Effects of performance attributions on others' perceptions of the attributor.

Two studies investigated the effects that performers' attributions actually have on others' impressions. 441 undergraduates served as Ss. "Self-serving" internal attributions for success and external attributions for failure produced slightly higher ability evaluations than did the opposite pattern in 1 of the 2 experiments. However, in both experiments, these self-serving attributions produced lower ratings on a modesty dimension. External attributions were also perceived as relatively dishonest for all Ss in Exp I and for unsuccessful Ss in Exp II. Publicity (Exp I) and task variables (Exp II) did not affect ability, modesty, or honesty judgments made from performance attributions but did strongly affect the influence these dimensions had on overall likability evaluations. In general, Ss who made internal attributions tended to be better liked than those who made external attributions. The implications and limitations of these results are discussed relative to self-presentational considerations. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's attributions for failure and success in different aspects of reading.

Investigated the attributions of 82 3rd graders and 82 6th graders for their success and failure in different reading situations with an extended set of causes (as a function of age and achievement differences). Ss were split into good and poor readers on the basis of a median split on the Reading Comprehension subtest of the California Test of Basic Skills. Ss reading achievement was then assessed in 2 reading situations (evaluation of reading performance and reading for meaning). Ss were asked to rate the degree to which each of 6 causes (ability, paying attention, studying, luck, task difficulty, and assistance from others) was responsible for their success or failure. Findings show that 6th graders' locus of control scores varied across situations, while 3rd graders' scores did not. Studying and paying attention were salient to Ss as causes. Age and achievement interacted, with low-achieving 3rd graders giving higher ratings to causes more clearly beyond their control than high-achieving 3rd graders, whereas low- and high-achieving 6th graders did not differ. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect as a determinant of egotism: Residual excitation and performance attributions.

Investigated the influence of outcome-related affect on subsequent causal attributions. After working on a social skills test, 66 male college students engaged in physical exercise. Ss were given success or failure feedback on the test 1, 5, or 9 min after the exercise. Excitation transfer theory suggests that the residual arousal from the exercise in the 5-min condition would elevate the positive and negative affective states elicited by success–failure feedback. Thus, increased attributional egotism in the 5-min condition was predicted. Findings show that Ss preferred internal factors to explain success, whereas external factors were blamed for failure. Ego-defensive attributions following failure and ego-enhancing attributions following success were more pronounced in the 5-min condition than in the other conditions. Results support the idea that outcome-related affect mediates egotistical performance attributions. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attributions of learning disabled children: Individual differences and their implications for persistence.

It has been shown that learning disabled (LD) children are likely to develop a maladaptive pattern of causal attributions. However, it is unclear whether LD children are more likely to differ from their peers in terms of a greater tendency to attribute their difficulties to insufficient ability or in terms of a greater tendency to blame external factors. The authors investigated this issue in 24 LD boys and 14 LD girls in Grades 3–5 and in 38 age-, sex-, race-, and IQ-matched normal controls. Ss were asked to complete scales assessing attributions for academic difficulties; 2 wks later, Ss were presented with a reading task for which persistence was measured. It was found that LD girls were significantly more likely than nondisabled girls to attribute their difficulties to insufficient ability, but girls did not differ in their tendency to attribute their difficulties to external factors. In contrast, LD boys were significantly more likely than nondisabled boys to attribute their difficulties to external factors, but they did not differ from nondisabled boys in their tendency to attribute their difficulties to insufficient ability. Although the tendency to blame one's ability was negatively related to reading task persistence, the tendency to attribute one's difficulties to external factors did not show this negative relation. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in learned helplessness: IV. An experimental and naturalistic study of failure generalization and its mediators.

Tested the hypothesis that attributions for failure can mediate the generalization of failure effects across situations: When perceived causal factors remain present in otherwise novel situations, failure effects should transfer; when perceived causal factors are removed, failure effects should be attenuated. Specifically, it was predicted that sex differences in attributions would result in differential transfer to novel situations, with boys showing greater recovery of success expectancies when the evaluator changes, but girls showing greater recovery of success when the ability areas change. Two studies are reported: one a field study (40 female and 40 male 5th graders) examining changes in expectancy of academic success over the school year, and the other a laboratory analog (171 female and 143 male 4th–6th graders) examining directly the effects of evaluator and task change. Results provide strong support for the hypothesis and suggest an explanation for sex differences in long-term academic achievement. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attributions of learning-disabled children: Developmental patterns and relation to academic progress.

The relation of school-identified learning-disabled (LD) children's achievement attributions to their academic progress and an examination of developmental patterns of their attributional styles were investigated in these longitudinal studies. Attributions were measured with two scales on which children attributed hypothetical academic failure situations to causes that varied on dimensions of locus, stability, and controllability. Academic progress was indexed by changes in achievement test scores over a 2-year span and by teachers' ratings of students' success and classroom behavior. In accordance with Weiner's theory of achievement motivation, LD children who attributed failures to variant, controllable causes made the greatest achievement gains and were rated by teachers as exhibiting the most appropriate classroom behavior. Comparison of developmental patterns of attributions between LD and nondisabled children did not support the hypothesis that LD children enter a self-perpetuating failure cycle; nor were previously reported findings of sex differences within the LD group replicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations among children's social goals, implicit personality theories, and responses to social failure.

Two studies examined children's thought patterns in relation to their responses to social challenge. In Study 1, 4th and 5th graders tried out for a pen pal club under either a performance goal (stressing the evaluative nature of the tryout) or a learning goal (emphasizing the potential learning opportunities). In their behavior and attributions following rejection, children who were focused on a performance goal reacted with more helplessness, whereas children given a learning goal displayed a more mastery-oriented response. Study 2 found that in response to hypothetical socially challenging situations, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who believed personality was nonmalleable (entity theorists) vs. malleable (incremental theorists) were more likely to endorse performance goals. Together, these studies indicate that children's goals in social situations are associated with their responses to social failure and are predicted by their implicit theories about their personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A self-presentation approach to the fundamental attribution error: The norm of internality.

Three studies assessed the validity of the assumption of a general norm placing greater value on internal explanations for behavior than on external explanations (determined by Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale). Study 1 with 117 undergraduates demonstrated that Ss who expressed internal causal attributions received more social approval than those who expressed external ones. Study 2, in which 18 Ss rated themselves as giving more internal explanations for events than average others do, also demonstrated the greater positive value associated with internal attributions. In Study 3, 25 Ss given the injunction to create a positive impression described themselves as having a stronger bias toward internal attributions than did 24 Ss given the injunction to create a negative impression. The implications of the norm for internality are discussed and outlined for the actor–observer effect and for social psychological theories. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attributions, expectations, and task performance.

College students' performance on each of 2 chemistry tests (n?=?253 on the 1st test and 233 on the 2nd test) was classified as a success (or failure) if it met (or failed to meet) a minimum criterion of success that each S set prior to taking each test. Using a paired-comparison technique, Ss attributed their performance on each test to ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty. Among Ss who succeeded on the tests, expected and actual future performance were positively related to attributions to high ability and negatively related to attributions to good luck. Among Ss who experienced failure, expected performance was positively related to attributions to low effort and negatively related to attributions to low ability. Results of these analyses are related to D. T. Hall's (1976) model of psychological success. In addition, although expectations were strongly related to subsequent performance, the relationship was substantially weakened when prior performance and ability attributions were held constant. The implications of this finding for understanding expectancy perceptions are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in learned helplessness: II. The contingencies of evaluative feedback in the classroom and III. An experimental analysis.

Girls show greater evidence than boys of learned helplessness in achievement situations with adult (but not peer) evaluators: They attribute their failures to lack of ability rather than motivation and thus show impaired performance under failure. Two studies are reported linking sex differences in attributions to adults' use of evaluative feedback. Study 1, with 52 4th graders and 27 5th graders, revealed that both the contingencies of feedback in classrooms and the attributions made by teachers were ones that would render negative evaluation more indicative of ability for girls than boys. For example, negative evaluation of girls' performance referred almost exclusively to intellectual inadequacies, whereas 45% of boys' work-related criticism referred to nonintellectual aspects. Moreover, teachers attributed the boys' failures to lack of motivation significantly more than they did the girls' failures. In Study 2, with 60 5th graders, teacher–boy and teacher–girl contingencies of work-related criticism observed in classrooms were programmed in an experimental situation. Both boys and girls receiving the teacher–girl contingency were more likely to view subsequent failure feedback from that evaluator as indicative of their ability. Implications for developmental theories and for development are addressed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of control and mastery in a reformatory: A field study of defensive externality.

145 males (mean age 21.9 yrs) enrolled in an incentive-based reformatory were administered Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control (LOC) Scale, Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and several measures of expectancy/importance of success and failure. After success or failure at mastery attempts, Ss made causal attributions derived from both J. B. Rotter's (1966) and B. Weiner's (1972) theories. Results show that internal LOC inmates, relative to externals, demonstrated greater mastery and attributed more responsibility to themselves for success, even with social desirability controlled. Defensive externality hypotheses involving both major moderators of LOC, interpersonal trust and action taking, as well as 4 proposed aspects of defensive externality were not supported. Contrary to predictions, trust-defensive externals made more internal nondefensive attributions after failure than trust-congruent externals did. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lateral preference patterns as a discriminator of learning difficulties.

In Study 1, the lateral preference patterns for 246 normal and 108 learning-disabled (LD) children (8.3–12.7 yrs) were compared using factors of the Dean Laterality Preference Schedule. Results indicate that although Ss did not differ in their patterns for peripheral activities across factors, LD Ss were significantly more bilateral on factors involving visually guided fine motor activity, listening, and fine motor foot preference. Further analysis showed that one significant discriminant function correctly predicted the group placement of some 71% of the Ss. Findings are interpreted as supporting a hypothesis of less coherent lateralized cerebral systems for many LD children. Study 2 examined the verbal—spatial abilities of 78 LD 5th graders classified as normal or mixed in their preference patterns using the discriminant function derived in Study 1. Results indicate that whereas Ss of mixed dominance for peripheral activities were deficient in spatial abilities, they were verbally more adept than normally lateralized LD Ss. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational and performance deficits in interpersonal settings: The effect of attributional style.

Tested an attributional model of motivation and performance following failure. 63 college students were preselected on the basis of their attributional styles for interpersonal failures, as measured by the Attributional Style Assessment Test. Ss in the 2 preselected groups (character-style vs behavioral-style attributors) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental manipulations of attributions for failure at an interpersonal persuasion task: (a) no manipulation, (b) ability/trait manipulation (which parallels the character-style), or (c) strategy/effort manipulation (which parallels the behavior style). Subsequently, Ss engaged in a blood drive task over the telephone, trying to persuade other students to donate blood. Success expectancies, motivation, and actual performance were assessed. As predicted, Ss who made strategy-/effort-type attributions, whether by experimental manipulation or by preselection, expected more success, expected more improvement with practice, displayed higher levels of motivation, and performed better at the task than did Ss who made ability-/trait-type attributions. Implications for the treatment of such clinical symptoms as loneliness and depression are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and preference for self-focusing stimuli after success and failure.

Hypothesized that depressives, unlike nondepressives, do not find self-focus more aversive after failure than after success, and thus either (a) show no differential preference for self-focusing stimuli after success vs after failure (weak hypothesis) or (b) prefer self-focusing stimuli after failure over self-focusing stimuli after success (strong hypothesis). 36 female and 20 male undergraduate students, selected on the basis of their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, were randomly assigned to outcome conditions in a 2?×?2 (nondepressed vs depressed?×?success vs failure) factorial design. Ss succeeded or failed on a supposed test of verbal intelligence and then worked on 2 sets of puzzles, 1 in the presence and 1 in the absence of a self-focusing stimulus (mirror). Results indicate that, whereas nondepressed Ss liked the mirror-associated puzzle more after success than after failure, depressed Ss did not; depressed Ss tended to like the mirror-associated puzzle more after failure than after success. Nondepressed Ss also exhibited a self-serving pattern of attributions, viewing the test as less valid and luck as more responsible for their performance after failure than after success; depressed Ss showed no such differences. Consistent with their failure to use defensive strategies, depressed Ss showed a decrease in self-esteem after failure; nondepressed Ss showed no such change. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attributions, causal dimensions, and affective reactions to success and failure.

Evaluated, in 2 studies, which of 3 theoretical models best describes the interrelations of causal attributions, causal dimensions, and affective reactions to success and failure. Study 1 used an experimental methodology requiring 99 undergraduates to imagine themselves in different achievement situations, whereas Study 2 involved the investigation of the affective reactions of 161 undergraduates to performance on a midterm examination. Results indicate that causal attributions and causal dimensions had joint and independent effects on affective reactions to success and failure. Implications for a theoretical model of the relation between attribution processes and affect are discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectations, aspirations, and evaluations as influenced by another's attributions for success and failure.

A study with 80 male and female students aged 16–18 yrs examined the effects of another's attributions for performance on one's own expectations, aspirations, and evaluations of performance. Ss witnessed an other (O) who had attributed his (or her) performance (successful or unsuccessful) on an anagram task to luck, task ease or difficulty, effort, or ability. When O had succeeded, Ss expected to perform best if O had attributed his success to the task (rather than to luck, effort, or ability); when O had failed, Ss expected to perform worst when O had attributed his failure to the task. In addition, Ss witnessing a successful O were more hopeful if O had made a task attribution, but Ss witnessing an unsuccessful O were more hopeful if O had made an effort attribution. Finally, Ss showed a tendency to attribute their own performance to the same cause to which O had attributed his own performance. Results are discussed in relation to the stability–instability and internal–external dimensions of causal attributions and to the need to perceive oneself as exercising effective control over the environment. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naturally acquired learned helplessness: The relationship of school failure to achievement behavior, attributions, and self-concept.

Monitored personality and behavioral consequences of learned helplessness in children who had experienced extensive failure in school. Controlling for sex, race, age, and IQ, 3 groups of 20 9–12 yr old males (failing, average, and remedial) performed an experimental task and responded to questionnaires on self-concept and attributions for success and failure. To compare the predictive quality of learned helplessness theory with that of value expectancy theories, Ss were assigned to 1 of 2 reinforcement conditions (prediction of academic success and this prediction plus monetary reward) on a maze task. As predicted by value expectancy theories, failing Ss were significantly more persistent in the monetary reward condition than in the prediction of academic success condition. In agreement with learned helplessness theory, low self-concept was predicted independently and significantly by school failure, internal attributions for failure, and external attributions for success. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postperformance attributions and task persistence among Type A and B individuals: A clarification.

Tested the hypothesis that Type A (coronary-prone) Ss would be more self-serving than Type B (noncoronary-prone) Ss in their attributions for success and failure. It was also hypothesized that task persistence would differ among Type A's and B's and would be dependent on task difficulty and perceived task diagnosticity. 78 undergraduates classified on the basis of scores on the Jenkins Activity Survey as Type A's and B's attempted multiple sets of anagrams that were either easy or difficult. Persistence was measured by the number of anagram sets attempted, and, after task performance, attributions for success and failure were assessed. Results support both hypotheses. Type A's took more credit for success than for failure, whereas Type B's did not provide reliably different attributions for success and failure. Furthermore, Type A's persisted longer at the task when it was difficult and when it was viewed as relatively low in information value. Type B's persisted longer at the task when it was difficult but viewed as relatively high in information value. Results are discussed in the context of current debates regarding the responses of Type A's and B's to performance settings. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)