To investigate the attributional processes mediating between outcome and expectancies and persistence, children's expectancies, attributions and response latency were measured. Children, equally divided into three age groups (three-five, six-eight, nine-twelve) were shown figures to match and were provided with experimentally controlled feedback…

This paper presents a series of studies related to the question of how children learn to evaluate themselves in achievement situations. The approach to the research is based on the Weiner et al attributional model of achievement. The paper describes three studies designed to determine the extent to which first, second and third grade children use…

The Trent Attribution Profile provides measures of locus of control and stability which can be further partitioned into individual attribution elements (ability, effort, task difficulty, luck). Reliability and validity data are reported. (Author/JKS)

Undergraduate students' perceptions of causes of their performance in a course were related to their ratings of the course and instructor in order to explore convergent and discriminant validity of such ratings. Regression analyses indicated that attributional judgments about causes of student performance were related to evaluations of…

Research in the area of attribution theory is reviewed--tendency to explain whatever happens to someone as a just consequence of personal characteristics, rather than environmental circumstances. Ramifications of this tendency in teachers' perceptions of students are discussed, and suggestions are offered for guarding against this sort of…

Subjects read scenarios describing a fictitious student and rated the extent to which the students' academic success was due to ability, effort, test difficulty, and luck. Attributions to ability and effort were greater for positively valued information; attributions to luck were greater for negative information. Results partially followed…

Subjects rated an individual described as either male or female, white or native Indian who chose an upwardly or downwardly mobile occupation (teacher or store clerk). Female characters were rated less likely to succeed. Male subjects were more surprised at male, but not female, character's choice of downwardly mobile career. (Author)

Two cognitive models of depression have attracted considerable attention recently: Seligman's (1975) learned helplessness model and Beck's (1967) cognitive schema approach. Describes each model and, in two studies, evaluates the assumption that depression is associated with systematic distortion in cognition regarding causal and controlling…

Examined the role of attributions in initial and long-term smoking behavior change. Manipulated the externality of treatment. Subjects receiving nicotine gum were superior to the intrinsic self-help group in initial cessation but were inferior in maintaining abstinence. Subjects in the intrinsic self-help group made fewer external attributions for…

Introduces the practicing school counselor to a theoretical framework known as the "social influence model," which has been found effective in promoting attitude change. Provides an example of how counselors can evaluate their efforts in attempting to dispell career myths through this model. (ABB)

Students from grades four through eleven (n=304) responded to a questionnaire regarding their viewpoints on grades. Three dimensions were examined: (1) attitudes about being graded; (2) comprehension of grading systems; and (3) causal perceptions and attributions about why students get good grades. Findings are discussed. (Author/MT)

Studied the influence of intelligence, self-concept, and causal attributions on metamemory and the metamemory-memory behavior relationship in elementary school children. Results indicated that intelligence had an impact on metamemory in all age groups; and that metamemory remains an important predictor of memory behavior. (Author/RWB)

Analysis of responses of 280 mother-father-young adult child triads showed that both parents had limited ability to gauge their children's attitudes. Parents made best guesses on Fundamentalist Religious Beliefs and Sexual Permissiveness. Mothers were slightly better than fathers at knowing daughters' opinions; neither parent was better at…

Preschool children's awareness of distinctions between animate and inanimate objects was assessed by showing stimulus films of animate and inanimate objects that moved in different ways. Results indicated that five- and some four-year-olds performed near adult levels, whereas three-year-olds did not, although the animate-inanimate distinction did…