Over the past fifty years, extensive research has examined the influence of causal attributions on cognitions, emotions, and behaviours in educational contexts. However, these studies often relied on inferences about dimensional properties of attributions, and not on students' perceptions of them. This study innovates by directly assessing these…

This study aims to investigate Turkish EFL learners' attributions for success and failure in speaking English, and to find out whether gender and department variables exert any impact on their attributions. The attributions were analyzed and compared in terms of the four dimensions: locus of causality, external control, stability and personal…

This study examined the determinants of attributions for success or failure in stopping smoking in a self-help treatment program with and without a drug component. Subjects (N=137) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: (1) nicotine gum and a self-help manual with an intrinsic motivational orientation; (2) self-help manual…

Patterns of academic attributions, developed by 225 hearing impaired college students to explain success or failure, closely resembled those of hearing students. The internal factors of ability and effort received the strongest attributional ratings for success, whereas the external and unstable factor or luck received the weakest rating.…

This study directly examined gender differences in the perception of the dimensional properties of causal attributions using a non-academic setting. Participants were 77 employees (31 males, 46 females) of four local financial institutions in Oklahoma. Questionnaires presented a success or failure scenario within either an affiliation (compliment…

A previous study examined determinants of attributions for success or failure in stopping smoking in a self-help treatment program with and without a drug component. This follow-up study examined the attributions that successful quitters made after remaining abstinent through 12 months, or after they relapsed. Subjects (N=137) had been assigned to…

An investigation of the causal attributions of success and failure performances on various levels of task difficulty by 36 learning disabled and 36 nondisabled adolescents revealed that Ss' perceptions of the task difficulty levels were significant determinants of the two groups' differing causal attributions. (Author/CL)

Studies the effects of childhood achievement experiences as they might determine generalized internal-external control orientations (I-E). Analysis of I-E items revealed that those who performed poorly were most likely to attribute achievement experiences to luck. (Author)

This report presents the results of two experimental studies undertaken to investigate some of the differences in success and failure attributions made by actors and observers in an achievement situation. Causal attributions of a person actually experiencing a success or failure (the actor) and someone who read about the situation (the observer)…

Twenty-nine third and fourth grade learning disabled children's attributions for success and failure were examined. Results indicated that Ss did not always interpret successes as reflecting something positive about themselves. Nor did they view failure as something that could be overcome with effort. (Author/CL)

The effects of the actor-observer relationship (friendship or stranger) were tested to determine the attribution of responsibility for success or failure in a prisoner's dilemma game (PDG). Male subjects (N=80) participated, four subjects per experimental session. Two subjects competed in a non-zero sum, mixed-motive PDG while being observed by…

Explores whether or not systematic attributional differences between active and passive observers occurs similar to those that exist between actors and observers. (Author/RK)

Compared attributions of success and failure in achievement tasks of White and Asian American children. Found that Whites took personal credit for success and attributed failure to luck, while Asians attributed success to luck and took personal responsibility for failure. Discussed attributional patterns in terms of socialization. (Author/MK)

Using an open-ended questionnaire, 236 fifth- and sixth-grade pupils attributed their success or failure on a test given in their classroom to eight different causes. Results indicated that the pupils tended to attribute success mainly to external causes and failure mainly to internal causes. (JMB)

Two experiments demonstrated interactive effects between locus of control and expectancy confirmation-disconfirmation in determining attribution of failure. (Editor)