Beliefs and perception

Beliefs and perception

1. Beliefs about ability

   • Incremental view of ability:
     • ability is unstable and controllable
   • Entity view of ability
     • ability is a stable (unchangeable) and uncontrollable trait

2. Beliefs about causes and control (attribution)

   • Every cause of successes or failures can be characterized in terms of three dimensions
     • Locus (location of the cause: internal or external to the person)
     • Stability (whether it is the same across time or different in different situation)
     • Controllability (whether the person can control the cause)

3. Beliefs about self-worth

   • Self-worth: Self-esteem (how one value oneself)
     • – Mastery-oriented students
       • • Tend to value achievement and see ability as improvement • Focus on mastery goals, rather than performance goals • Not afraid of failure
     • – Failure-avoiding students
       • • Tend to hold entity view of ability • Focus on performance goals • Avoid failures, take minimal risks • Can lead to failure-accepting state
     • – Failure-accepting students
       • Bad performance is equated with low ability
   • Learned helplessness
     • The expectation based on previous experiences with a lack of control, that an individual’s all efforts will lead to failure
     • It will cause three types of deficits
       • Motivational
       • Cognitive
       • Affective

4. Beliefs about knowing

   • Epistemological beliefs
     • Structure of knowledge
       • Is knowledge relate to facts or complex structure of concepts and relationships?
     • Stability/ certainty of knowledge
       • Is knowledge fixed or does it evolve over time?
     • Nature of learning
       • – Does learning involve passing down information or does it involve integrated/ constructed of understandings?
     • Speed of learning
       • Can we gain knowledge quickly or does it take time to develop knowledge?
     • Ability to learn
       • Is the ability to learn fixed (innate) or changeable?

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