The interactive effects of competition and theories of intelligence on motivation

Abstract

Past research has revealed that both people’s beliefs and situational factors affected people’s goal orientation. This study investigated the interactive effects of competition and theories of intelligence on people’s goal orientation. A 2x2 between-subject factorial design was adopted. Seventh graders (N = 132) were primed with either incremental or entity theory of memory. The students were randomly assigned to either competitive or non-competitive condition. Motivational outcomes were measured after all the four groups received failure feedback. Findings showed that the effect of competition marginally overrode the effect of theories of intelligence in the entity condition. There were no statistical significant changes in self-efficacy and interest on the task before and after the setback in the groups.