| Abstract: | Applied the attributional model of motivation of B. Weiner et al (1971) to the study of helping behavior and predicted that willingness to help another person is influenced by the cause of the need and that the relationship between attribution and helping is mediated by affect and expectancy of future need. 80 undergraduates rated the likelihood that they would lend money to an acquaintance in each of 8 conditions in which causality varied along 3 dimensions: stability, locus, and control. Ss also rated their emotional reactions on 25 affect scales, selected from the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List, and estimated the likelihood that the person would require aid again in the future. ANOVA revealed that willingness to help was influenced primarily by the controllability of the cause. Consistent with the mediation hypothesis, a path analysis revealed that the effect of controllability on helping judgments was largely an indirect result of its influence on Ss' affective reactions to the request. The development of an attributional model of helping behavior is discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
