Affective reactions of retarded and nonretarded children to success and failure.

After performing a simple motor task, 208 mildly retarded and nonretarded girls and boys pointed to photographs of modeled affective facial expressions to indicate how they felt, wished to feel, and thought their teachers would feel about their performance. Children in both IQ groups frequently attributed positive affect to themselves and their teachers after success, although younger retarded children were less positive than were nonretarded children in teacher affect attributions. Following failure, retarded subjects were generally less frequently negative than were nonretarded subjects in affect attributions to themselves and particularly to their teachers. Emphasis on success and minimization of failure in classrooms for retarded children was offered as one possible explanation for the IQ group affect differences following failure.