Attribution theory is concerned with why outcomes occur such as "Why did I fail the exam?" or "Why are they picking on me?" (Weiner, 1986, 2018; see Graham, 2020 for a review). Although this article focuses on achievement, attributions are relevant to the social as well as the achievement domain. Both questions concern failure…

This paper looks at current research into how thinking influences learning. How people explain to themselves "why" they fail and succeed inevitably impacts on how well they learn new skills. Researchers have been developing attribution retraining programmes targeted at improving student academic achievement and learning experience…

Student attrition from colleges in the United States is a widespread phenomenon, posing real stresses to students, their families, and to universities. We examined the causes of poor academic performance in students' first semester through interviews and questionnaires and administered a small intervention course to freshmen on academic probation…

The history of ideas guiding the development of an attribution-based theory of motivation is presented. These influences include the search for a "grand" theory of motivation (from drive and expectancy/value theory), an attempt to represent how the past may influence the present and the future (as Thorndike accomplished), and the…

Failing a course is an acutely negative event for first-year university students, and a major contributor to high attrition rates at North American universities. Despite its prevalence, course failure receives relatively little research attention. What can be done to reduce course failure and help first-year students remain in university? This…

While college art instructors strive to respond to the current generation of students, educational psychologists stress the importance of teachers' focusing on students' cognitive-affective makeup in addition to conveying course content. Attribution theory--and more specifically, student perceptions of control over academic outcomes--can serve to…

Results indicated that effectiveness of attribution therapy depended on the timing of the intervention and the locus of control orientation of the participant. Internals evidenced greater self-acceptance when intervention occurred prior to negative evaluation. Externals' ratings of self-evaluation were not influenced. (Author/BEF)

Parents' attributions of the jigsaw-puzzle performance of their child with Prader-Willi syndrome (n = 20) or Williams syndrome (n = 21) were examined. Parents in both groups placed more importance on internal versus external attributions. Parents of children with Prader-Willi syndrome exhibited a hedonic bias by attributing their child's success…

Child care workers may derogate youth in order to restore their own sense of justice and may do so only when they feel organizationally and personally unable to help the youth. The relationship between child care workers' sense of power (both in their agencies and to help youth) and their perceptions of the youth was examined for a sample of 171…