The effect of problem difficulty, locus of control, and sex on task persistence

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of problem difficulty, instructional set, locus of control, and sex of S on time expended by college students to solve a puzzle. Three groups of college students (N = 120), each equated for test scores on internal and external locus of control and for sex, were divided as follows: the members of one (n = 40) were told that the problem they were being asked to solve would be difficult; the members of a second were told the problem would be easy; and the members of a third were given no instructions on the difficulty of the problem. The task of the Ss was to form a pattern from a set of small plastic shapes; however, the problem was actually unsolvable. The response measure was the length of time the Ss chose to devote to solving the problem. The results revealed that the Ss in the high difficulty group devoted more time to the task than the Ss in the low difficulty (p less than .06) and control conditions (p less than .05). All other effects were nonsignificant. The results suggested that the Ss in the high-difficulty group perceived their failure to solve the problem to be less of a threat to their self-esteem than did the Ss in the other groups, and as a result devoted more time to the task.