Cultural differences may account for the social networks and support cohorts that are created due to culture. Is there a way to categorize the cultures based on the region or native dialect of the group being studied.  

Dear Jianzhong Xu,

To a very great extent our language is a product of our culture. It is often suggested that one of the major factors responsible for language differences is the perception process. In explaining "the wheel of experience", Charles Sanders Pierce presents a tripartite framework consisting of instinct, experience, and habits.Instinctively, all humans are ready to interact with the environment in order to experience life and discover the rules of living (habits). However, the promptitude for action is different across different cultures. The issue makes people from different cultures have various self-concepts. As such, learners' perception of the self would make them unique in terms of achievements. This means that the full range of abilities exploited sometimes cannot be actualized because the required efforts cannot be triggered due to the learners' self-concept. For more information, I refer you to the following links which I hope are beneficial.

Best regards,

R. Biria

https://study.com/.../self-efficacy-vs-self-concept-differences-effects-on-outcome-expectatio...

https://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/garp/articles/eccles96o.pdf

https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/chapter/2-3-perceiving-and-presenting-self/

Thank you all for your comments/suggestions!

In a longitudinal study with students in Germany, Marsh et al. (2016) found that  the effects of prior effort on subsequent self-concept were negative for low self-concept students but increasingly more positive (or less negative) for students with more positive self-concept..  In my current project with Chinese students, the effects of prior effort on subsequent effort were more strong or apparent for low self-concept students, but increasingly less so for students with high self-concept.  Other possible explanations (i.e., in addition to the issue relating to effort vs. ability)?

Marsh, H. W., Pekrun, R., Lichtenfeld, S., Guo, J., Arens, A. K., & Murayama, K. (2016). Breaking the double-edged sword of effort/trying hard: Developmental equilibrium and longitudinal relations among effort, achievement, and academic self-concept. Developmental psychology, 52(8), 1273-1290.

Jianzhong Xu, I can see a cultural effect. Perhaps the culture of the Chinese students is such that they link external perception of their effort to their worth. This is not often the case in Australia and so the link between prior effort and achievement and subsequent effort will be different.

A very interesting point!