Dweck and Repucci (1973) report that students who were most likely to give up in light
of failure when compared to more persevering students took less personal responsibility
for their successes and failures and attributed outcomes of behavior to ability rather than
effort.  These students placed significantly less emphasis on the amount of effort exerted
as a determinant of success and failure than did more persevering students. Thus, if a
child believes his/her failure to be the result of his lack of ability, or the results of
external factors beyond control, they are unlikely to persist in their efforts.  However, if a
child believes failure to be a result of his/her lack of motivation, they are likely to
escalate efforts in an attempt to obtain the goal.  These students who give up in the face
of failure often exhibit behaviors of learned helplessness.  Dweck (1975) explains learned
helplessness as " the learning or perception of independence between one's behavior and
the presentation and/or withdrawal of aversive events" (p. 674).  Dweck & Reppucci
(1973) say that students with learnt helplessness tend to attribute failure to the influence
of external factors and ignore the role of motivation.  They exhibit a sense of
powerlessness to control outcomes from an event.  They feel that, regardless of effort, the
outcomes will remain the same.  Dweck & Reppucci (1973) discuss Weiner & Kukla's
(1970) study where it was found that students with low achievement motivation were
more likely to attribute failure to lack of ability than the high achievement motivated
students and that the high achievement motivation group attributed failure to personal
motivation more frequently than the low achievement-oriented group.