Identifies attitudes of professionals toward the attribution of responsibility for sexual abuse and strategies for case management. Variables that influence professionals' attitudes are discussed. (NH)

This article describes three dimensions of attribution (locus of causality, stability, and controllability) and discusses the importance, with regard to athletic performance, of assigning appropriate attributions to success or failure. Guidelines are provided to help students and athletes choose appropriate attributions. (IAH)

Assessed were second grade students to determine whether their beliefs about causes of success in mathematics were related to their personal goals in mathematics. One class that experienced mathematics instruction consistent with a constructivist view rated higher than traditional classes on Task Orientation, attempting to gain understanding.…

Examined whether the relationship between selected affective variables and mathematics achievement was different for nontraditional college students (more than 25 years old) than for traditional students. Reports no significant differences for pretest/posttest between traditional/nontraditional students. Lists affective predictors for mathematics…

Examined social cognitive skills in aggressive and nonaggressive delinquent youths with high or low behavioral functioning. Found significant interaction on problem-solving skills, with higher functioning, non-aggressive youths performing better than lower functioning counterparts; no differences occurred within aggressive groups. (Author/NB)

Forty elementary-school learning-disabled children completed a design assembly task and a vocabulary task. Results indicated a significant performance (success and failure)-by-maternal involvement (presence and absence) interaction for children's attributional ratings of effort, task difficulty, and luck, and for mothers' attributional ratings of…

Students (N=340) at the University of Manitoba (Canada) with internal and external loci of control (LOC) received no training or received either contingent or non-contingent feedback. Student achievement and achievement attributions were measured against variations in expressiveness in a videotaped lecture. Training and LOC influenced students'…

Supervisors and managers (N=108) reviewed cover letter and resume of job applicant with low back pain (source of which was systematically manipulated) and job description for simulated position. Found that, regardless of qualifications and source of injury, participants made more negative hiring recommendations for applicants with pain than for…

Reviews the 1989 report, "A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society," which examines the anticipated and unanticipated consequences of initiatives since 1940 to improve the Blacks' social position. Criticizes the report for omitting evidence concerning racial differences in intelligence and criminal activity at the individual level. (FMW)

Studied similarities and differences in views of 69 high school students and their parents regarding delinquency causation. Found beliefs of two groups to be similar; both groups regarded variety of causative factors to be relatively unimportant. Certain factors (parental indifference) were considered relatively important by parents; certain…

Examines the effects of participant and observer perspectives on the quantity and quality of information recalled from conversations. Finds that conversational memory may be linked to the social cognitive bias, which has long been associated with the observer perspective. (MS)

Examined attributions of credit and blame for good and bad deeds. Found that Portuguese children's attributions of credit and blame for moral and academic norms were similar to those of Japanese and U.S. children. They tended to give weight to negative outcomes because of the belief that appropriate behavior might not be praised but that…

Attributional style and academic persistence were assessed in 72 fifth graders. Findings revealed that attributional style predicted teacher-rated persistence but did not predict any of the behavioral persistence measures. Results suggest that students' self-reported attributional styles are related to teacher judgments of persistence. (Author/NB)

Two steps in the social information process model were assessed for socially accepted and rejected children by verbal responses to stories embedded in computer games. Attributions of intent and aggressive problem solutions were correlated with contextual factors (interpersonal context, outcome of game, and story type) and with sex and social…

Examined the attributions of, the criteria for, the likelihood of obtaining, and the importance of success and failure in examinations. 200 New Zealand and 200 Singaporean students were surveyed. Singaporean students were found to have a higher criterion mark for success than New Zealand students, but a lower criterion mark for failure. (SVE)