This document contains six papers from a symposium on counseling process research which offer the application of multiple research perspectives and analysis of a common data set. Analyses of two interviews from a single counseling case include lag analysis of relational control, the investigation of topic control, discourse analysis of the…

Social theories (beliefs about relationships between variables in the social environment) are often used in making judgments, predictions, or decisions. Three experiments on the role of explanation processes in the development and use of social theories were conducted. The first experiment assessed the effects of explaining a hypothetical…

A study was conducted to investigate the relationships among sex, attribution, and selection of communication strategy in an instructional setting. The attributions and communication strategies selected by students following failing performances were examined. In addition, two sex variables were investigated--the sex of the subject and the sex of…

This paper addresses the construct of motivation as it relates to learning. Questions that will be discussed are (a) What is motivation, (b), how can motivation be incorporated in the instructional design process, and finally, (c) what motivational techniques have been used successfully in e-learning settings? Some general background information…

Before empirically based theories of loneliness can be formulated, it may be necessary to probe people's feelings, explanations, and reactions in a relatively unstructured way. Toward this end, three multiple response items relating to these issues were included in an 84-item questionnaire, published in the Spring of 1978 in several northeastern…

An analysis of three issues concerning the possibility that sex differences in causal attributional patterns may be important mediators of sex differences in persistence in one's mathematics education are addressed. These issues include: (1) the exact nature of the sex differences in attributional patterns for school achievement and the…

Physicians and rape crisis counselors may play important roles in assisting a rape victim; their beliefs and perceptions about rape may influence their treatment of the victim. Physicians (N=10) and volunteer rape counselors (N=44) completed questionnaires focused on demographic characteristics, their experiences with rape victims, and personal…

A study was conducted to examine the perceptions of young people in attributing the causes of poverty in our society. The study also examined youth's attribution of the state of poverty of three target groups: blacks, whites, and American Indians. Data were collected through structured interviews with 842 white and black children aged five through…

The influence of expectations and hypothesis testing on subjects' use of particular types of evidence to estimate covariations was investigated. Results of the first study indicated that all subjects relied most on positive confirming evidence and did not over-utilize evidence that was consistent with expectations. Results of the second study…

The effects of the actor-observer relationship (friendship or stranger) were tested to determine the attribution of responsibility for success or failure in a prisoner's dilemma game (PDG). Male subjects (N=80) participated, four subjects per experimental session. Two subjects competed in a non-zero sum, mixed-motive PDG while being observed by…

This study investigates the effect of saliency on the relationships between self-esteem and performance, competency and reactions to feedback. Subjects (N=146) preselected for social or academic orientation engaged in either a social or academic task and were given randomized success or failure feedback concerning their performance. Subjects rated…

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that effort attribution given for prior achievement is effective in promoting subsequent achievement behaviors. Forty children drawn from two elementary schools and lacking in subtraction skills received training and opportunities to solve subtraction problems. In the context of training, children…

Calling upon attribution theory, a study was conducted to determine whether chronically lonely individuals would manifest significantly more communication apprehension (CA) than would situationally lonely individuals. The UCLA loneliness scale (LS) and the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) were administered to 170 college…

There is a common assumption in personality psychology that an individual's attitudinal and/or motivational characteristics influence the selection, interpretation, and encoding of information from the external environment. However, recent reviews of empirical research in such areas as implicit personality theory and person perception offer little…

In this study of race relations, undertaken for the United States Navy, three attribution theories of racism are examined: racism of the individual; racism related to institutional procedures; and racism related to poor management training. Each of these theories corresponds to a specific intervention program which the Navy implemented to reduce…