, or gender, was included in the empirical study as an additional control 
variable, besides SES, since Wagner, Spratt, Gal and Paris (1989:29) found 
that sex differences in academic achievement are related to the different 
attributional styles manifested by boys and girls, which, stem from their 
differential socialization, processes. Rijkman and Peckham (1987: 120) concur 
when stating that girls are more helpless than boys in achievement situations, 
while Lichet and Dweck (1984) found that boys and girls of the same 
academic ability achieved differently due to differences in motivational 
patterns. 
This study, however, found no relationship between the academic achievement 
of boys and girls (see par. 4.3), and this is more in line with the results of 
Newman and Stevenson (1990). Newman and Stevenson (1990:199) 
examined the interaction between sex, achievement and motivational pattern, 
and found no evidence that girls are more maladaptive in causal reasoning than 
boys. These results are supported by those of Wagner et al. (1989) who found 
no differences in causal attributions, academic achievement or reading 
performance between boys and girls, despite major differences in gender 
socialization in Morocco. 
According to Newman and Stevenson (1990) differences in attributional style 
and academic achievement are domain-specific and related to age rather than 
sex. 
The domain-specificity of the relationship between sex, motivational variables 
(in this instance values) and academic achievement was tested by Feather 
(1988) with regard to mathematics and English. The results indicated that 
females assigned higher value to English, in contrast to males who valued 
mathematics more. Females also obtained higher scores in English than 
males, whereas males achieved better in mathematics than females. One 
would thus have expected the female students of this study to perform better 
than the males. This was not the case, however. The difference in results can 
be due to the fact that Feather's (1988) study was conducted on tertiary 
65 
students, in contrast to the other mentioned studies that were conducted on 
secondary school students - age could thus also have been a determining factor 
in the Feather-study. 
Overall, it seems as though sex is less of a significant determinator of 
academic achievement at secondary school level, irrespective of diverse forms 
of socialization, than age. This assertion is shared by Patterson et al. 
(1990:486) who state that the predictive value of anyone or more variables 
(viz. SES, sex and age) regarding achievement, is often mediated by another, 
in this instance age. According to Patterson et al. (1990:486) sex is a better 
predictor of competence in conduct, while SES is the better predictor of 
competence in achievement. Age and sex, however, interact in the prediction 
of adaptation since boys show more adjustment problems during childhood, 
than girls, but less than girls during adolescence. Sex differences thus fade 
with age. 
4.5.3 The relationship between age and achievement 
There was no significant correlation between age and academic achievement in 
this study (see table 4.2). The last secondary hypothesis could, therefore, not 
be accepted as well. These findings seem to contrast with the results of a 
study done in the RSA by Mathebula (1992:65) who found age to be an 
important variable as far as academic achievement was concerned. Although 
85 % of the students in this study fall in more or less the same age range as 
those of the Mathebula-study, the results vary a lot. Mathebula (1992:62) 
found that older students did generally worse than younger students. Their 
performances were found to deteriorate progressively in accordance with the 
number of years they failed or missed schooling. The constant failure could 
be attributed to either the debilitating effect failure has on students resulting in 
resignation and lack of effort or to academic "rusting". 
According to Harter, Whitesell and Kowalski (1992: 778) changes in 
attributional patterns (and also achievement) are often the result of transitions 
from primary to secondary school. Thus, changes in student motivation, and 
academic achievement, are probably influenced more by the interaction 
between school environment and individual differences, than by age. The 
interaction as such has an influence on students' perceived competence and 
66 
motivation. Students used in this study, showed high competence beliefs, 
despite vast variations in age (13 years - 26 years). This phenomenon can be 
explained if one follows the Harter et al. (1992:778) argument on the 
interaction between environment and individual differences, rather than age, 
and academic achievement, since many of the students used in this study 
progressed from primary school (up to Standard 4), to intermediary school (up 
to Standard 7), and then to secondary school (Standard 8 to 10). According to 
Harter et al. (1992:778) older students (8th grade) are more likely to adopt an 
extrinsic orientation toward school work. Consistent with this finding, 
students in this study showed a similar pattern of extrinsic orientation by 
attributing achievement to environmental factors mainly. 
Newman and Stevenson (1990:208) also found that low achievers at high 
school level (10th graders) seemed to be more likely to acknowledge the 
importance of external assistance, than high achievers. In contrast high 
achievers among younger children are relatively more likely to acknowledge 
the importance of help, particularly when poor performance is the outcome. 
According to Farmer et al. (1991: 199) younger children do not discriminate 
between effort and ability attributions for achievement, whereas senior high 
school students do. The latter group has a tendency to adopt domain-specific 
attributions, which invariably influence and determine students' expectancies, 
task value, and their goal-orientation (Dweck, 1986: 1040). Wagner et al. 
(1989:292) found, for instance, that beliefs about the influence of personal 
effort on reading performance increased with age. These authors purport that 
students' belief systems progress from general to specific types of skilled 
cognitive activity. 
The research studies cited reveal that the attributional styles, and also general 
motivation and academic achievement, of students differentially and 
progressively change over the years; that their belief systems, expectancies 
and goal-orientations are differentially influenced by age. With older children 
the effects of socialization and achievement history invariably lead to attitudes, 
values and causal beliefs that apply to specific academic subjects (Newman 
and Stevenson, 1990: 198). 
The results of this study, however, did not implicate age as a determining 
factor for achievement. 
67 
4.5.4 The reloJionship between attributions, affect and achievement in English 
This study was based on the hypothesis that there is a relationship between 
cognition (manifested in attributions) and affect, and that these two constructs 
interactionally influence achievement in English of Standard 8 students. 
It was further hypothesized that the influence of attributional style (Le. the 
dimensions of locus, stability and control) on achievement is mediated by 
affective reactions, since the feelings of self-efficacy, self-worth and self­
confidence in a particular subject will have an effect on effort and 
perseverance when studying. 
The results obtained in this study (see par. 4.4), however, only partly 
corroborated these hypotheses. No interactions were found between 
attributional style, affect and achievement in English (Le. the average mark 
obtained for English). An interaction was found, however, between affect and 
the mark obtained on a comprehension test that formed part of the 
questionnaire - thus a more task-specific denominator of achievement in 
English (see par. 4.7). No interaction was found between attributional style 
and the comprehension test mark. 
The lack of a relationship between attributional style and the two achievement 
variables can firstly be interpreted from the viewpoint propagated by Schuster, 
Forsterling and Weiner (1989: 193). Schuster et al. (1989: 193) contend that 
locus and the controllability of a cause are related to affect rather than to the 
expectancy of success. Thus, the influence of attributional style on 
achievement is mediated by the feelings resulting from how students interpret 
the causes to which results are attributed. There is this not a direct 
relationship between attributions, or attributional style, and academic 
achievement. The effect of attributional style manifests in the emotional 
responses which, in turn, influence the effort students will expend on the same 
kind of learning tasks in future. 
A second possible explanation for the lack of interaction between attributional 
style and achievement can be that achievement is not only determined by 
amount of effort, but also by the learning strategies students use when 
studying (Weinstein and Mayer, 1986:322). One can, thus, conclude that the 
type of strategies students use will interact with motivational variables to 
68 
influence achievement. This study, however, did not aim at identifying this 
relationship. 
A third possible explanation for the lack of any interaction between 
attributional style and the achievement of the students used in this study, can 
be based on the premise that these students are so accustomed to having their 
learning externally controlled that they attach no value to the locus of control 
concept. 
An adaptive attributional style refers to the perception that the cause of success 
is internal and controllable and that of failure is variable but controllable 
(Scott, 1991: 106). Students who do not manifest this style, are regarded as 
maladaptive. Almost 50% of the students tested in this study (see table 4.6) 
manifested this maladaptive pattern, despite high achievement. A much 
smaller percentage of students (8 % ) fell in the extreme category of 
helplessness. 
According to Mickelson (1990:47) the more intel11al a person's locus of 
control, the higher his achievement is likely to be. Newman and Stevenson 
(1990: 199) also found in their study that high achievers are relatively more 
likely to attribute success (and not failure) to stable causes, and are relatively 
more likely to attribute failure (and not success) to unstable causes. It can 
thus be concluded that attributions for success to stable causes (such as ability) 
and for failure to unstable and variable causes (such as effort) are associated 
with a high expectancy for future successful task performance that results in 
school achievement. These conclusions are further supported by Gigliotti, 
Foster and Buchtel (1990:4) who found that success is attributed to internal 
causes if expectancy is fulfilled, but is attributed to external causes if it is not 
fulfilled. 
In contrast to the above findings, most of the subjects in this study attributed 
their success primarily to environmental variables (which are generally 
perceived as uncontrollable and external) and then to effort (generally 
percieved as internal and controllable). As stated, this' tendency may be 
caused by the fact that most of the teachers of the sample might be using the 
competitive learning approach that emphasizes outperforming others. In such 
a case it is obvious that students would rely on their teachers (external help) 
for success. 
69 
Louw and Louw-Potgieter (1986:279) conducted a cross-cultural study on the 
differences occurring between the three dimensions (stability, control and 
locus) among students of different ethnic groups. It was found that Black 
students ascribed success, more than failure, to the prejudice of the lecturer 
and help from others. In cont~ast, White students perceived themselves to be 
in control of their environment as well as their achievement. Black students 
were thus more likely to attribute their scores (performance outcomes) to 
external factors than White or Indian students. 
It thus seems as though Black students, whether at secondary or tertiary level, 
are in need of a retraining programme to change their attributional styles. 
Such a programme could result in changing students' goal-orientations, so that 
high ability, trying hard (effort) and use of appropriate strategies would rate as 
more internal, stable and personally controllable, than would good luck, help 
from others, or task ease (Graham and Golan, 1991:6; Graham, 1988:13). 
With reference to the interaction between attributions and affect, the results 
of this study indicated that, although students' attributional styles were mostly 
maladaptive (see table 4.6) for success (external locus), meaning that success 
was due to external factors, yet many experienced positive but unrealistic 
affect for success (Le. felt proud at attaining success even if the task was easy) 
and a high self-efficacy level. Students could thus either not differentiate 
between easy and difficult tasks, or were unable to discriminate between being 
proud and being happy. 
A possible explanation for the discrepancy between attributional choice and 
affect could be that schools over-emphasize the competitive learning approach 
that leads to a performance-orientation and thus to attributions related to 
external control and social recognition. This also relates to the relationship 
between affect and academic achievement and could explain why no 
relationship was found between affect and achievement in English. 
4.5.5 General concluswn concerning the attributional style and level of 
self-efficacy in comparison to achievement and matric results 
From the results of this study it can be concluded that the discrepancy between 
the scores obtained for English in Standard 8, and the poor matriculation 
results of Black students over the past few years, might be attributed to, 
70 
among others, maladaptive motivational patterns. Students become 
accustomed to achieving well in the lower standards of the secondary school, 
and consequently develop high self-efficacy beliefs. They also develop 
externally-oriented attributional styles, however, counting overmuch on the 
sUpPQrt of the teacher for success, and thus fail to learn to control their own 
efforts and learning strategies. This has a detrimental effect on achievement in 
situations, such as the matric examination, where they have to support their 
learning by means of personal effort. 
71 
CHAPTER FIVE 
5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
5.1 INTRODUCTION 
The main aim of this study was to empirically determine the relationship 
between attributions and affect, and their interactive influence on achievement 
in English. To attain this aim, a literature review was first undertaken by 
means of which the nature of the above mentioned constructs and the 
relationship to one another, were determined. Attention was also given to the 
influence the two constructs have on achievement in a wide range of subjects. 
The study is reported in the form of a mini-dissertation consisting of five 
chapters, of which the first deals with the introduction to the problem, the 
second with the literature review, the third with the exposition of the research 
method and the fourth with the results and discussion of the results. 
In this last chapter a summary of the literature study and conclusions drawn 
from this review are first given (viz. par. 5.2), followed by a summary of the 
empirical research and results (viz. par. 5.3). The limitations of the study are 
stated in paragraph 5.4, and recommendations for further research are made in 
paragraph 5.5. 
5.2 SUMMARY OF AND CONCLUSIONS DRA WN FROM THE LITERATURE 
STUDY 
The components of motivation are cognition, affect (emotion) and conation, 
and the value x expectancy framework was used to place the components in 
context. Since age, sex and SES were found to influence the above 
components, attention was also given to these variables. 
A general description of motivations was given (par. 2.2.1) after which 
motivation was described in the context of learning (achievement motivation). 
72 
After an exposition of these concepts it was found that achievement motivation 
constitutes three elements, viz.: 
* a standard of excellence; 
* personal responsibility, and 
* challenge, which, in turn, influences students' goal-orientations. 
These three elements fit into the learning goal (mastery) paradigm which in 
turn, incorporates self-regulated learning strategies. 
Two components of motivation (viz. cognition and emotion) were discussed in 
paragraphs 2.3.1 and 2.3.2, and their interactive influence on self-efficacy, 
attributions and goal-orientations was indicated. It was found that the 
relationship between cognition and emotion in achievement motivation centres 
around: 
* students I perceived competence, and 
* perceived control (an aspect of attributions). 
A reciprocal relationship was found to exist between self-efficacy (as an 
affective variable) and cognitive engagements on one hand, and internal 
control beliefs and cognitive and self-regulatory skills on the other. Further it 
was found that students react differentially to learning- and performance goal­
orientations, and that the two learning orientations have motivational 
significance. 
5.2.2 The conative component of motivation and its relationship to goal­
orientation, self-efficacy and attributions 
Conation or will-direction was found to be characterized by: 
* 
* 
a "protective" act which 
energizes the maintenance and enactment of intended actions, which in 
turn resulted in 
* mastery learning as its goal rather than performance. 
73 
The influence of conation, therefore, is manifested when students with a 
positive affect, an adaptive attributional style, positive and realistic self­
efficacy coupled with a mastery Oearning) goal-orientation, direct their will to 
mobilize and maintain self-regulating strategies. 
The educational implications of the role played by conation on achievement 
motivation are the following: 
* 
* 
students with learning orientations are more willing to invest 
cognitively and behaviourally in a task than students with a 
performance orientation, 
the latter group is characterized by low self-efficacy, negative success 
expectancy, negative affect and low task utility value. 
5.2.3 The value - expectancy framework 
This framework relates students i motivation to act to the attractiveness or 
aversiveness of the task and the expected outcomes and to the SUbjective value 
they attach to the task and outcomes of performances. 
It was found that task values and expectancies influence students' self-efficacy, 
control, and attributional beliefs. 
5.2.4 The attributional process 
It was found that: (i) causal ascriptions and attributional dimensions 
interactionally influence affect in motivated behaviour, (ii) student motivation 
is primarily centred on their perceptions of ability and effort as attributions, 
and (Hi) that students' expectancies for future success and control beliefs are 
influenced by their perceptions of the locus and controllability of tasks and 
academic outcomes. 
The following conclusions can be drawn from the literature review: 
* attributions and affect interact, and affect can be categorized into three 
groups, viz. outcome-dependent-, attribution-dependent, and 
attribution-linked affects; 
74 
* 
* 
students' control beliefs influence their level of self-efficacy and 
achievement values; 
students who believe that ability (like intelligence) is a fixed trait, opt 
for performance values, in order to gain favourable judgements (they 
are extrinsically motivated), whereas intrinsically motivated students 
emphasize personal competence; and 
* the affective reactions can either enhance or inhibit the motivation to 
become involved in further learning attempts. 
5.2.5 Students' age and attributions in motivation 
It was postulated that the meaning and importance of academic achievement 
varies with age. The contention was that children' s causal schemata undergo a 
change during elementary schooling years up to secondary schooling. The 
educational implications of students' age and attributions in motivation can be 
deduced from the following conclusions: 
* 
* 
* 
older children would react emotionally different than would younger 
children in a similar outcome situation; 
younger children' s conception of ability is self-referenced rather than 
social-norm referenced; and 
children beyond primary schooling adopt egotism attributions, i.e. 
attribute success to internal factors, and failure to external factors. 
5.2.6 Students' gender and attributions in motivation 
Sex differences in attributions have been found to pertain to: 
* attributions related to expectancies; and 
* attributions related to success or failure (par. 2.6.2). 
The educational implications of students' gender and attributions in motivation 
can be deduced from the following conclusions: 
* Girls attribute success less to ability than boys do; 
75 
* 
* 
* 
* 
girls attribute success to task ease or luck; 
girls attribute failure to lack of ability and not to lack of effort; 
girls show less perseverance when faced with obstacles compared to 
boys; and 
girls tend to have lower self-esteem than boys, and are prone to 
become helpless when exposed to continued failure. 
5.2.7 Students' SES and attributions in motivation 
Achievement motivation was found to be the strongest in middle- to high SES 
children. This has the following educational implications: 
Children from middle to high SES: 
* 
* 
* 
develop self-reliance and mastery at an early ;:tge; 
learn to be independent at an earlier age that those from low SES 
homes; 
are more self-confident than those from low SES homes, and possess a 
higher sense of self-esteem; and 
* have a more mastery-oriented than self-oriented learning goal. 
5.2.8 The influence of student- and task characteristics on student achievement 
It was found that individual characteristics interact with the classroom-, and 
general social environment. The interaction as such has the following 
educational implications: 
* individual characteristics determine students' reaction to situations; 
* certain individual characteristics and educational programmes interact 
to produce student achievement; 
* tasks characteristics have a potent influence on students' learning; and 
76 
* different features of the task will engender the use of different 
cognitive and metacognitive strategies by the student. 
5.3 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH 
5.3.1 Summary of the method of research 
Two hundred (N = 2(0) students from five (5) secondary schools formed the 
sample used in the empirical research (par. 3.4). A questionnaire was 
constructed to measure students' attributional choice, attributional style, self­
efficacy and affect. The aim of which was to determine the relationship 
between attribution and affect, and their interactional influence on 
achievement in English of Standard 8 students. Students' socio-economic 
status, age and gender were used as control variables. The end-of-the-year 
mark was used as the dependent variable. 
Correlational, frequency and analyses of variance were used to analyse the 
data. 
5.3.2 Summary and conclusions of results 
The results and conclusions are given in accordance with the three secondary 
hypotheses and the one primary hypothesis. 
5.3.2.1 The socio-economic status of the school influences achievement in English 
of Standard 8 students 
Correlational scores between the SES of schools and the English marks of 
students indicated no significant differences in achievement of the students 
from the five schools. SES could, therefore, not serve as a distinguishing 
factor with regard to the distribution of marks in English. 
The implications of these results, contrary to other research findings (par. 
4.5.3) is that SES appeared not to have an influence achievement. Further 
research still needs to be conducted in this regard using more refined 
instruments that will: 
77 
* 
* 
measure students' SES on an individual basis; and 
measure these students' cumulative achievement over long periods to 
ascertain consistency in achievement, especially at matric level. 
5.3.2.2 Age influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students 
There were no differences between the age groups in relation to marks in 
English Le. no differences in the mean percentages nor any differences with 
regard to students' minimum and maximum values. 
Research studies indicated differences in age x achievement in children from 
different grades (standards), whereas this study was concentrating on age x 
achievement in the same grade (standard). Differences in achievement could, 
therefore, not be assessed since all students obtained a pass mark in both the 
English examination and the comprehension test included in the questionnaire, 
which was assumed to be relatively easy. 
5.3.2.3 Sex (gender) influences achievement in English of Standard 8 students 
There were no differences in the mean percentages with regard to achievement 
in English between the sexes, nor any differences with regard to their 
minimum and maximum values. 
According to research findings (par. 2.6.2; 4.5.2) girls would be expected to 
perform better than boys in languages and arts. 
5.3.2.4 The relationship between attributions, affect and their influence on 
achievement in English 
This study found no interactions between attributional style, affect and the 
English marks either for success or failure. A significant relationship existed 
between affect and the comprehension test mark included in the self-efficacy 
test. 
All students, except one, obtained a pass mark for both English as subject and 
the comprehension test. 
78 
This had the following impact on the results: 
* 
* 
* 
most students experienced positive affect; 
all students showed a high level of self-efficacy; and 
no clear distinctions could, therefore, be made about the achievement 
scores of students who had adaptive vs maladaptive attributional 
styles, and realistic vs unrealistic affects. 
No educationally significant effects were found. 
5.3.3 General overview of the research results 
From the various studies conducted on the relationship between SES x 
achievement, sex x achievement, and age x achievement, it is noted that the 
combination of these variables by the various authors did not always support 
the hypotheses. There are distinct instances, however, where the influence of 
these variables visibly impacted on students' achievement. For instance, 
results have shown that students from low SES homes, who are exposed to 
negative environmental factors, are inevitably predisposed to poor academic 
achievement. Further, because of differing socialization different attributional 
styles are found to exist between the sexes, albeit minimal. 
The influence of the three variables (viz. SES, age and sex) was found to 
overlap in certain instances. For instance, the influence of students' SES and 
gender interactionally and differentially impinge on academic achievement. A 
boy from a low SES family is most likely to engage in bad conduct, perform 
poorly at school and, therefore, attain low scores in academic tasks. 
5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH 
The limitations of the empirical research relate to the following: 
* the measuring instrument; and 
* classification of the SES. 
79 
A measuring instrument (questionnaire) had to be constructed because of the 
novelty of research of this nature within Black schools. The measuring 
instrument had the following limitations: 
* 
* 
Section/part one dealing with attributional style appeared to be either 
too difficult to be interpreted sensibly or expected of students to 
evaluate concepts, that is, locus, stability and control, that they were 
not familiar with. 
Section/part two dealing with self-efficacy and affect, did not yield 
reliable results, as could be deduced from the high mean. This was 
probably due to the fact that the comprehension passages were too 
easy. 
5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 
The research was aimed at exploring the influence attributions and affect have 
on achievement motivation, and to identify the relationship with achievement. 
It is recommended that further research be conducted in: 
* 
* 
* 
constructing a measuring instrument to measure all aspects of 
motivation in the context of Southern Africa. 
teaching approaches in order to identify the practices that lead to poor, 
maladaptive motivational patterns. 
developing programmes to teach students to evaluate their skills and 
ability in the context of the standard of work. 
80 
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89 
ADDENDUM A 
MOTIVATIONAL QUESTIONNAIRE 
1992 
Department of Educational Psychology, Guidance and Orthopedagogics 
Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education 
The following questionnaire is aimed at determining how you feel about learning English as a 
school subject. The questions have no right or wrong answers, but only answers with which you 
can agree or disagree. Please use the ANSWER SHEET to answer each question as truthfully as 
possible and do NOT make any marks on the questionnaire itself. Use a PEN when answering 
the questions. 
PART ONE: ATTRIBUTIONAL S1YLE 
INSTRUCTIONS 
You are going to read about an event that could have happened to you. In addition, four 
possible causes for the event are given. See the example, Event X. 
EVENT X: A part of your English homework was wrong. 
Causes: Your homework was wrong because 
1. you just couldn't remember how to do the homework. 
2. you were careless when doing the homework. 
3. the part that was wrong included sentences that were more difficult. 
4. you were simply unlucky. 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
Event X says: "A part of your English homework was wrong." Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 are 
possible causes or reasons why your homework was partly wrong. Look at number 1. 
Think whether part of your homework was wrong because you just couldn't seem to 
remember how to do the work. Use the answer sheet to respond to cause number 1, by 
crossing 1 for YES or 2 for NO. Do the same for causes 2, 3 and 4. 
Now look at ALL four causes given for event X. Decide which ONE of the four causes is 
the MOST POSSIBLE cause, in other words the cause that explains best why part of your 
English homework was wrong. Mark the cause by crossing the number of your choice next 
to (b) on the answer sheet. 
Now think about the cause you have chosen as the most possible one to explain event X 
and answer the following questions by crossing the number of your choice on the answer 
sheet for each of the following three questions: 
(i) 
(ii) 
(iii) 
Is the cause INTERNAL (1) (Le. inside yourself, generated by yourself or part of 
yourself) or EXTERNAL (2) (Le. outside yourself, not generated by you or not part 
of yourself)? 
Is the cause STABLE (1) (i.e. it never changes, but always stays the same and is 
invariable) or UNSTABLE (2) (Le. it can vary or change and is not always the 
same)? 
Is the cause CONTROLLABLE by you (1) (Le. you can control, influence or 
change the cause if you want to) or UNCONTROLLABLE (2) (i.e. you can't do 
anything about it, can't change or influence it)? 
Do the same for events A-H. 
EVENT A: You got the semester mark you wanted for English, because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. The lessons and tests were easy. 
2. You spent a lot of time learning and working on English each day. 
3. The teacher explained the work very well. 
4. You have a talent for learning English. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or external, stable or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollaMe? 
EVENT B: You had trouble doing some parts of your English homework, because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. You didn't have time to get help from others. 
2. You never think logically when doing English. 
3. You didn't even try to get answers from the text book. 
4. The troublesome parts were more difficult than the rest. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or external, stable or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollable? 
91 
EVENT C: You've been unable to keep up with most of the other pupils in the class in English, 
because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. The pupils who were sittin~ around you didn't pay attention. 
2. You never spend enough tIme workmg at English. 
3. English is such a difficult subject! 
4. You've always had a difficult time in English classes. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or external, stable or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollable? 
EVENT D: You completed the last few homework assignments quite easily, because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. The homework assignments were more interesting than usual. 
2. You put a lot of effort into these a~signments. 
3. You are actually a very able English pupil. 
4. You were lucky to work with a very helpful group of other students. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or external, stable or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollable? 
EVENT E: You've received a very low mark on the monthly English test, because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. You are obviously not the best pupil in English. 
2. You studied, but not hard enough! 
3. Some of the questions were unbelievably difficult! 
4. The teacher spent too little time on the work in class. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or external, stable or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollable? 
EVENT F: Unlike some other students, you've passed the last few tests with no trouble 
because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. The teacher made learning English interesting and easy. 
2. Like everyone says, you are really talented in English! 
3. But, you spent hours of extra time studying English. 
4. The units on which most of the tests were based, were easy. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or external, stahle or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollable? 
EVENT G: You were able to understand a difficult unit/part of English, because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. The way the teacher presented the unit/part helped. 
2. Your ability is more obvious when you are challenged. 
3. You put hours of extra study time into it. 
4. The work was easy because it was covered before. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or etternal, stable or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollable? 
EVENT H: There were times when you just couldn't get to work out grammar questions, 
because: 
(a) 
(b) 
(c) 
1. It was a task that didn't interest you. 
2. Despite studying you didn't understand it well enough. 
3. Your friends' lack of attention in class was part of the problem. 
4. But then you didn't spend enough time doing English grammar. 
With which ONE of the four causes do you AGREE MOST? 
Is this cause internal or external, stable or unstable, and controllable or uncontrollable? 
92 
PART '!WO: SELF-EFFICACY AND AFFECT 
INSTRUCTIONS 
You are now going to read 10 short passages. Each of these passages is followed by two to three 
questions with multiple choice answers. Take a look at the first example passage (El) and read 
it attentively without looking at the questions. 
EXAMPLE PASSAGE (El) 
Sangura the Rabbit went one day to call on his friend the Cock and found him asleep with his 
head under his wing. The Rabbit had never seen the cock in this position before, but the hens 
informed him (as previously instructed) that their husband was in the habit of taking off his head 
and giving it to his sons the herd-boys to carry with them to the pasture. 
"Never!" said the Rabbit. "But when the herd-boys come back, will he get up again?" 
And the hens said, "Just wait and see!" 
At last when the herd-boys arrived their mother said, "Just rouse your father there where he is 
sleeping". 
The Cock's head at once reappeared. He welcome his guest, and they sat talking till dinner was 
ready, and went on conversing during the meal. The Rabbit was anxious to know how it was 
done, and the Cock told him it was quite easy. "If you think you would like to do it", he said, 
"why don't you try?". 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
93 
1. Now turn the page and answer the following question (ELl) by crossing on the answer 
sheet the number of the answer you choose. DO NOT look at the passage when answering 
the questions. Make sure of your answer before answering the question. Use a pen to 
cross the answer. DO NOT CROSS MORE THAN ONE ANSWER PER QUESTION. 
El. What is the most important idea in this passage? 
The most important idea is: 
1. The stupidity of the Rabbit. 
2. The danger of having bad friends. 
3. The death of the stupid Rabbit. 
4. The cleverness of the Cock that killed the Rabbit. 
2. Now, after answering the question indicate whether you are certain that your answer is 
correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 2 (uncertain), on the answer sheet. 
3. Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. Use the following: 
I feel: 
1. happy, because I was able to answer the EASY questions. 
2. proud, because, although the questions were rather difficult, I could answer them. 
3. ashamed, because I didn't have the ability to answer the questions correctly. 
4. guilty, because I didn't try hard enough. 
5. angry, because the questIOns were so difficult. 
6. hopeless, because I'll never understand English. 
WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS 
Now complete example (E2) in the same way. 
94 
EXAMPLE PASSAGE (E2) 
"Yes, Wise one. My story is short, but painful. It will not take long to tell. It is a story of love." 
"Love and pain. Those two are inseparable twins, my son. A story of love is always a story of 
pain, of tears. But we of our profession make it our business to decrease the pain and tears, and 
increase the love and happiness. Speak on, Ntabeni Mlilo. I am all ears." 
"She's eighteen years of age. She accepted me in spite of the difference in our age. Uphoselwe, 
she is bewitched. That's the trouble." 
"My job is to give satisfaction to the people who appeal to me" said the Wise one. "If you are 
willing to take the risk, I can prepare a strong potion for you, the strongest I have, which I call 
Velabahleka, Appear-and-they-laugh, stronger than the more popular Vamna, Feel-me. 
95 
E2.1 What is the first paragraph about? 
1. The passage is about "love and pain". 
2. Vamna, Feel-me is all that is in the first passage. 
3. Uphoselwe is bewitched. 
E2.2 What strong potion would the Wise one like to prep<;tre for Ntabeni Mlilo? 
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
Velabahleka, Appear-and-they-laugh. 
The popular Vamna, Feel-me, the strongest of them all. 
Both Velabahleka and Vamna. 
Not one strong-potion. 
96 
1. 
One afternoon, Lily Rose came home early from School. The front door was shut and locked, so 
evidently her mother and the two youngest children were out. She found the key in its usual 
place under a broken brick on the second step, and went in. 
It was ironing day, and piles of ironed and unironed garments lay about. The brilliant thought 
occurred to her that it would iJe a good idea if she finished off the ironing by the time her mother 
returned. Without further hesitation she seized one of the irons heating on the stove and put it 
down on the ironing-table. Immediately a rich smell of burning blanket filled the room. lily 
Rose hastily, put the iron on its stand and waited patiently for it to cool, testing the heat at 
intervals by the professional method of spitting on her finger and dabbing it quickly on the iron. 
After some minutes of this she decided the iron was ready, and set to work on a baby's overall. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
97 
Answer question 1.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
1.1 Where was Lily Rose coming from in the afternoon? 
1. From the river to fetch water. 
2. From school that afternoon. 
3 From the forest to collect wood. 
4. No, she was at home the whole day. 
1.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
1.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 1.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
1.2 What did she do at home that afternoon? 
1. She was busy with her school-work. 
2. Lily Rose was finishing off the ironing. 
3. She was sleeping from morning to sunset. 
4. Lily Rose visited the friends next door. 
1.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
1.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
98 
2. 
This was a new terror. The lions became expert at scraping them out like winkles from the shelL 
Many men returned to the trees and the cages. Some, of whom Natha Singh was the first, took 
loaded rifles into the tanks. 
This was a mistake. One night Singh, alarmed by an unusually persistent lion and the claw which 
hooked and swung in the blackness of the tank, pushed the rifle through the opening and pulled 
the trigger. Only those who have fired a rifle inside a metal tank can appreciate the appalling 
nature of the explosion. The Hon fled. Singh was later sent home, and taking his shattered ear­
drums to Korachi, spent the remainder of his days in blessed silence. 
On that same night, a certain Amam Din lowered himself into his chosen tank and found that he 
had shut himself up with a spitting-cobra. In the morning no amount of effort could extract the 
corpse, and Patterson was presented with a difficult burial problem. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
99 
Answer question 2.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
2.1 Who was the first to take loaded rifles into the tanks? 
1. Korachi. 
2. Natha Singh. 
3. Amam Din. 
4. All of them. 
2.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
2.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 2.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
2.2 What happened to Amam Din that same night? 
1. Amam Din ran away and was never seen again. 
2. He shut himself up with a spitting-cobra. 
3. Amam Din spent the remainder of his days in silence. 
4. Nothing happened to Amam Din. 
2.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
2.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
100 
3. 
White, is regarded as the colour of love, purity, or vision. In the case of red, the exact shade 
woven into a necklace is all important. Opaque red beads represent blood and tears, but 
transparent bright-red beads stand for love - "the great love that burns like a fire". Another 
shade of red signifies anger. 
Green, the colour of gall, represents either love-sickness or jealousy. Beads of different blues all 
have different meanings. One shade means the sky, another the sea; dark blue represents 
faithfulness, a lighter blue talkativeness - "Do not go around gossiping about me". 
Yellow generally means wealth, and sometimes a succession of yellow beads tells the number of 
cattle necessary for the lobola. Black stands for unhappiness, disappointment or misfortune, but 
it can also mean reassurance - "Nevermind the dark clouds: I will be on your side, and together 
we will pull through." 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
101 
Answer question 3.1 by crossing the numher of your choice on the answer sheet. 
3.1 What is this story mainly about? 
This story is about: 
1. The meanings of colours. 
2. Colours for love and unhappiness. 
3. All the different meanings. 
4. Cattle necessary for the lobola. 
3.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct hy crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
3.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 3.2 by crossing the numher of your choice on the answer sheet. 
3.2 What is the best title for this passage? 
1. The meanings of colours. 
2. Gossiping about someone you love most. 
3. Number of cattle for lohola. 
4. "The great love that burns like a fire." 
3.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct hy crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
3.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience ahout getting the answer right or wrong. 
102 
4. 
A woman was brought into the c1erk's office. She had heen fined five pounds for fighting with 
another woman. She had come to court well prepared and as soon as she got into the room, she 
untied the edges of her c10th and brought out five red pound notes out of many. If only I had her 
dough! 
I watched the clerk through half-c1ose~ eyes as he counted the woman's money and pulled out 
his drawer to give her a receipt. He searched through the drawer several times hut without 
success. 
Then remembrance came into his eyes and he hit his palm hard on the table and said: "Oh, yes" 
and got up and made for the door that led to the courtroom. The effort of remembering where 
the receipt-book was had been so much for him that he had apparently forgotten all ahout me. 
I seized the chance and within a tenth of a second, I had bounded up from my chair and crossed 
over to stand behind the door. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
103 
Answer question 4.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
Why had the woman been fined? 
She untied the edges of her cloth. 
For fighting with another woman. 
She brought out five red pounds. 
4.1 
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. She got into the clerk's office, and was fined. 
4.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
4.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 4.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
4.2 Did she have money? 
1. No, the woman had no money at all. 
2. The woman had five red pound notes. 
3. She had only her cloth, and nothing else. 
4. The woman brought out five red pound notes out of many. 
4.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
4.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
104 
5. 
At a glance, Soweto looks dull and lifeless. Almost all the houses are built to the same pattern -
thousand upon thousand of small match-box cottages separated from each other by wire fencing. 
Yet there are few places I know which are as lively as this enormous township. 
There are people, no doubt, who grumble that Soweto is too far from town and the factories 
where everybody works; that many of the houses are still without electricity although Africa's 
biggest power-station lies next door. Yet, in spite of this, Soweto lives. It lives insecurely, 
sometimes dangerously, but with a determined will to survive. 
Not many people earn much money here. There are people, thousands of them, who don't eat 
three meals a day. There are homes where husbands give instructions that visitors are not to be 
served with tea, however long they may stay. That is the more depressing face of this place. But 
then Soweto has many faces. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
105 
Answer question 5.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
5.1 What does Soweto look like? 
1. Almost all the houses are built to the same pattern. 
2. There are no schools. because there is no electricity. 
3. Blacks and whites are fighting for electricity. 
4. There is only a small power-station that lies next door. 
5.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). . 
5.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 5.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
5.2 What is the writer's problem in this passage? 
1. That Soweto is too far from town. 
2. His house is well electrified, but he is not working. 
3. He wants to serve his visitors with tea daily. 
4. He does not know how long they may stay in the house. 
5.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
5.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
106 
6. 
At midnight Ch aka went alone to the grave of his father Senzangakona, and when he came there 
Isanusi the Diviner appeared through the darkness with his companions, Ndlebe and Malunga. 
And there at the grave at midnight Isanusi doctored Chaka with many medicines, smearing most 
of them on his body, and when he had finished he placed charms on the grave and made a small 
hole in it over which he sat. And then he spat and began to speak in a tongue not known to 
Chaka. He seemed to be in pain and very sorrowful, and the sound of his voice inspired pity. He 
was not speaking to Chaka, but to the spirits in the grave. 
While he spoke thus, the earth on top of the grave moved and was shaken. Ndlebe stood up at 
once and ran round and round the grave. MaJunga struck the ground repeatedly with Chaka's 
spear, then raised it up, aimed it towards the east, and struck the ground with it again. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
107 
Answer question 6.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
6.1 To whom was Isanusi the Diviner Speaking? 
Isanusi was speaking to 
1. Everybody at the grave. 
2. His companions, Ndlebe and Malunga. 
3. The spints in the grave. 
4. Chaka's father, Senzangakona. 
6.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
6.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 6.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
6.2 What,was Isanusi doing at the grave? 
1. He was doctoring Senzangakona, the old man. 
2. He was smearing Chaka's body with his medicines. 
3. Isanusi was having a traditional party with friends. 
4. He was moving up and down as if he was mad. 
6.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
6.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 6.3 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
6.3 What happened when the earth on top of the grave moved? 
1. Malunga ran home to seek for help. 
2. Ndlebe stood up at once and ran round and round the grave. 
3. Ch aka was happy and danced around the grave. 
6.3.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
6.3.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
108 
7. 
The locust swarms hummed closer and closer leaving an area of destruction behind them. They 
devoured every blade of green grass and every leaf on the tall trees. Millions settled and laid 
eggs, soon to hatch young to join in the destruction. They dropped in their millions as they came 
against the unbroken well of smoke. They dropped until the ground was a struggling mass of 
crawling insects. Men and women - those who were not engaged in tending the fires - waded 
knee-deep into the vast mass, armed with skin bags, cooking-pots, and all sorts of other vessels, 
scooping up great bowlfuls of locusts and emptying them into large grain-baskets. Ox-sleds 
carried these baskets to the kraals, where the old women were busy cooking the vast piles of 
locusts. 
For five days the desperate battle raged. Finally the locusts broke through the wall of smoke. It 
was impossible to maintain the defence against them any longer. Entire fields, whole mopani 
forests were set on fire, destroying millions and millions of the invaders. But mill ions more 
came, bred, and passed on. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
109 
Answer question 7.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
7.1 What happened in this passage? 
1. Locusts devoured every blade of green grass. 
2. People were becoming mad aIJ over the country. 
3. Men and women started dancing when the sun rose. 
4. People had no place to cook the locusts. 
7.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
7.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 7.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
7.2 
l. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
What were the people doing about these locusts? 
People were scooping up great bowlfu Is of locusts. 
Women were fighting for the locusts. 
The locusts were too big to carry home. 
They cooked the locusts in the forest. 
7.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
7.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 7.3 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
7.3 For how many days were people scooping up the locusts? 
1. For only one day. 
2. The desperate battle raged for five days. 
3. For two days only, and then everything returned to normal. 
4. This battle lasted for almost a year. 
7.3.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
7.3.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
110 
8. 
"1 am sure I have not offended him in any way. If I had offended him, I would render an apology 
easily. I have not even quarrelled with him for not eating my food. For a long time now we have 
not lived as husband and wife. If he wants to marry a second wife I shall be perfectly happy. In 
fact, I have been thinking of it for some time for I have not had a second baby, and now I wonder 
whether a second one will ever come." 
"Have patience, my daughter. Don't be in a hurry. Everything will be all right. Don't mind my 
daughter. It is only youth that is worrying him and nothing else. He will soon realize what a fool 
he has been, and will come crawling back to you. Look after your daughter and your trade. 
Your husband will come back to you after all his wanderings. Men are always like that." 
When Efuru went away her mother-in-law was very sorrowful. ''The son of a gorilla must dance 
like the father gorilla. Our elders were quite right when they said this. Adizua is every inch like 
his father. God, please don't let him be like his father." 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
111 
Answer question 8.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
8.1 Who is speaking in this passage? 
1. Efuru's husband. 
2. Efuru's grandmother. 
3. Efuru's younger sister. 
4. Efuru and her mother-in-law 
8.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
8.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 8.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
8.2 What is this paragraph about? 
1. Efuru wants to divorce her husband. 
2. They are not living as husband and wife. 
3. The husband is beating her every day. 
4. Efuru does not give birth. 
8.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
8.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 8.3 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
8.3 What did Efuru's mother-in-law tell her? 
1. To pack all her belongings and ~o back home. 
2. That her husband will soon realIze what a fool he has been and will come back to her. 
3. To render apology to her husband. 
4. That she must stop quarrelling with her husband. 
8.3.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
8.3.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
112 
9. 
" I have promised marriage to a sweet young girl of the Bhele c1an down at our village, a girl as 
bright and beautiful as the clear waters of Xesi river, and as warm as sunshine in Spring. She 
accepted me, and her family gave consent to my family, all according to custom, as you know. 
Suddenly I learnt that a Thembu boy had corrupted my girl when she visited her malume* at the 
Thembu village. Then my girl rejected me. Can you believe it, wise one? My sweet Zusiwe 
rejected me for a wild, uncircumcised boy. The boy used a love-potion, I am sure of that. Please 
help me, Gabulamehlo! Give me the strongest potion in your stock so that I may win back my 
girl." 
"What makes you certain that the boy has used a love-potion? I must be careful, you see. If I 
give you a strong potion for a girl who has never taken one before, she will become mad." 
"He must have used a love-potion, wise one. What other explanation can there be for her 
rejection of me?" 
* Uncle on the mother's side. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
113 
Answer question 9.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
9.1 What is the first paragraph mostly about? 
The first paragraph is about: 
1. The boy who uses a love-potion. 
2. Gabulamehlo the wise man in the village. 
3. A sweet young girl who rejected the speaker. 
4. The custom marriage of the black people. 
9.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
9.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 9.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
9.2 What does the speaker want Gabulamehlo to do for him? 
1. The speaker wants Gabulamehlo to give him a strong-potion. 
2. That Gabulamehlo must kill the Thembu boy. 
3. Gabulamehlo must bewitch Zusiwe, the sweet girl. 
4. The two families must meet and discuss marriage. 
9.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
9.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 9.3 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
9.3 Why did Zusiwe reject the speaker? 
1. The speaker was not fit to marry her. 
2. Because Zusiwe was corrupted by a Thembu boy. 
3. Zusiwe's family hated the speaker's family. 
4. The speaker was very unlucky. 
9.3.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 (certain) or 
2 (uncertain). 
9.3.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that explains best 
the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
114 
10. 
Lusu felt his shaky courage evaporating fast. He had depended on his club because he was quite 
skilled with it. He wept openly with fear and the villagers howled with laughter. Cries of 
"shame" and "coward" filled his ears and his nerve collapsed altogether. He turned and tried to 
run, but one of his own advisers kicked him in the buttocks, slapped him soundly and pushed him 
back into the clearing. Mutengu tore into him with the violence of a thunderstorm. 
Violent clouds of dust were stirred by the feet of the fighting men and for a long time the only 
sounds were those of blows well and truly landed. Then finally a loud scream was torn from the 
throat of the coward Lusu and he turned and ran like a madman. He bowled men over in his 
great hurry to escape the wrath of Mutengu. He leapt a high fence and thudded to the ground 
beyond like a hippopotamus. He got to his feet again and sped into the forest with Mutengu and 
all the villagers in hot pursuit. When he noticed his pursuers were gaining on him he urged his 
short fat legs to increase their effort. 
Do not turn the page. Wait for further instructions. 
115 
Answer question 10.1 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
10.1 What made everybody laugh? 
Everybody laughed because 
1. Lusu wept openly with fear. 
2. Lusu turned and tried to run. 
3. His adviser kicked him in the buttocks. 
4. Mutengu tore into him. 
10.1.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 
(certain) or 2 (uncertain). 
10.1.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that 
explains best the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 10.2 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet. 
10.2 What did Lusu do to save his life? 
1. Lusu screamed aloud to save his life. 
2. He ran like a madman to save his life. 
3. Lusu stood very quietly behind the hippopotamus. 
4. He fell down because he did not know what to do. 
10.2.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 
(certain) or 2 (uncertain). 
10.2.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that 
explains best the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
Answer question 10.3 by crossing the number of your choice on the answer sheet: 
10.3 Where was Lusu running to when the villagers were cha<;ing him? 
1. He got to his feet again and sped into the forest. 
2. Lusu never ran, instead he stood up and fought. 
3. He quickly ran into the river where there were crocodiles. 
4. He did not know where to run to. 
10.3.1 Now indicate whether you are certain that your answer is correct by crossing 1 
(certain) or 2 (uncertain). 
10.3.2 Compare your answer with the correct one given. Now cross the number that 
explains best the feeling you experience about getting the answer right or wrong. 
selfeqcs/1992-08-07 
116 
CARD NO 1 ADDENDUM B 
MOTIVATIONAL QUESTIONNAIRE ANSWER SHEET. PART 1: ATTRI BUTIONAL 
STYLE 
Number 
Sex 
Event 
(ca) 
Event 
(a) 
Event 
(a) 
Event 
(a) 
Event 
(a) 
Event 
(a) 
Event 
(a) 
Event 
Ca ) 
I~Fll {2-4} I . ' l (7) 
I !LI 
\ A ':l-..:.Y=~.:::.S-!I-!..:N'="~-ll 
~ I1 ~ 'I_-=.~-! 
4' , I, 2 1 
A I YES NO! 
-:"::'::'--1 --"=2'--' 
1 li 1 f 2 ---=-1--! 2 
3 !--~1--1-~-~-i!1 
4 I 1 I ~ I i I T I _N-=~_Iil 
4 1_--=.1 __ u __ -=2_! 
C! YES NO I' 
1 I 1 I 2 \1---=---1--=-
2! 1 2 I 
~ I i ~ i 
D I YES NO' 
112 
2 i __ 1::"-_il_~2=--~! i I ~! 
----=---, ' E I YES I NO I 
~ 11-.....:i~-!!,!I+11 
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Age 
English Mark 
Years \ 5~6J 
~~ (a~9) 
( 1 (l) (b) 
(11 ) (c) 
( 12) 
( 13) 
(18) (b) 
( 19) (c) 
(20) 
(21) 
(26) (b) 
(27) (c) 
(28) 
(29) 
(34) (b) 
(35) (c) 
(36) 
(37) 
(42) I, b) 
(43) I, c) 
(44) 
(45) 
(50) (b) 
(51 ) I, c ) 
(52) 
(53) 
(58) (b) 
(59) {c :; 
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;; 61 ) 
\ b .. =.) {td 
(67) \ c } 
(68) 
(69) 
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! '-'I 
I o::t ab 12 :! !1 I ,-, 
e~~erna! 'I ~ 'I ,--,
unstable I 2 I i cc,ntrollablell_l_i! :I-'l uncontrollableil 2 I1 1---1 
! 1 'I 2 11 3 'I 4 11 \ 14) 
1
-,11-1 - 1-,infernal !I r !j e):ternal ! 2 I 
I stable ! 1 !l unstable I 2 ! !!~I '-1 I cor,trollable! 1 !I uncontrollablel 2! 
1_1_11 2 !l.LII....LII (22) 
I internal ll! ~ e.ternal I 2 I stable I--L-I unstable ! 2 I I cont-rolIablell 1 i uncontrollable! 2 ! I 1--1 
1_1_11~I.Ln....L!I (30) 
I in£ernal - IlL e>:terna! ! 2 t stable I 1 unstable I 2 I 
I controllable! 1 uncontrollablel'~! 11 --I 
I 1 'I :: !I 3 '! ... !I ,46 } 1--j-lI-;--,in~ernal ~ I n external 11 ~ I I stable U-1-1I unstable I 2 I I controllable!! 1 11 uncontrc, 11 ab le!, 2 I 
I I 'I '.::l 11 ., 'I . 11 'r:::". _. - -=-l ~i .....:!-,. ~...!"+ J 
I in£ernal lI--L-l/ e):ternal 1I 2 il ! =·tab 1 e it 1 ! url=.tab le 2 ! 
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I, o::tabli? j'--L-il I..tnstao le 11 control lab 1 U uncontrollable" 
, -~~ it 
il7 
(23) 
(24) 
(25) 
( 31' 
(32) 
(33) 
(39; 
(40. 
(41:' 
(4B) 
(49) 
(55', 
(56 ; 
= 
" /=. 
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CARD NO 2 (1) 
ANSWER SHEET TO PART 2 : SELF-EFFICACY AND AFFECT 
E 1.1 
E 1.2.1 
E 2.1 
1.1 
2.1 1 2 3 4 
-.---2.2 1 2 3 4 
___ 1_ 
3.1 
3.2 
4.1 
4.2 
5.1 
6.1 
6.2 
6.3 
7.1 
7.3 
1.2 .. 2 
2.1.1. 
2.2.1 
3.1.1 
3.2.1 
4.1.1 
4.2.1 
5.1.1 
5.2.1 
6.1.1 
6.2.1. 
6.3.1 
7.,2.1 
7.3.1 
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1-1 121 f I 
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li 1 !' c. 'I .J ,I !ij 1I 1-,-\ 
118 
(2-4 ) 
<5-7) 
(8-10) 
(11-13) 
(14-16) 
(17-19) 
(20-22} 
(26-28} 
{29-31) 
(32-34) 
(35-37} 
;3..1 
8 ':::l ..... 
8.3 
9.1 
9.2 
9.3 
10.1 
10.2 
10.3 
! 1 11 2 i 3 11 '+ :1 8. 1 • 1 
'1 I 1 11 I-I-l-!-II 
1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I1 8. 2. 1 
-1-1 2 l 3'1 4;1 8.3.1 
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-1-1 2 r~141 9.1.1 
-1-.-1-1 
I 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 9.2.1 
I I I I 
-1-1 2 I 3 1---1 9.3.1 
-'-1-'-' 1 I 2 3. I 4 ! 10.1.1 
I I 1 ! ! 
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I 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 110• 2 • 1 
11-1-1 2 ITI4110.3.1 
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1-1-: 
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I i I 1-1 lTI 9.1.2 
1- 1 \1-2 j' 9.2.2 
1 I 
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I-!-II-!-I-! _I! ! 1121131415161 
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(47-49) 
(53-55) 
(56-58) 
(59-61 ) 
(62-64) 
\65-67} 
<68-70) 
(71-73)