| This study was directed toward understanding the experience of nine gifted high school students considered at the time to be underachievers. Three distinct justifications of their underachievement became apparent in the light of a grounded theory analysis of unstructured interviews with these students. These justifications were understood to entail that the students saw themselves as mainly either helpless, carefree, or superior. Attention is also given to how these motivational states were manifested in a number of contexts of scholastic life, namely, the classroom, homework, extracurricular activities, and thinking about their future. It is described how their attitudes and behaviours in one context influenced how these students approached each other context, eventuating in a coherent process of underachievement. Implications for stakeholders in underachievement are considered. |
