A series of six experiments compares young children's competence in attributing absence of knowledge (ignorance) to their competence in attributing a false belief to the other. (HOD)

Examines developmental change in 4- 7- and 10-month-old infants' perceptions of correlations among attributes to determine whether relational information plays a role in abilities ranging from the perception and recognition of a simple pattern to the formation of a category. (HOD)

Explores developmental and psychological assumptions about women that are fundamental to current marriage and family therapy practice. Ethical guidelines for reducing bias in therapy, especially with couples and families, are offered to counselors and therapists for evaluation and refinement of professional gender role sensitivity. (Author)

Results indicated subjects decreased their ratings of self-efficacy and interest as a result of the failure experience and the same ratings increased as a result of the success experience. Women rated themselves lower than men and rated luck as the cause of their successful performance. (Author/BL)

Examined attributions used by pre- and postmenopausal women (N=105) to explain mood. After reading a diary written by a middle-aged woman, participants rated menopausal symptoms, environment, and age as likely causes of the woman's mood. Menopausal symptoms were rated as a salient source of attribution for negative mood. (NRB)

Kindergarten through eighth-grade children were presented with two revisions (luck and skill) of the Matching Familiar Figures Test. Questioning about performance of hypothetical others revealed four levels of differentiation of luck and skill. These levels showed parallels with age-related changes in conceptions of difficulty, effort, and…

Examined the linkage between psychological well-being and marital status in 2,500 men. Results indicated little difference in psychological well-being before or after divorce/separation, suggesting that the relationship between marital status and well-being is not necessarily causal. (JAC)

Following an incentive (low, high) manipulation, college students received response-outcome contingency training. All students then observed a lecture. Postlecture results indicated that the high- compared to the low-expressive lecturer increased achievement and internal locus in contingent but not noncontingent students for low-incentive…

Examined the impact of subjects' (N=320) sex-role orientation on their evaluations of successful women or men in sex-linked occupations. Results did not support the hypothesis that sex-typed subjects would respond less negatively to success when the successful person was in an occupation consistent with sex stereotypes. (BH)

Investigated the validity of applying Kelley's covariation attribution model to unemployment. Results of a laboratory study of 168 students supported the model, but a field study of 82 unemployed did not. The relationship of self-esteem and locus of control to attributions of success and failure was examined. (JAC)

This experiment explored the effects of ability and effort attributional feedback given during subtraction competency development on third-grade children's perceived self-efficacy and achievement. Children given ability feedback demonstrated the highest subtraction skill and self-efficacy; the effort and ability plus effort conditions did not…

A 190-item survey instrument, designed to assess subgroup differences in the behavioral criteria for mental illness labeling, was administered to 241 adults from two populations. The 190 items comprised 25 content homogeneous scales. The instrument was found to compress into 13 separate areas of attributed psychopathology. (Author)

Examined whether obese subjects' causal attributions of their weight problems to ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck affect how much weight they lose as a function of treatment. Results indicated the most powerful predictor of positive weight status was subjects' perception that they had the ability to lose weight. (Author)

Results provided some support for a self-serving model of causal attributions for success and failure. It was also found that males and females did exhibit some differences in their patterns of causal attributions for similar outcomes. (RM)

An investigation of the causal attributions of success and failure performances on various levels of task difficulty by 36 learning disabled and 36 nondisabled adolescents revealed that Ss' perceptions of the task difficulty levels were significant determinants of the two groups' differing causal attributions. (Author/CL)