This study examined teachers' attributions and emotions for their subjectively perceived interpersonal relationships with their students as positive or negative, and whether hope (pathways thinking, agency thinking) influences the perceived positive or negative interpersonal relationships, the subsequent attributions and emotions, and the impact…

Two types of bias in the attribution process are the responsibility bias, in which individuals tend to assume more than their objective share of responsibility, and unrealistic optimism, in which individuals tend to assume that future outcomes will be positive. In order to investigate these self-serving biases among married and divorced…

Two experiments investigated the relationship between the magnitude of motivation for control over the environment and tendency to derogate victims. Manipulated situational controllability and uncontrollability within a learned helplessness procedure and assessed derogation of a victimized stranger. Results indicated that motivation and need for…

Research has shown that attributing failure to lack of ability leads to lower motivation than does attributing the failure to lack of effort. An attributional model of motivation and performance following failure was tested with college students (N=63), who were preselected on the basis of their attributional styles for interpersonal failures, as…

The Internal-External (I-E) Locus of Control scale (Rotter, 1966) was administered to 185 male and 185 female university students. The resulting scores were factored, producing two factors for males and four for females. The male factors were the generally-accepted "luck" and "powerful others"; for women, however, the "powerful others" dimension…

Studied the determinants of attributional modesty in women. Women tend to make modest attributions for success when concerned about how others would evaluate them and when concerned about their self-image. Self-derogatory attributions for failure occur when the subjects thought their attributions would be public. (Author/JAC)

Two laboratory studies examined self- and socially caused behavior. Found that subjects who preferred socially caused behavior were more likely to choose spontaneous interactions with strangers (Study 1) and were more accurate in assessing their own influence over behavior of others in self-disclosure task (Study 2) than were those who preferred…

Results of a pilot study on the role of the family in the development of locus of control convictions and causal attribution tendencies are presented. Six mother-child dyads were observed in their natural surroundings. Mothers' verbal responses to their daughters' behavior were recorded and analyzed for content. Results showed (1) that causal…

The goals of this study were to replicate the findings produced in a previous conversation simulation study, to examine the conditions whereby persons attribute blame, and to extend the methodology employed in simulation game study. Conversations were simulated by a two-person game in which subjects (46 undergraduate students) were provided a deck…

Socio-psychological research concerning the relationship between attributions and coping with negative events unrelated to marriage suggests two constructs, blame and perceived control, which may influence conflict resolution in marriage. Married women (N=32) were interviewed in an investigation of attributions of control and blame for marital…

Interpersonal power has been defined as the ability of an agent to alter the behavior of a target through means-control, attractiveness, and credibility. To identify and delineate situations of influence in personal relationships, undergraduate students either wrote influence descriptions (N=96), made similarity judgments on the original 96…

Examined the help-seeking behaviors of college students needing assistance with personal problems. Using attribution theory and the learned helplessness paradigm, found that race and sex differences but not causal attribution (seeing problems as caused by internal or external factors) were related to seeking out assistance. Discusses the recurrent…

This study, conducted at a major western Canadian university, examined the relation between the academic growth and development of dental students and perceived control, a personalogical variable; and academic and social institutional integration variables. Two questionnaires with an academic focus were administered to 67 students. The theoretical…

A set of prevalent emotions, including pity, anger, guilt, pride (self-esteem), gratitude, and resignation, shares a common characteristic, i.e., causal attributions appear to be sufficient antecedents for their elicitation. Research in the field of emotions has shown that the underlying properties or dimensions of attributions are the significant…

Presents a study extending a model of leadership response based on attribution theories to include measures of locus of control and situational control. Describes a procedure by which subjects responded to descriptions of subordinate performance. Concludes that supervisors with an external locus of control were less sensitive to subordinate…