Information seeking and achievement motivation in middle childhood and adolescence: the role of conceptions of ability.

Two studies confirmed that maladaptive responses to failure in ego-involving settings depend on acquisition of the differentiated concept of ability (DCA) in early adolescence (J. G. Nicholls, 1984). Information seeking, performance, and interest in task versus ego-involving conditions were examined among 190 pupils in Grades 4 and 8 and 139 pupils in Grades 5-6 who had or had not acquired the DCA. Age and conception of ability had similar effects. Pupils who had acquired the DCA responded to the task condition with strivings to learn and requests for information relevant to acquiring mastery and to the ego condition with strivings to outperform others and requests for normative feedback. Failure undermined information seeking, performance, and interest in the ego condition only after acquisition of the DCA. Surprisingly, pupils who had not acquired the DCA responded to both conditions with strivings to assess normative success but displayed neither the costs of ego involvement nor the benefits of task involvement.