Experiments investigate hypothesis that vulnerable self-esteem internals and externals react more defensively to negative intellectual and personality feedback than congruent internals and externals. Suggested that consistently internal view of causation may increase stress in evaluative situations. Discusses implications for understanding…

Tested and extended Deaux's expectancy model of sex-linked differences in attribution for success. Finding's indicated that female occupational subjects, relative to males, tended to attribute success more to unstable causes of effort and luck. Male subjects attributed success more to the stable causes of ability and task ease. (Author/RC)

Internal locus of control and positive outcome subjects attributed responsibility for their test results to internal factors, while external and negative outcome subjects tended toward external causations. Ability and luck components were rated in accord with the Weiner model classification, but the effort and task components were not. (Author/SJL)

Causal attributions of a person actually experiencing a success or failure (the actor) and someone who read about the situation (the observer) were compared. Results supported Jones and Nisbett (1971). (Editor)