Students' Reactions to Attributions of Ability and Effort

S ummary . One hundred and forty‐four 5th grade, 10th grade and college students were presented with a questionnaire consisting of three parts. In Part I, the students received a description of eight different hypothetical stories about classmates. In each story, the classmate's ability (high or low), exerted effort (high or low) and outcome (success or failure) were varied. Following each story the students were asked to rate the predicted grade given by a teacher, teacher's appreciation, own appreciation, projected classmate's satisfaction, and own willingness to resemble the classmate. In Parts II and III, the students were asked whether they would like to be perceived as having ability or as exerting effort. The results showed that while students believe that teachers and they themselves show more appreciation of effort exertion than ability, they project feelings of satisfaction and would like to be perceived more as having ability than exerting effort. Also, 5th grade students on all the questions reacted more favourably to effort exertion than 10th grade and college students.