Locus of Control and Effects of Failure on Performance and Perceived Competence

Abstract

Reactions to ego related performance feedback of 117 internal and external eighth-grade children were investigated under conditions which made denial of personal responsibility for outcomes difficult. Both internals and externals were equally pleased by success feedback and displeased by failure and their competence judgment was influenced by the feedback received. However, internals exhibited more effective coping with failure than did externals. They improved their performance following failure feedback relatively more than after success and no external feedback conditions, and their perceived competence did not decrease in comparison with externals.