GOAL SOURCE, GOAL DIFFICULTY, AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE VARIABLES AS PREDICTORS OF RESPONSES TO FAILURE

Abstract

S ummary . Three levels of goal difficulty (easy, moderate, difficulty) and three levels of goal source (i.e., self, other, self + other) were simultaneously examined along with two individual difference variables (i.e., mastery and failure tolerance) as predictors of responses to failure outcomes. College students majoring in education studied and gave opinions on a teacher‐training activity as well as on a particular student's failure experience with this activity. This experience was described nine different ways with each student receiving only one goal source by goal difficulty combination. The strongest predictors of responses to the described failure situation were the individual difference variables; least valuable as a single predictor was goal source. Responses to failure were most constructive among students with high failure tolerance or mastery who were exposed to failure under moderate and very difficult goals. Explanations for these results as they relate to goal‐setting theory and the theory of constructive failure as well as the educational implications of these results are discussed.