The objective of this study was to empirically validate West Germans' classifications of 11 attributions according to dimensions of locus, stability, controllability, predictability, and globality. The West German sample was then compared to an American sample. It is believed that West Germans and Americans develop different beliefs about the causes and consequences of intellectual functioning and different reactions to the presence of authority. The samples included 115 male and 135 female Germans and 100 male and 100 female Americans, most of whom were college students. Attributions selected included: mood, skill, knowledge, chance, effort, competence, help, ability, task, bias, and luck. These 11 attributions obtained from previous research were placed on separate pages of a questionnaire; each attribution was followed by five 7-point scales on five dimensions: (1) external-internal; (2) stable-unstable; (3) predictable-unpredictable; (4) controllable-uncontrollable; and (5) specific-general. Two sets of 3-way analyses of variance with one repeated measure were performed. Results show that the semantic meaning of attributions varies somewhat between Americans and Germans. This variation has implications for educational settings involving multicultural and multiethnic populations and for motivational strategies used by students. Two data tables are included. (TJH)