A previous study examined determinants of attributions for success or failure in stopping smoking in a self-help treatment program with and without a drug component. This follow-up study examined the attributions that successful quitters made after remaining abstinent through 12 months, or after they relapsed. Subjects (N=137) had been assigned to…

The search for and generation of causal explanations required by the task of explaining an initial impression, appear to be sufficient to raise the subjective likelihood of the event explained and to result in the persistence of the initial impression. Generating supporting and counter arguments with respect to the event does not result in an…

Correlation-based approaches to causal analysis contain too much irrelevant information that masks and modulates the true nature of causal processes in the world. Both causal modeling and path analysis/structural equations give the wrong answers for certain conceptions of causation, given certain assumptions about the "error" variables.…

Splitting, a primitive defense mechanism of young children in confusing or ambivalent situations, in psychoanalytic theory is characteristic of those with borderline or narcissistic diagnoses. It may recur in adults negotiating co-parenting relationships following divorce and remarriage. Two types of splitting may occur: self-other in which the…

Basic Training (BT) is designed to prepare recruits for their new role as members of the military. The psychological effects of this experience can have important implications for recruits' later effectiveness in the military. Locus of control is one psychological construct which can be important for overall psychological and behavioral adaptation…

In an experimental study, subjects (practicing and preservice teachers) had to take the role of either a pupil or a teacher in viewing a new student. They inspected for thirty seconds a list of sixteen adjectives used to describe students, half belonging to a teacher's implicit personality theory of pupils, and half belonging to a (hypothetical)…

According to a recent model of some of the causes and effects of alcohol consumption, alcohol interferes with cognitive processes fundamental to a state of self-awareness. The effects of alcohol consumption and the expectancy that one had consumed alcohol on the self-awareness state were examined. Male subjects (N=46) consumed either alcohol or…

The research was designed to teach 61 learning disabled (LD) junior high school students to set realistic goals, to expend effort to achieve the goals, and to accept responsibility for achieving or failing to achieve their goals. Ss completed the Michigan State Self Concept of Ability Scale, the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale, the…

Two studies examined the hypothesis that negative evaluators will be perceived as more intelligent than positive evalutors. Two types of stimuli were used: excerpts from actual negative and positive book reviews, and versions of those excerpts that were edited so that the balance of the reviews varied but the content did not. The results strongly…

The relationship between perceived freedom and the attribution of attitudes was investigated. Observers were asked to infer an attitude from an actor's behavior when the actor's behavioral freedom was ambiguous. Attributions of attitude corresponded less to the behavior when it was unexpected and when the actor's potential lack of freedom was made…

A study tested the utility of the viewing intention application of the transfer discrepancy model--a model attempting not only to identify the key program attributes that alter beliefs, but also to identify those that transfer this belief change into changes in viewer behavior. To promote cross-population examination, the study focused on network…

A group of 253 male students in a freshman chemistry class participated in this research, which investigated the relationship between performance attributions and expectations and performance on a subsequent task. College students attributed their success or failure on two chemistry tests to ability, effort, luck, or task difficulty, and indicated…

Attempts to demonstrate performance impairments following exposure to an uncontrollable event, to investigate the effects of such exposure on mood, and examines the question of cross-situational generality of the induced impairments. (Author/RK)

The reformulated learned helplessness model of depression (Abramson, Seligman, Teasdale 1978) was examined. Argues that unless it is possible to specify the conditions under which a given attribution will be made, the model becomes circular and lacks predictive power. Discusses Abramson et al.'s suggestions for therapy and prevention. (Editor/RK)

This experiment attempted to support McMahan's (1973) attributional theory, which assumes that expectations reflect relatively fixed perceptions, and that people try to avoid making changes in these perceptions, and Frieze and Weiner's (1971) finding that success was attributed to internal factors more than was failure, while failure was more…