Using actual student referral records, researchers investigated: (1) why teachers referred students for psychoeducational evaluation; (2) causes to which they attributed students' difficulties; and (3) whether causes were related to reasons for referral. Teachers attributed 97 percent of the students' difficulties to factors outside the school.…

Second and third graders' competence to integrate knowledge of their ability and effort, as they would function in the child's success on a reading task, was examined in terms of the constraints of the stages of the Genevan operativity model. (Author/PN)

Evaluated the role of depression, internal/external attributions, and sex differences in negative arousal in problematic social situations. Using depressed and nondepressed students' ratings of causality and reported arousal, found those who attributed causality to internal factors experienced more negative arousal, and females experienced more…

Caution should be exercised in transporting the concept of locus of control to either Mexico or Japan, and by implication, to other cultures. Careful attention must be given both to the meaning of this concept in the other cultures, and to the behaviors predictable from its measurement within each culture. (Author/NQA)

Examined the hypothesis that subject differences in conceptual complexity (CC) may mediate individuals' cognitive and emotional responses toward problem situations. Results showed high-CC individuals reported more internal attributions and fewer negative task statements and showed less increase in negative mood. (Author)

Third and fourth grade children were instructed to share half their winnings from a bowling game under one of three types of verbal appeal: a power assertive appeal emphasizing punishment for noncompliance, an inductive appeal emphasizing contributions to the other's well-being, or a neutral appeal. (Author/DB)

Australian secondary students were asked to list five crimes they had heard of, their source of information, and their views on appropriate punishment. A systematic relationship was found between these three elements. Justifications made for mitigating circumstances were analyzed for type of crime and by attribution theories. (Author/SJL)

Tested and extended Deaux's expectancy model of sex-linked differences in attribution for success. Finding's indicated that female occupational subjects, relative to males, tended to attribute success more to unstable causes of effort and luck. Male subjects attributed success more to the stable causes of ability and task ease. (Author/RC)

A literature review reveals that learning disabled children are more likely than normal achievers to attribute successes, but not failures, to external factors. The implications of locus of control for the field of learning disabilities are discussed in terms of its relation to academic achievement, learned helplessness, and remediation programs.…

Examines cues which guide the discovery of simple cause-effect relations, beginning with the properties (suggested by Hume) of temporal precedence, covariation and contiguity; explores variables which can influence simple causal judgments; and discusses developmental evidence regarding inference principles associated with causal schemata.…

Two studies were conducted to determine whether students perceive meaningful influence patterns among the causal variables involved in determining exam performance. It was observed that the students perceived a number of both unidirectional and bidirectional intercausal effects; these were related to both perceived success and causal attributions.…

Youths perceive mothers and fathers as more conservative or traditional than their parents' responses justify. Youths exaggerate parental agreement. This polarized misattribution is independent of the gender of the youth, reflecting the "generational stake" of each cohort involved in socialization interaction. (Author)

Participants in sensitivity training reported more change after training than before and these changes were more positively evaluated than change prior to training. Changes after training were seen as more personally caused. These effects were particularly marked for behaviors that were positively evaluated. (Author)

The hypothesis that there would be less self-attribution of responsibility for the positive joint outcome in dyads of high attraction was confirmed in this study. (Author)

Children, aged 9, 12, and 15, evaluated successes and failures of other children using information supplied about ability, effort, outcome, and sex. Several sex differences were found, particularly in the extent to which evaluations related to effort and outcome information. Findings are compared to those of American and Iranian studies.…