Relationship between Achievement Locus of Control and Expectancy of Success of Academically Gifted High School Students

Abstract

The achievement locus of control was investigated in 66 academically gifted high school students. Subjects were administered Lefcourt's Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale. Data suggest a pattern of attributions in which effort was ranked higher than ability, context, or luck. Subjects were more internal than external. Stable attributions were not clearly different from unstable attributions. Confidence was correlated .45 with grade expected. Students with greater confidence tended to attribute academic success less to ability (—.34). Expectancy of success was correlated A6 with internality, a dimension of causality, and not with the two dimensions of stability. This supported the social learning theory of the relationship between change in expectancy and causality.