Question 1

Three of the following statements accurately describe cultural and ethnic differences in motivation. Which statement is false?

Accepted Answer

A) Compared to other cultural groups,children in Native American families are given very little independence and autonomy. 
B) On average,students from Asian cultures are more concerned about getting good grades than students from other ethnic groups. 
C) Some African American students have a sense of learned helplessness about their ability to achieve school success,perhaps because of prior experiences with racial discrimination. 
D) Compared to their classmates raised in mainstream Western culture,students from Asian cultures are more likely to attribute school success to hard work,rather than to inherited ability.

Question 2

Which one of the following alternatives exemplifies situational interest rather than individual interest?

Accepted Answer

A) Adam finds the Guinness Book of World Records on a library shelf and is intrigued by the strange people it describes. 
B) Blaine can't think of anything he'd rather do than play video games with his friends. 
C) Chuck spends every weekend working on the 1951 Chevy in his garage. 
D) Dave loves to snorkel at the beach and hopes to major in marine biology when he goes to college.

Question 3

Which one of the following statements best reflects the concept of collective self-efficacy?

Accepted Answer

A) Over time,students develop a general sense of self-efficacy that influences their performance in a wide variety of content domains. 
B) As students get older,their self-confidence about performing certain tasks becomes fairly stable and so is less influenced by any single success or failure experience. 
C) Students may have greater confidence about accomplishing a task when they work with others rather than alone. 
D) Some students have greater self-confidence when they have technological resources (spreadsheet software,Internet access,etc.)to help them in their efforts.

Question 4

A student who has developed learned helplessness about his or her spelling ability is most likely to say which one of the following?

Accepted Answer

A) "I have to work harder than my friends to learn to spell." 
B) "I can learn how to spell words correctly without even trying." 
C) "No matter how much I study words,I can't remember how to spell them." 
D) "I would learn to spell eventually,but it's not worth the time it would take to do so."

Question 5

Which one of the following statements indicates that the speaker is focused on a performance-avoidance goal?

Accepted Answer

A) "This is my chance to show all my classmates how smart I am." 
B) "Boy,I hope I don't get this problem wrong. If I do,I'll look like an idiot." 
C) "I'd really like to become a better math student. I hope the teacher gives me feedback about how I can improve my skills." 
D) "I need to do well in my science classes so I can get into a good engineering school."

Question 6

An eighth grader named Marianne consistently refuses to do difficult classroom assignments because she's afraid of failing at them. Which one of the basic needs described in the textbook is Marianne most clearly trying to address?

Accepted Answer

A) Her need for relatedness 
B) Her need for autonomy 
C) Her need for arousal 
D) Her need for competence

Question 7

Which one of the following teaching strategies is most likely to increase students' sense of empowerment?

Accepted Answer

A) Mr. Aas reminds his students that they cannot participate in the school's extracurricular sports program if their grade point averages fall below 2.0. 
B) Ms. Brown asks her third graders to develop some class rules to ensure that all class members will have a chance to express their ideas openly. 
C) Mr. Cranwell explains to his middle school students why good writing skills are important in the business world. 
D) Mr. Diaz gives his students enough practice with basic arithmetic facts that they learn them to automaticity.

Question 8

To succeed in adult society,growing children need to acquire some degree of emotion regulation when they encounter disappointing or frustrating circumstances. Three of the following teaching strategies should help promote such regulation. Which one is not a recommended strategy?

Accepted Answer

A) Encourage students to watch aggressive sports (e.g.,boxing,American football)as an outlet for any aggressive tendencies their frustrations may elicit. 
B) Encourage students to look for one or more unanticipated benefits of their failures. 
C) Teach students strategies that can help them be more successful on future occasions. 
D) Brainstorm with students about ways they might minimize or compensate for the negative repercussions of their failures.

Question 9

Learners often have multiple goals that they want to accomplish. Under such circumstances,they may do any three of the following. Which one are they least likely to do?

Accepted Answer

A) Pursue one or two goals first,leaving others to be accomplished at a later time 
B) Redefine their ideas about what it means to achieve their goals successfully 
C) Find activities that enable them to accomplish two or more goals simultaneously 
D) Become so frustrated that they don't accomplish even one of their goals

Question 10

When choosing a partner to work on a science fair project,James selects a close friend who isn't particularly good in science. Which basic human need is James probably trying to satisfy?

Accepted Answer

A) His need for autonomy 
B) His need for arousal 
C) His need for relatedness 
D) His need to enhance his self-efficacy about academic subject matter

Question 11

Which one of the following illustrates cognitive dissonance?

Accepted Answer

A) Frannie is shocked to hear that her best friend Meghan,seemingly a very honest person,cheated on a math quiz. 
B) Leo has a crush on his art teacher,even though the teacher is more than 10 years older than he is. 
C) Jasmine loves science this year because her teacher uses many hands-on activities to make abstract concepts concrete and understandable. 
D) Howie can't decide whether he wants to be a firefighter or a veterinarian when he grows up.

Question 12

Three of the following experiences should promote higher self-efficacy about the task in question. Which one probably won't?

Accepted Answer

A) Andrea discovers that she does well on her weekly spelling tests only when she wears her lucky necklace. 
B) On the first day of geometry,Bob's teacher tells the class,"The things in your textbook may look difficult to you now,but with a little effort and practice you'll have the basics down pat by December." 
C) Carmella does better in her Spanish class than she expected to. 
D) Dick's friend tells him,"You shouldn't have any problem in American Literature. I'm no smarter than you are,and I got an A."

Question 13

Frank is a good student. He attributes his success partly to studying long hours and partly to his intelligence ("It runs in the family," he says). Given what psychologists have learned about attributions,three of the following statements are likely to be accurate descriptions of Frank. Which one is probably not an accurate description?

Accepted Answer

A) When he is confused about class material,he is apt to give up easily. 
B) He feels proud of his academic accomplishments. 
C) He uses more effective learning strategies than his low-achieving classmates. 
D) He has high self-efficacy regarding future school tasks.

Question 14

Which one of these students definitely has a performance-approach goal?

Accepted Answer

A) Frank finds a homework assignment too easy to waste his time with. 
B) Herb frequently asks questions in class in order to understand new information better. 
C) Selena decides to enter the school science fair in hopes of impressing her teacher,classmates,and parents. 
D) Rita was somewhat disappointed about her last test score in math. Realizing that people learn from their mistakes,she decides to study harder for the next test using different study strategies.

Question 15

Jane has a high sense of self-efficacy regarding her ability to work effectively and creatively with wood. Based on this information,we would predict three of the following. Which one of the following would we not necessarily predict?

Accepted Answer

A) Jane will frequently choose activities that involve working with wood. 
B) Jane will be a bit careless when she works with wood,so she will frequently make silly little mistakes. 
C) Compared to Joan,who has low self-efficacy,Jane will do a better job at woodworking tasks. 
D) If Jane has difficulty at a task requiring her woodworking skills,she will tend to "try,try again" until she gets it right.

Question 16

"Students are most likely to do things that in some way result in desirable consequences for themselves." This statement is most consistent with which one of the following theoretical perspectives of motivation?

Accepted Answer

A) Attribution theory 
B) Behaviorism 
C) Humanism 
D) Self-worth theory

Question 17

The four teachers below are hoping to improve their students' self-efficacy. Which one will probably be least effective in doing so?

Accepted Answer

A) Mr. Anderson helps his students be successful at math word problems. 
B) Ms. Berry tells her students how wonderful they are. 
C) Mr. Carrera helps his students improve their creative writing skills. 
D) Ms. D'Amato helps her students throw a softball farther.

Question 18

Should students ever be allowed to fail at classroom tasks? If we take into account the concept of resilient self-efficacy,the answer is:

Accepted Answer

A) Yes. Self-efficacy is highest when students fail at a task several times in a row before accomplishing it successfully. 
B) Yes. Occasional failures interspersed among frequent successes teach students that perseverance pays off. 
C) No. Failure gives students the message that school is not an enjoyable place to be. 
D) No. Even a single failure can seriously deflate students' sense of self-efficacy.

Question 19

Three of the following strategies for addressing students' needs for relatedness are consistent with those that the textbook offers. Which one is not?

Accepted Answer

A) Privately praise students for their good performance. 
B) Regularly include small-group work in classroom activities. 
C) Reserve 45-60 minutes of class time each day for students to converse about nonacademic matters. 
D) Lend a sympathetic ear if students are having a bad day or in some other way are feeling angry or depressed.

Question 20

Which one of the following students is displaying extrinsic motivation?

Accepted Answer

A) Roxanne wants to be an accountant because she likes working with numbers. 
B) Brad wants to be a veterinarian because he loves animals and wants to help them. 
C) Elbert wants to become a professional football player so others will admire him. 
D) Donnetta wants to become an actress because she thinks acting is fun.

Exam 5: Motivation and Affect