英文摘要 |
The purpose of the current study, as part of a larger cross-cultural study, was to explore the relationships between students' achievement-related beliefs and their cultural backgrounds. Fifteen college students (5 Caucasian-Americans, 5 Chinese- Americans, and 5 Taiwanese students) were recruited from a sample of 285 subjects who had participated in an experiment. They were recruited so as to represent, within each cultural group, a full spectrum of the indexes employed by the experiment, including an attributional measure (Personal Control), academic major, and gender. Fifteen semi-structured ethnographic interviews were conducted with the interview participants individually to elicit the social and cultural underpinnings of their achievement endeavors. Interview data suggested that a majority of the American respondents expressed an inclination to view their natural abilities as the deciding factors of their interests or achievements, while a good number of Taiwanese students indicated a position in favor of effort in explaining their current achievements and competence levels. The Chinese-Americans, however, seemed to take an eclectic stand, viewing ability and effort as equally important, if not reciprocally determined, for one's ultimate success. Limitations and implications of the findings for research and educational purposes were also discussed. |