Effort justification and academic achievement: or why you should work your way through school

When an individual is required to put forth a high level of effort the goal to which he or she is working becomes more attractive. This is known as effort justification. Thirty-six introductory psychology students worked on a clerical task which required either a low, medium or high level of effort. Next, all subjects were given some information to study. Finally, the subjects were tested on the information they were asked to study. It was hypothesized that individuals in the high effort condition would perform better on the test. The high effort group did score higher than the low effort group. The results of this study will be discussed with reference to past research of the academic achievement of working students.