Self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to succeed in learning tasks, predicts learning and success in education broadly and physics specifically. While self-efficacy increases for students in most introductory science and mathematics courses, self-efficacy consistently decreases for women in physics courses. This study used the experience…

Using data on approximately 2,000 low-income welfare recipients in a three-site random-assignment intervention conducted in the early 1990s (the NEWWS), we examine the role of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in moderating experimental impacts of an adult education training program for women who lacked a high school degree or GED at the time of…

This study compared the outcome of external and internal scorers on the locus of control scale and considered the association between internal-external orientation and direct and nondirect marathon group therapy. The findings suggest that internals are better therapeutic risks than externals, regardless of a direct or nondirect therapist…

This study examines the relationship, in women, between the motive to avoid success and feelings of being controlled externally. The results suggest that achievement motivation is blocked or lowered by feelings of external control in the situation of arousal of achievement anxieties in young women. (Author/PC)

The potential for feelings of hopelessness and depression in the aged is well documented. Although studies have examined the role of perceived control in ameliorating depression in the institutionalized elderly, no research has actually measured the perceived causal attributions among depressed, hopeless and/or institutionalized elderly…

Explored the relationship between attribution of success and sex role orientation of women (N=114) in graduate school. Results indicated that, among achievement oriented college women, attributional style was related to sex role orientation. Women who were more traditional saw their reinforcers coming from family and social forces. (JAC)

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)

When faced with personal success, some persons appear to become anxious and will do something to avoid or sabotage their efforts. This fear of success among university students was investigated in this study. The sampling included 210 students, 83 males and 127 females. The independent variables under consideration were locus of control, gender,…

Subjects were four groups of 12 college women, high or low in motive to avoid success (MAS) and locus of control (LC), were reinforced for response A on a fixed partial reinforcement schedule on three concept learning tasks, one task consisting of combined reward and punishment, another of reward only, and one of punishment only. Response B was…

Efforts to understand mediating and maintaining factors associated with dysfunction of alcoholics have produced competing explanations and conflicting, overlapping constructs. To clarify the relationship between mental health and attributional patterns among women, the attributional patterns of alcoholic, depressed, and control females in response…

The pattern of changes in locus of control for college persisters and dropouts were examined over a three-year period, and differences between males and females were considered. Data on 6,608 students enrolled in four-year U.S. colleges were collected in 1973, 1974, and 1975. A repeated measures analysis of locus of control composite scores…