Two types of bias in the attribution process are the responsibility bias, in which individuals tend to assume more than their objective share of responsibility, and unrealistic optimism, in which individuals tend to assume that future outcomes will be positive. In order to investigate these self-serving biases among married and divorced…

The relationship between an individual's comprehension of his or her role in society, the gender expectations of society, and how these thoughts and stereotypes influence an individual's behavior in particular settings seem to be separate, yet interrelated. It is for this reason that an analysis of four main theories of gender and leadership must…

Two experiments explored the influence of neonate characteristics on maternal behavior. Experiment 1 investigated the influence of maternal attribution to the neonate of certain behavioral characteristics on maternal behavior in interaction. After videotaped mother-neonate pair interaction, neonates were removed for a nominal examination. Mothers…

Theories of human motivation have focused on the distinction between task-involvement (a concern with task mastery) and ego-involvement (a concern over evaluating performance relative to normative or other external criteria). Nicholls (1984) has proposed that competence is construed differently under task-involving and ego-involving conditions.…

A model of caregiver-child interaction processes is proposed in which adult attributions are conceptualized as moderator variables. Adult attributions are seen as acting in either a sensitizing or a buffering role in determining the extent to which child behavior or characteristics influence adult affect and behavior. In earlier research (Bugental…

Incorporating Elkind's (1979) construct of the personal fable, this investigation focused on the relationship between self-concept and projected attachments to a distant object (i.e., a favorite celebrity). In a repeated measures design, 79 male and female 5th, 8th, and 11th graders and college sophomores completed a set of personality scales,…

Children's interpretations of social experiences were compared to adults' interpretations of the same experiences in a study involving 151 children between 6 and 12 years of age and the mothers of a subsample of 43 of the children. Seventy-six participating children were asked to describe some of their social experiences and generate attributions…

Public reactions to rape affect victims in a variety of ways and have implications for psychological services and legal adjudication of rape defendants. To investigate reactions to rape, 144 undergraduates were randomly assigned to a 2 (male versus female subjects) x 2 (victim with versus without rape history) x 3 (high versus medium versus low…

Recent research in achievement has focused on sex differences found in locus of standards, conceptual focus, and expectations for success. To examine the nature of sex differences and their relationship to achievement domains, 439 college students (197 females, 242 males) were asked to write an account of an achievement or failure. They then…

Although some researchers have distinguished the concepts of pain and suffering and despite the recent rise of many centers for pain management in the United States, medical educators and practitioners have given little attention to the topic of suffering. In the studies which have been conducted, patients differed in styles of coping with and…

Although homelessness is not a new phenomenon, the number of homeless people today has fostered mobilization on their behalf by public and private sectors. Principal factors accepted as contributing to homelessness are inadequate low-cost housing, unemployment, chemical dependency, family violence, and inadequate community services for the…

Attribution research has not yet come to a consensus on the conditions under which it can be expected that women will exhibit less self-serving attributions than men for their performance. An experiment was conducted in which subjects (N=66), who were college students, completed tasks requiring performance. They were instructed either that the…

Shaver's Defensive Attribution concept suggests that subjects who perceive themselves as similar to a rape victim attribute less responsibility to the victim, thus protecting themselves against blame should they ever be victims. Studies have supported this interpretation for females, but have reported difficulty interpreting the responses of…

High-test-anxious individuals have been found to perform less well on cognitive tasks than others of comparable ability. To investigate the relationship between test anxiety and causal attributions following success and failure in an achievement situation, 200 introductory psychology students completed the Test Anxiety Scale (TAS) and were…

The influences of locus of control, awareness of control and metacognition on the use and transfer of a trained strategy were examined. Specifically, it was hypothesized that internal locus of control would be associated with more strategic performance, and that those children who were able to both accurately assess their performance with and…