(Coley, 2002; Harmon et al., 1997; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). Research on a
broad spectrum of factors (e.g., school attendance, teaching, and parental ex-
pectations) has been offered to account for this so-called learning gap (Ste-
venson & Stigler, 1992). However, achievement motivation that directly links
individuals’ learning behavior to their achievement remains a key psychologi-
cal domain that continues to generate across-cultural research on learning.
Achievement motivation was originally defined in the West as a personal-
ity trait based on one’s sense of independence. Many non-Western cultures
(e.g., Latino, Indian, and Chinese) measured by this concept were once
claimed to lack achievement motivation (McClelland, 1961). However, re-
search since has challenged this initial claim (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-
Orozco, 1995). Whereas achievement motivation has extended into a very
large area of research, cross-cultural research, for the most part, has exam-
ined two essential aspects: (a) belief in ability versus effort and (b) intrinsic
versus extrinsic motivation.
With regard to the former, extensive research shows that Western learners
believe more in ability than effort because ability is viewed as a person’s in-
variant dispositional quality that underlines one’s learning and achievement
(Ruble, Eisenberg, Higgins, 1994; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992). When Western
learners are asked to explain their success and failure, they attribute these op-
posite outcomes differently: success to their ability and failure to lack of
effort or task difficulty. Moreover, while one’s ability is seen as a stable fac-
tor, one’s effort is regarded as unstable, fluctuating from situation to situa-
tion (Weiner, 1986). Finally, a consistent developmental trajectory of these
beliefs has emerged indicating that Western preschool children do not differ-
entiate ability and effort in influencing one’s performance of tasks (i.e. smart
people work hard, and hardworking people are smart). However, upon entry
into school, children develop the belief, through self-other perceptions in-
volved in social comparisons, that their ability determines their learning out-
come more than effort, especially for demanding tasks (Covington, 1992;
Nicholls, 1984, Ruble et al., 1994, Stipek & Mac Iver, 1989).
Cross-cultural research indicates that Asian learners hold the opposite be-
lief from Western learners. They believe more in effort than ability (Steven-
son & Stigler, 1992), even though Asian learners are, counter to popular
claims, also keenly aware of individual differences in intelligence.^1 There are
indeed few who endorse the idea that one’s ability is fixed (Hong, Chiu,
& Dweck, 1995). Even when they appeal to ability for interpreting their
achievement outcomes, ability, as previously noted, can have very different
- AMERICAN AND CHINESE LEARNERS 389
1 1 However, it is erroneous to assume that Asians do not recognize individual differences in
their natural ability such as memory, speed of information processing, and math ability, just be-
cause they believe more in effort. The difference appears to be the weight they attach to what de-
termines learning outcome (see Li, 2002a for more discussion on this point).