Psychology ETDs

Publication Date

4-30-1974

Abstract

The preference-success assumption refers to the presupposition many educators seem to make that one will perform better at a task one prefers to do over a task one does not prefer to do, or that one will perform better if allowed to use a preferred method instead of a non­preferred method. Research related to this assumption was reviewed, and it was argued that none of the previous research had evaluated this assumption in a straightforward, systematic manner, the goal of the present investigation. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design was utilized with 32 female and 32 male Ss whose average grade level was 9.1. The variables involved were study method (E-directed or S-directed), sex (male or female), and task order (task A -- task B or task B -- task A). The Ss in the E­-directed condition indicated which task they preferred to do, and then performed each for a fixed amount of time in the order appropriate to their randomly assigned condition. The Ss in the S-directed condition indicated which task they preferred to do, and then performed each in any order they chose, appropriating the total amount of time in any way they chose. The tasks were two prose passages, each accompanied by a multiple-choice item pretest and a multiple-choice item posttest. Performance was measured in terms of variation of the obtained posttest score from an expected posttest score. Results indicated that Ss tended to show significantly greater positive performance on their preferred tasks as opposed to their non-preferred tasks, while not tending to show any greater positive performance on either their sex appropriate or sex inappropriate tasks, the tasks they spent more or less time on, or the tasks on which they started or ended. The Ss tended to show greater positive combined performance (the sum of the variations for task A and task B) under the E-directed condition as compared to the S-directed condition. In addition, Ss tended to begin with their preferred task and to end with their non-preferred task and tended to spend more time on their sex inappropriate task than on their sex appropriate task. Learning and motivational processes were called upon in explaining these results.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Sidney Rosenblum

Second Committee Member

G. Robert Grice

Third Committee Member

Richard Jerome Harris

Fourth Committee Member

Frank Anderson Logan

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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