The suggestion of an underlying dimension in mental imagery despite low correlations among objective spatial and self report measures was investigated using data from two independent samples of 131 college students. The first study revealed some factorial independence in imagery aptitude, while the second study investigated individual patterns of…

Abramson, Seligman and Teasdale's reformulated model of learned helplessness hypothesized that an attribution of causality intervenes between the perception of noncontingency and the future expectation of future noncontingency. To test this model, relationships between attribution and performance under failure, success, and control conditions were…

Past research has suggested that supervisors, when evaluating the poor performance of a subordinate, are influenced by the outcome of the performance. Nurses (N=55) in advanced training assumed the role of a supervisor of a nurse described as having performed poorly. Half of the subjects read an incident without an outcome and half read an…

Kelley's cube model of attributions (1967) can be applied to moral judgments to predict how individuals arrive at attributions concerning dispositional or environmental causes. The relative contributions of the three dimensions of Kelley's cube to attributions of morality and trustworthiness were tested by presenting 37 male and 77 female subjects…

Employing a cognitive/motivational analysis, a study was undertaken to determine some specific self-perceptions that might contribute to motivational and performance deficits observed in children with reading difficulties. A total of 72 children of relatively good, average, and poor reading ability were assessed on tasks in which success and…

Reactions of men and women to failure in sex-appropriate and sex-inappropriate tasks were examined through performance records, self-ratings of learning progress, and attributions of performance to effort and ability. Fear of success studies show that individuals may avoid success where success is sex-inappropriate. It was thought that failure…

Twenty-nine student teachers selected for high success orientation toward teaching, compared with 34 controls selected for high failure-avoidance orientation, took relatively more credit for their students' academic successes than they gave their students; they also accepted relatively more blame for students' failures. However, an analysis of the…

Subjects were four groups of 12 college women, high or low in motive to avoid success (MAS) and locus of control (LC), were reinforced for response A on a fixed partial reinforcement schedule on three concept learning tasks, one task consisting of combined reward and punishment, another of reward only, and one of punishment only. Response B was…

Forth-two elementary school children (Grades 2, 3, and 4) were tutored on a one-to-one basis by junior high volunteers (Grades 6, 7, and 8) for 12 weeks. Prior to the start of the tutoring program and following an experimental tutoring session in which tutee performance and feedback were manipulated, both the elementary and secondary students…

Studies involving puzzle-solving in competitive, cooperative, and individual settings demonstrate that children's reactions to their own and other's success and failure are strongly influenced by the reward contingencies offered. Reward structures have different implications for children differing in self-concept level. Implications for the…

This paper describes two experiments conducted to assess the impact of the need for effective control on attributions made in a conflict situation. Subjects were college students. (CM)

Investigated whether trait differences in self-consciousness would account for egocentric attribution bias in social interaction. Bias was greater for high public self-consciousness. Public self-consciousness had no effect in the Interaction Unimportant Condition where social interaction was not salient. Contrary to prediction, however, the…

Examines the development of the child's concepts of certainty and uncertainty within the context of concrete and propositional reasoning tasks. Subjects were first, third, and fifth graders. Findings support the position that reasoning about concrete certainty and uncertainty requires a different competence than that required for reasoning about…

Three systems of motivation (ability-evaluative, task mastery, and moral responsibility) and their implicit value orientations shared by students and teachers are defined. This qualitative perspective relates to distinct cognition networks, involving goals and values, attributions, and strategy beliefs. Student motivation and teacher motivation…

A meta analysis of research on children's attributions for success and failure was conducted to test the adequacy of the egotistic bias hypothesis for children in grades one to seven. Results supported the egotism hypothesis and indicated that both question wording and research context are important determinants of children's attributions.…