Two studies explored the role of implicit theories of intelligence in adolescents' mathematics achievement. In Study 1 with 373 7th graders, the belief that intelligence is malleable (incremental theory) predicted an upward trajectory in grades over the two years of junior high school, while a belief that intelligence is fixed (entity theory)…

We explored the hypotheses that adolescents have more negative obesity stereotypes than children and that age differences in obesity stereotypes are mediated by weight attributions, body esteem, and appearance idealization. Hispanic- and Caucasian-American children completed measures of appearance idealization, body esteem, and attributions about…

Attributional (explanatory) thinking involves the appraisal of factors that contribute to performance and is instrumental to motivation and goal striving. Little is understood, however, concerning attributional thinking when multiple causes are involved in the transition to new achievement settings. Our study examined such complex attributional…

Research in the field of attribution theory and academic achievement suggests a relationship between a student's attributional style and achievement. Theorists and researchers contend that attributions influence individual reactions to success and failure. They also report that individuals use attributions to explain and justify their performance.…

Many theories have been proposed to explain the blaming the victim phenomena and to predict who is most likely to engage in this behavior. This study hypothesized that since behavioral blame of a victim is self-protective for an observer, this type of blaming will be evidenced more by those who are personally and situationally similar to the…

The paper examines research on locus of control, learned helplessness, and attribution theory, and discusses the implications of the mentally retarded child's attitudes toward his or her successes. Studies are cited linking internal locus of control with achievement, and it is suggested that more attention should be paid to promoting students'…

On performance tasks, individuals tend to attribute success to their own ability and effort while attributing failure to task difficulty and luck. To investigate the possiblity that the asymmetry in causal attributions for positive and negative outcomes occurs independent of any bias resulting from self-presentation concerns, 80 female college…

While attributions have traditionally been viewed as social cognition variables, some researchers have proposed that individual differences exist in attributional patterns and that these patterns are differentially related to and predictive of various behaviors. A study was conducted to examine the question of attribution style as a trait-like…

Recently, research has begun to identify the social cognitive dysfunctions that aggressive children display. Using noninteractive laboratory tasks, aggressive children were found to perceive more hostile intentions from others in ambiguous situations than did nonaggressive children. Research has not investigated if this bias occurs in truly…

Sexual choices and sexual behavior involve complex cognitive as well as affective processes. Models which denote cognitive processes influencing sexual behavior are needed. Attribution theory is a prominent social-cognition model that may influence these phenomena. This study was conducted to determine whether or not different virginity status…

Although understanding how causal attributions for performance develop is important to attribution theory, little research has been done on this topic. To explore changes in attributions during task performance for both actors and observers, 90 female undergraduates participated in a procedure in which they received either 80 percent or 20 percent…

In an attempt to replicate an earlier study of attribution of responsibility (Experiment 2 of Samuel et. al, 1981), this research utilized a case study describing an 18-year-old named Johnny who tripped and fell while shoplifting a rifle from a sporting goods store; the gun fired, inflicting either minor or critical injuries on a nearby customer.…

Previous research linking life events and psychological well being may have been biased by traditional retrospective designs. To eliminate retrospective bias, a prospective design was used in which events were measured before the criterion had occurred. Subjects were 209 male and 159 female participants in the Augmented Baltimore Longitudinal…

A study was conducted to determine the correspondence between the effects of task purposes and goal-setting strategies on preschoolers' unmonitored compliance, and their internal attributions for compliance. A total of 97 preschool children of 4-5 years of age participated in two 5-minute compliance tests that employed a resistance-to-distraction…

Bulman and Wortman's (1977) study of severe accident victims showed that victims who blamed themselves as the cause of the accident were more likely to receive higher coping ratings from a nurse or social worker, while victims who blamed others for the accident or who saw the accident as avoidable were more likely to be rated as having coped…