Students' motivational goals and beliefs about effort and ability as they relate to college academic success

The problem of predicting who will succeed in college is currently of critical importance during an era of spiraling costs and declining enrollments and resources. Previous research has focused on academic factors such as high school grades and/or college entrance exam scores. There is a dearth of studies, however, examining psychological processes as predictors of students' participation and satisfaction, which are both indices of college success. One hundred twenty-five college freshmen at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University participated in a study designed to examine psychological processes underlying college academic success. The results indicated that students' rules of reasoning about effort and ability, their motivational goals, and their confidence in their intelligence and strongly related to students' types of participation in the college experience and their level of satisfaction. These relationships and their implications are examined carefully and suggestions for adminstrators and academicians in higher education are offered.