The study involving 28 educationally handicapped (EH) and 25 learning disabled LD/EH children (mean ages 13 and 12 years) included among its results that EH Ss took significantly more personal responsibility for academic failure than did LD/EH Ss; EH Ss attributed success to ability but failure to both lack of ability and lack of effort.…

Prevailing interpretations of minors' reluctance to participate in treatment tend to emphasize personal deficiencies, pathology, and inappropriate motivation. This review suggests (1) interpretations of reluctance for treatment may often be a function of the interpreter's biases; and (2) reluctance may frequently result from appropriate negative…

The reliability and validity of the Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale was examined for 350 American community college students, ranging in age from 17 to 59. The attributions of ability, effort, context, and luck emerged as well as distinctions between attributions related to academic success or failure. (Author/PN)

The hypothesis that students who cheat will externalize the cause of this behavior was tested by contrasting the causal inferences of cheating and noncheating college students. Results supported Kelley's attributional model. Uninvolved observers also indicated that students tended to formulate self-serving attributions. (Author/BS)

Results of four related studies revealed (1) a trend toward better differentiation of the color attribute from four years through college-age; and (2) a possible stage of development, occurring before children can organize stimulus values conceptually or multidimensionally, in which they are able to organize or "dimensionalize" stimulus values…

Studied abusive and nonabusive mothers' perceptions of their own and their children's behavior, particularly perceptions of intent, negative disposition, and childrearing abilities. Results showed that attributions of intent and negative disposition did not in themselves seem causally linked with abusive outcomes. Addressed implications for…

This study examines the effects of three levels of motives (avoid failure, nonspecific, and gain) and two levels of consequences (individual versus collective) on attribution of moral responsibility. (Author/AM)

Male and female undergraduates rated their ability, amount of preparation, task difficulty, and their initial confidence (expectation) before they began an important examination. Subsequently they attributed causality for the examination outcome by rating the importance of factors involving ability, preparation, task difficulty, and luck as…

Causal attributions of shy students (N=36) were compared with those of a comparison group of students (N=36) in ten situations. Significant differences between the two groups emerged when explaining outcomes of situations considered to be problematic for shy individuals. Causal attributions may reflect realistic and situation-specific…

A temporal theory of motivation is proposed in which causes, causal dimensions, psychological consequences (expectancy and affect), and behavioral outcomes play a role in the dynamics of action. The discussion of methodological errors in attribution research that follows examines shortcomings at each of these conceptual stages in the motivational…

Assessed the impact of managerial behavior and manager reputation on perceptions of power in two studies. Behavior significantly influenced perceptions of reward, coercive, legitimate, expert, and referent power; reputation significantly influenced perceptions of legitimate, referent, and especially expert power. Suggested the existence of an…

Assessed whether a death education course attracted students with significantly different attitudes toward death. Results indicated that the death education class did attract persons with greater acceptance of suicide and death. The course tended to further decrease avoidance and increase acceptance. Potentiality for committing suicide was not…

Investigated sex differences on the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale using factor analysis of student scores (N=194). Three factors emerged for females and five for males. Comparison with other studies shows item consistency on the first two factors which were the same for both sexes. (Author/JAC)

The relationship between an affective teacher characteristic (a component of achievement motivation called success orientation) and changes in two affective outcomes of pupils (attitude toward learning and perceived personal control of one's own academic success and failure) was investigated. (Author/PN)

Among results of subsequent ratings by the Ss were that labeling significantly affected teacher perceptions of a videotaped child, but that the behavioral attribute condition did not affect their perceptions. (Author/MC)