TEMPERAMENTAL, CULTURAL, AND ETHNIC FACTORS IN ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION

University Of Texas El Paso, El Paso TX

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (APPLICANTS ABSTRACT): Proposed is an investigation of temperament processes and cultural and ethnic factors underlying patterns of achievement motivation, especially as they relate to Mexican-American populations residing along the US-Mexico border. This project investigates these factors as they relate to the kinds of self-concepts and coping strategies associated with adaptive and maladaptive patterns of achievement motivation. Understanding how these factors combine to influence scholastic achievement and achievement motivation is vital, especially in US-Mexico border communities and states where there are strong cultural influences from Mexico as well as large Mexican-American populations. The goals of this project are threefold. First, this project tests specific hypotheses concerning cultural and ethnic influences on patterns of achievement motivation. In particular, it is necessary to delineate those aspects of Mexican-American achievement motivation that are due to differences in cultural values between the US and Mexico, and those aspects that are attributable to social factors related to Mexican-Americans as an ethnic minority group within the US (including discrimination, poverty, inadequate education systems). Second, this project examines how temperamental processes combine with cultural and ethnic factors to determine both people?s expectations for performance in problem-solving situations as well as the attributions they make concerning their performance following failure in a performance task. A third goal of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of various intervention strategies as a mechanism for further testing hypotheses about the nature of the psychological processes underlying adaptive and maladaptive responses to failure.