Reactions to Failure and Success Among Gifted, Average, and EMR Students

Abstract

This investigation was designed to examine the reactions of gifted students, and to a lesser extent, those of average and EMR students, to success and failure in the school setting. Attributions, persistence of effort following a failure, willingness to attempt a task following failure, as well as future expectations for success were explored. Students were assessed in two conditions in which success and failure were manipulated. Results indicated that gifted students did not credit success to ability as predicted, but instead to a low level of task difficulty. The expectations of gifted students were very high initially, but considereably lower following a failure, as were those of the average and EMR groups. Gifted students showed more persistence in regard to the difficult task than EMR students and also chose more often to repeat the difficult task.