This study investigates the effect of saliency on the relationships between self-esteem and performance, competency and reactions to feedback. Subjects (N=146) preselected for social or academic orientation engaged in either a social or academic task and were given randomized success or failure feedback concerning their performance. Subjects rated…

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that effort attribution given for prior achievement is effective in promoting subsequent achievement behaviors. Forty children drawn from two elementary schools and lacking in subtraction skills received training and opportunities to solve subtraction problems. In the context of training, children…

Calling upon attribution theory, a study was conducted to determine whether chronically lonely individuals would manifest significantly more communication apprehension (CA) than would situationally lonely individuals. The UCLA loneliness scale (LS) and the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) were administered to 170 college…

There is a common assumption in personality psychology that an individual's attitudinal and/or motivational characteristics influence the selection, interpretation, and encoding of information from the external environment. However, recent reviews of empirical research in such areas as implicit personality theory and person perception offer little…

In this study of race relations, undertaken for the United States Navy, three attribution theories of racism are examined: racism of the individual; racism related to institutional procedures; and racism related to poor management training. Each of these theories corresponds to a specific intervention program which the Navy implemented to reduce…

When do we accept another's opinion regarding the characteristics or beliefs of a target person, and when do we reject that opinion? Different sorts of information may need to be assimilated by the perceiver. When does one type of information take priority over the other? A central focus of attribution research has been on the informational value…

In testing Weiner's (1972) attribution theory of achievement behavior, success was found to produce (1) no differential attribution to effort for those high and low in achievement motivation, and (2) an early performance asymptote for those high in achievement motivation, while (3) it also facilitated performance independently of attributions. The…

Attribution Theory has led to predictions that the use of material reward may impair intrinsic motivation in the rewarded activity (decreased play effects). A review of the pertinent literature reveals, however, (a) that attribution research has failed to reliably demonstrate that decreased play effects occur in minimal-trial studies (b) that for…

Selected cognitive developments presumed to mediate the development of achievement motivation are described. Age trends for four causal schemes involving the concepts of effort and ability from 5 to 13 years of age are presented. Developments related to ability, task difficulty, and incentive value are also described. (Author/JMB)

Two studies examined the cognitive-motivational differences between helpless and mastery-oriented children by analyzing the effects of failure feedback on problem solving strategies during testing and identifying semantic differences in children's verbalizations following failure on task. Subjects were fifth graders of both sexes. (CM)

An experiment was conducted to test the proposition that rewards undermine or enhance intrinsic interest in a task to the extent that individuals interpret their behavior as being motivated by the reward. It was predicted that when subjects were denied the opportunity to develop and confirm this attribution, rewards would not produce an…

Males and females in kindergarten and third grade predicted whether a boy or a girl would succeed on a masculine or a feminine task. Findings support attribution theory and indicate that differential perceptions of male and female performance exist in young children. (Author)

Previous studies have indicated that explaining a hypothetical event makes the event seem more likely through the creation of causal connections. However, such effects could arise through the use of the availability heuristic; that is, subjective likelihood is increased by an event becoming easier to "imagine". Two experiments were designed to…

This study investigates attribution of responsibility in a rigorous factorial design involving ethnicity, sex, and age. The cultural factor was highly significant. Explanations for the strong findings are suggested in terms of different family structures among minority groups as well as their subordinate status within the U.S. (Author/AM)