Dispositional and situational predictors of coping with violated achievement expectations

Abstract

Most students experience expectation violations during their academic career, such as unexpected failed tests. However, contradictory evidence does not always result in expectation change (accommodation). Expectations often persist through stronger efforts to fulfil the expectation (assimilation) or ignoring the discrepancy (immunization). Our study addresses possible situational and dispositional predictors that may be decisive influences on the use of the three coping strategies. We conducted an experimental study with n = 439 students who experienced an expectation violation in an achievement test. Dispositional coping tendencies, valence of expectation violation, and the interaction of valence and degree of expectation violation were found to predict situational coping. Furthermore, higher need for cognitive closure predicted stronger accommodation, and a large degree of expectation violation predicted stronger immunization. Thus, our study provides initial evidence on which situational and dispositional factors predict coping with expectation violations in an educational context. Expectation violation in a performance context mainly resulted in stronger efforts to protect positive achievement expectations.

Expectations do not need to be accurate to be maintained: Valence and need for cognitive closure predict expectation update vs. persistence

“…Therefore, it seems reasonable that both predictors interact with each other in addition to their main effect on coping with expectation violations. Both predictors revealed significant but partly surprising results in a previous study (Henss and Pinquart, 2022) and will therefore be further explored in a similar study design. The following research questions were addressed: First, does a negative valence of expectation violation lead to stronger assimilation (similar to our previous study; Henss and Pinquart, 2022) as well as stronger immunization and weaker accommodation compared to positive valence of expectation violation?…”

“…Both predictors revealed significant but partly surprising results in a previous study (Henss and Pinquart, 2022) and will therefore be further explored in a similar study design. The following research questions were addressed: First, does a negative valence of expectation violation lead to stronger assimilation (similar to our previous study; Henss and Pinquart, 2022) as well as stronger immunization and weaker accommodation compared to positive valence of expectation violation? Second, does higher NCC predict stronger accommodation and assimilation (similar to the study by Henss and Pinquart, 2022) and stronger immunization (as found by Schrackmann and Oswald, 2014)?…”

“…The optimism bias is strongly dependent on motivational (motivation to maintain a positive and optimistic view of themselves; Sharot and Garrett, 2016) an asymmetric coping with better-than-expected versus worse-thanexpected feedback about educational achievements (Eil and Rao, 2011;Sharot and Garrett, 2016). Nevertheless, there were previous findings with limited evidence for asymmetric coping, because results indicated solely stronger assimilation after experiencing negative rather than positive expectation violations (Henss and Pinquart, 2022), but no differences in accommodation or immunization. Therefore, the influence of valence on coping with expectation violations should be further explored.…”

“…The following research questions were addressed: First, does a negative valence of expectation violation lead to stronger assimilation (similar to our previous study; Henss and Pinquart, 2022) as well as stronger immunization and weaker accommodation compared to positive valence of expectation violation? Second, does higher NCC predict stronger accommodation and assimilation (similar to the study by Henss and Pinquart, 2022) and stronger immunization (as found by Schrackmann and Oswald, 2014)? Third, do valence of expectation violation and NCC interact in predicting accommodation, assimilation, and immunization?…”

“…This seems to be particularly important for self-relevant characteristics, such as educational expectations. Whereas former studies showed a fairly clear set of findings in which higher NCC was associated with less accommodation or less accommodation-like tendencies (e.g., Dijksterhuis et al, 1996), more recent studies showed strongly context-dependent effects of NCC on coping (Kemmelmeier, 2015;Strojny et al, 2016;Henss and Pinquart, 2022). Higher trait levels may be associated with both stronger assimilation and stronger accommodation because both strategies may reduce uncertainty under some conditions.…”