Kelley's cube model of causal inferences was investigated by relating high and low students' attributions to reported affect and expectations. Low and high scoring students clustered in different cells of the cube. Predictions concerning estimates of distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus and their relation to affect and expectations were…

Undergraduates rated the importance of expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness for a friend and a mental health professional from whom they might seek help. Results indicated salient attributes of a professional were perceived expertness and trustworthiness. Salient attributes of a friend were perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness.…

Attribution interviews were conducted with 30 mothers who had disagreed with their child's teacher regarding the cause of a school-related problem and with 30 teachers who had similar disagreements with a parent. Parents tended to hold teachers responsible for problems and teachers assigned most responsibility to parent-home factors. (Author/RL)

In two experiments, subjects made attributions after reading a description of a rape. Responsibility was more strongly attributed to the victim's character for unrespectable victims, and to chance for respectable victims. Males blamed the victim's character more than females; females emphasized the role of chance more than males. (Author/GC)

Investigated psychologists' judgments of the accuracy of clients' attributions for presenting problems. Clinicians did not differ in estimate of accuracy based on whether attributions were internal or external, but female clinicians were more likely to judge client attributions as accurate. (Author/JAC)

Reviews the behavioral evidence of the possible relationship between the movements of the planets and personality variables. Concludes that astrology is a science consisting primarily of false data claims and much further research is required before any supported conclusions can be reached. (Author)

This study investigated how college students decide the amount of reward or punishment a problem solver deserves. Persons engaged in solitary tasks were evaluated differently than those in cooperative tasks. Inferences of causality influenced evaluations, whereas other factors did not. (Author/DB)

Explores some attributional determinants of third and fourth graders' self-punishment following transgression in a moral situation. Results were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that children who are told by adults that they possess desirable moral characteristics experience particularly strong remorse when they fail to exercise…

Investigated the effects of the consensus and sentence structure of single sentence descriptions of different behaviors on causal attributions. High consensus produced less person attribution than did low consensus, and passive items produced more stimulus attribution than did active items. (Author)

Undergraduates analyzed a story in which an agent's intervention was followed by the target's compliance, noncompliance, or countercompliance to the request. Influence was attributed to the agent in conditions demonstrating change, regardless of direction of change. Influence decreased if the target delayed final compliance. (Author/CP)

Documents characteristics of emotions in relation to action and self-perception. Argues that taking affect into account yields a different interpretation of successful achievement-change programs. Also clarifies the differences between ability and effort as perceived causes of success and failure. (Author/GC)

The goodness-of-fit rule was used in the attribution of causality for acquaintances when the behavior could be made to fit with extant impressions. When the behavior was completely inconsistent with extant impressions, the most external attributions were made in the poor fit/high consensus condition. (Author)

Observed subjects evidenced less tendency to attribute their failure to low ability than did nonobserved subjects and greater willingness to attribute failure to lack of effort. For a task intended to be of minimal relevance to subjects' identities, nonobserved subjects attributed failure to task difficulty. (Author)

A study of the extent to which people are likely to attribute traits to other people rather more than to themselves produced support for the Jones and Nisbett hypothesis. The level of trait attribution in the present study was higher than that obtained in previous studies. (Author)

Develops a theory of strategic, political silence which directs public attribution of predictable meanings towards political leaders who unexpectedly refuse to speak in public. The meanings are mystery, uncertainty, passivity, and relinquishment. Illustrates the theory with a criticism of President Carter's silence in July 1979. (JMF)