When 15-year-old Valerie discovers that she earned an A on last ...

[Mr. Wonderful]

When 15-year-old Valerie discovers that she earned an A on last week's assignment, she expresses pride to her teacher and explains that she worked very hard on it. On the way home from school, however, she tells her friends that she didn't put much effort into the project at all and so is quite surprised about her high grade. From the perspective of research on attributions and image management, how can we best explain Valerie's conflicting statements?
 
  a. She suspects that her friends have performance goals rather than mastery goals, and she is trying to go along with the crowd.
  b. She knows that her teacher is more likely than her friends to have an entity view of intelligence, and she tailors her explanations accordingly.
  c. She knows that her teacher values hard work but that her friends do not, and she tailors her explanations accordingly.
  d. Her social goals are taking precedence over her achievement goals on both occasions.

Question 2

Mark and Meg are two eighth-grade students who have just failed a math test. Considering gender differences in students' explanations for failure, how are the two students likely to explain their poor test performance?
 
  a. Mark will think he failed because he just can't do math. Meg will think, I got an F because I didn't work hard enough on this subjectI could have studied more.
  b. Mark will attribute his failure to a lack of effort, thinking, I didn't study very hard because I don't care about getting good grades. Meg will think, I'm just not very good at math.
  c. Mark will think that he isn't very lucky when it comes to tests, and Meg will think that she failed because she didn't have friends that could help her study.
  d. Mark will think, I got an F because I'm not smart enough to do this math. Meg will think, I failed because the teacher hates me and the test wasn't fair.

[jlaineee]

Answer to Question 1

c

Answer to Question 2

b