Attribution theory is concerned with why outcomes occur such as "Why did I fail the exam?" or "Why are they picking on me?" (Weiner, 1986, 2018; see Graham, 2020 for a review). Although this article focuses on achievement, attributions are relevant to the social as well as the achievement domain. Both questions concern failure…

Failing a course is an acutely negative event for first-year university students, and a major contributor to high attrition rates at North American universities. Despite its prevalence, course failure receives relatively little research attention. What can be done to reduce course failure and help first-year students remain in university? This…

Proposes a three-level taxonomy of reasons for vocational retraining: compliance, identification, and internalization. Internalization level motivators correlated with internal locus of control and vocational maturity. Subjects who retrained because of high compliance motivation were less satisfied with the program and more inclined to drop out.…

Since attrition is often a problem in adult training programs, a study was conducted to investigate the relationship between locus of control and course completion of adults enrolled in a retraining program. Rotter's Social Learning Theory of Personality was used as a starting point for the study. The study population was a sample of 108…

This paper presents a study that assessed whether attributional retraining is an effective method for enhancing academic achievement in at-risk college students. Attributional retraining was provided to college students (N=198) who had previously performed either poorly or well on a test. Attributional retraining and previous performance (low or…

This paper presents a study that examined the effect of an attribution induction on students' performance on a subsequent achievement test. The study was conducted to determine whether an instructor might inculcate desirable attributions as part of a regular classroom interaction and thus improve academic performance in at-risk students. College…

The question of whether internal versus external locus of control for generalized expectancies of reinforcement is an important variable in working with college reentry students was examined in a descriptive study. Subjects were 24 women (9 Caucasians, 7 African Americans, and 8 Hispanic Americans aged 19 to 24 years) enrolled in a proprietary…