Reports on a study designed to assess whether attributions or causality of success and failure would vary as a function of sex role attitudes. Indicates that sex-typed notions about competence may still be deeply ingrained despite recent social changes. (Author/MK)

The study utilized written descriptions of sexual activity between an adult and a child to examine the impact of victim sex, perpetrator sex, respondent sex, and victim response (i.e., encouraging, passive, resisting) on the attribution of responsibility to the child and the adult perpetrator. Undergraduates (N=360) rated the vignettes. (Author/DB)

Investigations of the reformulated learned helplessness model of depression have produced conflicting results. To contrast the attributional responses of clinically depressed men and women, data were collected from 117 psychotherapy clinic outpatients. An expanded version of the Attribution Style Questionnaire was administered. Forty people…

A male epileptic, male nonepileptic, female epileptic, or female nonepileptic job candidate was evaluated for either an auto sales or receptionist job by 112 university students in personnel or behavioral science courses. The female epileptic and the male nonepileptic candidates had significantly higher probabilities of being hired than the other…

Examined the attributions made about males and females who have children, remain childless by choice, or who are involuntarily childless. Multidimensional scaling of the similarity judgments revealed two dimensions: the first related to likability, being loving, devoted, and emotionally mature; the other differentiated among fertility-status…

Reviews the status of research on sex differences in causal attribution for success and failure. Suggests that the literature on sex differences in attributions is characterized by inconsistencies and has not yet fulfilled its promise as the key to understanding differential achievement in men and women. (Author/GC)

Examined extent to which offender's, victim's, and counselor's gender were related to 111 counselors' attributions about and attitudes toward cases of incest. Found no significant differences as function of either victim or offender gender. Female counselors had broader definitions of incest than did male counselors and were less likely to view…

Tests the hypothesis that individuals are more likely to view their own behavior as caused by the situation and the behavior of others as caused by underlying personality dispositions. Subjects were 100 undergraduate students. (MP)

The relation between past history of outcomes and achievement expectancies was examined for 72 elementary school students. (JMB)

Explored whether and to what degree differences between actor and observer were likely to occur in the mutual attributions of 40 married couples regarding the causes of each other's behavior. Results revealed that married couples exhibited mutual idealizing tendencies in both their perceptions and causal attributions. (Author/ABB)

Employing the multidimensional scaling of similarities data, studied person perception in five adult-aged groups of both male and female respondents. Identified three basic attributes: perceived age, perceived gender, and perceived autonomy. Discerned several generalizable trends for the attributes of perceived age and perceived autonomy.…

Investigated interrelationships between perceived causes of divorce in a sample of 275 males and 336 females. Seven dimensions of divorce, underlying 18 possible contributing causes, were revealed. Significant differences were found between the sexes both in frequencies with which causes were identified and in composition of the seven factors.…

Examined the relationship between the attributions and action plans formulated by untrained students role playing peer counselors for same-sex or opposite-sex students who failed. Results revealed significantly higher attributions to internal factors for all stimulus persons, and higher attributions to controllable as opposed to uncontrollable…

Presents a causal explanation predicting kinship ties involving division of labor and the usefulness of kin. Data on white households in the Public Use Sample of the 1900 U.S. Census confirmed that wife's parents would be more common in nonfarm households, while husband's parents would predominate in farm households. (JAC)

Sex differences in "rape stereotypes" were investigated. Males' subjective impressions of rape emphasized the aggressive rather than the sexual motive; females did not differentiate. The stereotype of a sexually motivated rape was well organized for females. No organization was found when an aggressive motive was assumed. (Author)