Male and female subjects (N=186) participated in a simulated jury experiment in which race of the victim, race of the defendant, and amount of evidence against the defendant were varied. Results indicated racial similarity of the defendant and/or victim to subject jurors influenced levels of negative traits attributed to the defendant. (Author)

This study investigated the mastery-oriented and learned-helplessness response patterns of children (n=13) with visual impairments in grades 3 to 6 who were divided into two groups, low vision children who were visual learners and nonvisual learners. Subjects were given the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire. No significant…

Explores factors influencing teachers to attribute transformational leadership qualities to some principals and not others, based on a survey of 1,253 teachers from a large school system in Ontario, Canada. Results corroborated a previous study's findings that teachers' leadership attributions were largely explained by alterable variables (like…

Believes that everyone can sing, but that many people think that they do not have the ability. States that music teachers can recruit students for choir by concentrating on the skill and effort of students. Explains how teachers can use attribution theory to recruit nonsingers. (CMK)

This study examined low-income African American and European American preschoolers' socioemotional causal attributions. Results indicate that younger preschoolers, particularly young African Americans, may need help articulating emotions. Adults can support children's emotional reasoning through scaffolding. (Author)

This study evaluated the effect of a training course for staff working in British learning disability residential services on their attributions and practice. Decreased usage of the attributional category "communication deficit" was found 8 weeks later. Also, practice appeared significantly changed from baseline to follow-ups 4 and 5…

Reviews various social psychological constructs to offer theoretical framework within which to view resistance and related phenomena in school consultation. Focuses on resistance, cognitive dissonance, reactance, attribution, influence-power, and modeling. Summarizes contributions and applications of other authors; provides additional applications…

Suggests ways in which attribution theories can explain the interpretation processes involved in understanding nonverbal behavior. Examines attribution choices for nonverbal messages between romantic partners and finds that level of relational satisfaction correlates with perceptions of cause for nonverbal messages. (MG)

Studies investigated effects of dispositional praise on internalized sharing and self-perception in children eight-nine years old. Dispositional praise had significant behavioral, cognitive, and affective consequences, but nondispositional praise did not. Perceived expectations may play an important role in determining behavioral consequences of…

Causal ascriptions for anticipated goal attainment and the emotional consequences of such ascriptions were studied in 731 college students answering questionnaires. Internal and external attributions were made for past outcomes. Subjects felt that internal factors accounted more for success, and external, for failure. (SLD)

Investigates intergroup bias in achievement attributions in a sample of 15-year-old German and Turkish pupils in the Federal Republic of Germany. Found that ingroup attribution bias was limited rather than ubiquitous. Discusses the inventive nature of student explanations for ability-linked performance and the motivational consequences of causal…

Thirty-four adolescents with learning disabilities received either spelling strategy training, spelling strategy plus attribution training, or a control condition. Significant differences in spelling recall scores favored the strategy training condition. Addition of the attribution training resulted in no observable improvement in spelling…

Explanations for motivational difficulties of students with learning disabilities emphasize student-perceived competence and student-perceived control. Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic and is enhanced by students' active involvement and ownership of the learning process, by the use of techniques to create and maintain interest, and by the…

This study, involving 169 intellectually gifted secondary students, found that gifted girls, more than gifted boys, attributed both success and failure in mathematics, science, and English to effort and strategy. Gifted girls also tended to report greater confidence and interest in English. No gender differences were found in terms of maladaptive…

Attribution theory provides the cornerstone for an examination of victim self-blame in clinical and research literature. It is argued that other-blame often is presented as the preferable attributional outcome for abuse victims, while the empirical evidence is less than supportive of this claim. Suggestions are offered for further research. (JPS)