THE DEVELOPMENT OF ABILITY CONCEPTIONS

研究成就动机的研究人员表明，个体思考能力的方式可以对学习和动机产生重要影响。然而，关于能力概念的性质、发展和后果，仍有许多悬而未决的问题。这项拟议的研究考察了4到10岁的儿童中的这些问题和相关问题。我描述了三组旨在解决以下问题的研究：L)幼儿能力概念的本质是什么，这些概念是如何随着发展而变化的？2)哪些因素有助于系统地形成能力概念？3)能力概念的个体差异是明显的，它们的前因后果是什么？这项拟议的研究使用心理学内部的理论和方法来研究这些问题，包括认知和社会发展，以及心理学以外的学科，如人类学和社会学，这些学科侧重于更大的社会系统。总而言之，这些研究应该提供一幅不同年龄的儿童对能力进行推理的方式、影响他们推理的因素以及动机后果的微妙图景。

Researchers studying achievement motivation have shown that the way individuals think about ability can have important implications for learning and motivation. However, many unanswered questions about the nature, development, and consequences of ability conceptions remain. The proposed research examines these and related issues among children ages 4 through 10. I describe three sets of studies designed to address the following questions: l) What is the nature of young children's conceptions of ability and how do these conceptions change with development? 2) What factors serve to systematically shape ability conceptions? 3) What individual differences in ability conceptions are evident, and what are their antecedents and consequences? The proposed research looks at these questions using theories and methodologies from within psychology, including cognitive and social development, and from disciplines outside of psychology, such as anthropology and sociology, which focus on larger social systems. Together, these studies should provide a nuanced picture of the way in which children of different ages reason about ability, the factors affecting their reasoning, and the motivational consequences.