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74 CHAPTER 3Covington’s Self-Worth Theory. Self-worth is an individual’s evaluative
appraisal of him- or herself. It is similar to such terms as self-esteem
or self-respect. According to self-worth theory (Covington, 1992),
individuals learn that society values people because of their accom-
plishments. If a person fails at a task, the feedback evokes the possi-
bility of a lack of ability and creates feelings of unworthiness and self-
rejection. As a result, when individuals are faced with the possibility
of failure, they will avoid the situation or develop strategies to pro-
tect any inferences to a lack of their ability. Covington (1992) identi-
fied a number of these strategies:- Procrastination: If an individual studies at the last minute and
does not have enough time to properly prepare for an exam,
failure cannot be attributed to lack of ability. - Unattainable goals: If an individual selects very difficult goals,
failure is often assured. However, failure in such tasks reveals
little about one’s ability because most individuals would fail. - Underachievers: If an individual avoids any test of his or her
ability by just doing the minimum to get by, he or she can main-
tain an inflated opinion of ability: “I could do it if I really
tried.” - Anxiety: If an individual argues that one’s poor performance is
the result of test-taking anxiety, then one can’t blame the per-
formance as the result of low ability. In other words, “It’s better
to appear anxious than stupid” (p. 88 ).
Examination of the role of effort from both the instructors’ and
students’ perspectives reveals that, in some cases, both instructors and
students operate at cross purposes. Although instructors highly value
achievement, they often reward (or criticize) some students more than
others for exactly the same level of performance. Students who are
perceived as having expended effort (regardless of their ability) tend
to be rewarded more and criticized less than students who do not try
(Wiener & Kukla, 1970).
Instructors like students who try. Do you feel worse about a
grade on a test or paper when you have worked hard or when you
exhibited little effort? Educational research indicates that students
experienced greatest shame with a combination of high effort and
failure and least shame with a combination of low effort and fail-
ure (Covington & Omelich, 1979). This research helps explain why
failure-avoiding students often do not try. Expending effort and still
failing poses a serious threat to one’s self-esteem. The student who
does not try but fails can always rationalize that success could have
been achieved through proper effort, thus maintaining a reasonable
level of self-esteem. Instructors, however, tend to reinforce students