Argues that attributional bias research is applicable to foreign-language communication. Shows that communicating in a foreign language can lead to changes in perceptions of motivation, foreign-language ability, and familiarity with the subject being communicated. (SR)

Three predictions are supported by experiments with 17 autistic children, aged 9-19: autistic children will fail to distinguish mental and physical entities, they will be unaware of the mental function of the brain, and they will be unable to contemplate their own mental states. Results suggest that these deficiencies are autism-specific.…

A study showed that 5- to 15-year-old children first employed Heider's commission rule, then his intentionality rule, and finally the foreseeability rule at about 11 years of age. Results suggest that both the Heider and Piaget attribution research traditions were correct in part. (RH)

States that although crisis management has evolved rapidly in the past decade, the symbolic aspect of crisis management has been ignored. Indicates little research has been done to examine the effects of crisis-response strategies to see how they shape public opinion. Presents a list of guidelines for appropriate use of a given strategy (based on…

Examined the effects of age and aggressive status on children's understanding and use of excuses. Found links between perceived responsibility, anticipated anger, and excuse giving that were stronger among older boys than younger boys, and stronger among aggressive boys than nonaggressive boys. (ET)

Investigated whether attributions of opiate addicts would predict abstinence and reactions to abstinence violations. Found that addicts who at admission attributed to themselves greater responsibility for negative outcomes and who attributed relapse episodes to more personally controllable factors were subsequently more likely either to be…

Presents an interpretive theory assigning all text to "Linguistic Worlds" (LWs). Shows how a special deictic LW (needed for default attribution to the speaker and useful for describing parentheticals, evaluative adjectives, and epitheticals) gives the capacity to characterize shifts in point of view accompanying the indirect first-person speech of…

Undergraduates (n=198), separated by self-reported virginity status, completed Russell's Causal Dimension Scale and Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale. Results indicated variety of statistically significant virginity status and gender differences in causal attributions made about virginity and sexual choices. Self-monitoring was not significant…

Investigated female single-parent college students' attributions of academic success. Findings from 28 single-parent students indicated that more successful students made different causal attributions for grade point average than did less successful ones. Compared to less successful counterparts, academically successful students less frequently…

Fifty-two subjects competed on a task against themselves, a difficult competitor, and an easy competitor. Certainty, ability attribution, and task satisfaction for those with low self-esteem were affected by perceived goal difficulty but not for those with high self-esteem. Low self-esteem groups had lower goals, certainty, and task performance.…

Recently, language has acquired theoretical importance as the medium of causal thinking. A discursive action model of description and attribution is presented that argues that causal attributions can be studied as social acts performed in discourse and not merely as cognitions about social acts that happen to be expressed in conversation. (SLD)

Defines the formal dimensions of responsibility in the context of philosophical theories, and defines the attribution of responsibility with reference to social psychological and interactionist theories. Gives a typology and explanation of ways people deny responsibility for actions. Draws on empirical studies of the attribution and denial of…

The psychometric properties of the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised (CASQ) (N. Kaslow and S. Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991) were studied with 1086 children, 9 to 12 years old. Results indicate the revised version to be somewhat less reliable than the original, but with equivalent criterion-related validity for self-reported depression.…

Confirmatory factor analysis of data from 1,346 respondents to the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) (C. Peterson and others, 1982) reveals that adequate fit is provided by a three-factor attributional style model that includes context-dependent item sets. Results suggest that there is no such thing as a nonsituational attributional style.…

Describes the evolution and testing of an "attributes checklist" tool for assisting counselor development. These attributes relate to characteristics of case notes that indicate evidence of counselor reflection and consideration of the counseling process. (Author/GCP)