Beschreibung:
<p>This article examines the myth of motivational differences in Black and White children's achievement within a post-positivist paradigm aimed at deconstructing existing explanations rather than posing alternative ones. Two replications were conducted of an earlier study that substantiated a cognitive-developmental theory of motivational deficit in Blacks. In the first, the achievement task was varied as per the earlier experiment, and racial differences in apparent motivation were found to be consonant with the patterns reported; in the second, the task was systematically controlled across age, sex, and race substrata for interest value, and racial differences disappeared. The implications for theories of motivation and for the methodological integrity of myth-substantiating research on Black-White achievement and potential are discussed.</p>