The relation between motivational patterns and achievement cognitions through the elementary school years

Among children in fifth and higher grades, the helpless motivational pattern is associated with the idea that intelligence is a fixed entity. Cognitive concommitants of helplessness in younger children, however, are not well understood. To identify developmental relations between motivational patterns and cognitions about ability and achievement, 139 first, third, and fifth graders' beliefs about ability and achievement were assessed, as well as...