The consistency of gender differences in attributions for success in two subject areas representing verbal and mathematical tasks was investigated. English and social science were used to represent verbal tasks and mathematics the computational task. In natural classroom settings, a total of 1,110 community college students completed a…

Although it is commonly held that environmental, social, and psychological factors influence health, specific causal models of these influences are rarely tested directly. Methods of structural analysis were applied to the problem of the relationships among variables thought to influence the health status of college students. Data were collected…

This investigation was designed (l) to assess to what causal factors Brazilian elementary students attribute their success or failure in achievement tasks; (2) to verify whether their attributions can be classified into the categories proposed by Weiner (1972): ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck; and (3) to assess the relationship between…

Early detection and measurement of the intensity of childhood depression are important concerns for those treating depressed children. To examine issues of childhood depression, a review of the research was conducted which focused on: (1) childhood depression scales and their effectiveness; (2) correlates and antecedents of childhood depression;…

In the literature on differences between Asian and White achievement in mathematics, effort, and ability have been cited as causal variables. Effort is emphasized more by the Asian students and their parents, but ability is emphasized more by Americans than by Asians. This study compared the attributional patterns of Asian Americans and White…

Changing a health behavior and maintaining a positive change can be very difficult. This study examined attributions for health behavior change by using retrospective reports to elicit college students' (N=466) current views of successes and failures at adopting health promoting behaviors. In completing the Health Behavior Questionnaire, 229…

A study was conducted to determine how children in preschool/kindergarten and third/fourth grades would predict whether a boy or a girl would succeed on cohort-defined masculine, feminine, or sex-neutral tasks. Older children predicted the winners along sex-typed dimensions. Boys and girls predicted a male more frequently when the task was…

How people organize sensory data is influenced not only by their role as actor observer; the extent of their empathy for other actors; and the vividness, availability, representativeness, and negative impact of the data; but also by the culture from which it springs. To determine how the attributions people make are affected by culture, which can…

Differences in children's interpersonal perceptions and in their conceptions of behavior disorders in hypothetical peers were investigated in a sample of 34 boys between the ages of 10 and 13. Two groups of subjects were formed: 17 subjects attended special classes for the emotionally handicapped and were classified as exhibiting conduct problems…

In studies examining the influence of recall on judgments, social psychologists have generally concentrated on the content of recalled material rather than on the process of recall. To investigate the impact of recalled behaviors (content) and the ease with which these behaviors came to mind (process) on assessment of one's own assertiveness, 158…

The major task of life is to become masterful. As individuals grow the choice of which tasks to attempt and how best to achieve mastery at them becomes increasingly under their control by the situations they choose to engage in and by perceptions of their abilities. Mastery oriented people tend to attribute failure to unstable, external factors…

Cognitive biases that may affect learning by college presidents and the effects of these biases on the presidency and higher education were studied. Based on a recent study of presidential judgment under uncertainty, data were obtained on the perceptions of 252 campus chief executive officers concerning institutional leadership and quality, and…

Previous research has shown that college students often report problems with procrastination on academic tasks. A study was conducted to investigate factors related to academic procrastination. Subjects (N=379) completed the Procrastination Assessment Scale on measures of test anxiety, attributions, and self-control. A subset of subjects (N=125)…

This paper reviews the literature on the role of mediating cognitive factors in marital functioning and satisfaction. Types and patterns of causal attributions of distressed and nondistressed couples are compared and the effectiveness of various intervention models is discussed. The materials also discuss the role of unfulfilled expectations as a…

Two experiments tested the idea that the means by which children acquire efficacy information can produce different levels of task motivation and self-perception of competence. In Experiment 1, children periodically received either ability attributional feedback, effort feedback, ability plus effort feedback, or no attributional feedback. Although…