Effects of Casual Attributions of Performance Outcome on Nature of Self-Statements and Self-Esteem

36 college students participated in a study to determine the role of causal attributions of success and failure on the modification of self-esteem. Although Brockner (1979) has suggested that the key to augmenting self-esteem is the increasing of positive self-evaluation that follows success, several studies suggest that it is not the positive self-evaluation after success but the negative self-evaluations after failure that are crucial in determining one\u27s level of self-esteem. Thus it was hypothesized in the present study that if external attributions were made for failures while internal attributions for success were maintained, self-esteem would increase. Subjects high and low in self-esteem were given instructions designed to influence their attributions for the outcome of individual trials on a task in which they were led to believe that their overall performance had been superior. Cognitions following each trial were measured by a thought listing procedure. A no-instruction control group and a group, which had been instructed to make internal attributions after success, showed no change in self-esteem. However, both the high and low self-esteem subjects that had been instructed to attribute failure to external factors and success to internal factors showed such a change. The self-esteem of the high self-esteem grot1p decreased while the self-esteem of the low self-esteem group increased. These results were discussed in terms of a reconceptualization of the differences in performance outcome attributions by individuals high and low in self-esteem

Effects of Combined Strategy Instruction and Attribution Retraining in Mathematics Achievement of Form One Students in A Secondary School

Students form beliefs of success and failure towards learning and these have implications on coping with their learning problems. In the process of learning, it is important for them to identify the causes of failure and success in order to achieve higher performance and acquire learning strategies to master their learning. This study examined the effects of combined strategy instruction and attribution retraining (SI + AR) on students' causal attributions, learning strategies and achievement. Causal attributions in this study were based on three dimensions, that is, whether the results were due to the subjects themselves (internal) or others (external), whether the causes were changing in nature (unstable) or unchanging over time and place (stable) and whether the subjects can control (controllable) or cannot control (uncontrollable) the causes concerned. A total of 133 Form One students were randomly chosen from one specific school. They formed four randomised cluster sampling classes. Subjects underwent the testing for eight days and the treatment for twenty days. The Nonequivalent Control Group Design consisting of three experimental groups and one control group was used. The experimental treatments were the SI + AR, the strategy instruction only (SI Only) and the attribution retraining only (AR Only). The control group had no treatment. All tests were administered before and after the treatment

The Effects of Failure on Self-Esteem and Attributions in Non-Clinical Paranoia

The present study used Bentall\u27s attribution model of paranoia to investigate the effects of failure on self-esteem and attribution of those with paranoid symptoms. The present study used individuals who scored high and low on the Paranoia Scale (PS), a measure of paranoia, to form two comparison groups. Each group was given an unsolvable anagram task and told that they performed worse than others. This was used to simulate failure. The study utilized the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Internal Personal, and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ) to determine what effects failure of the presented task had on their self-esteem and attribution. Data was gathered before and after the failure task and examined to determine what effect failure had on paranoid ideation, self-esteem, and attribution biases in a non-clinical college sample

The Impact of Past Performance on Expectations of Future Success: An Investigation of Australian Managers

Competition among firms for market share and differential advantage is at an all-time high [3]. Moreover, investment in research and development (R&D) is seen as a major strategy in attaining and maintaining any competitive edge [4]. Little is known, however, about how experiencing poor performance in R&D endeavors affects managers\u27 perceptions of future opportunities for success in his or her company. Do managers believe that success breeds success, while poor performance is an indication of continued problems in the future? Or do managers believe that poor past performance is unrelated to future performance? Additionally, are some individuals prone to experience feelings of loss of control, while other individuals believe that they can influence future outcomes? When considering the importance of R&D endeavors to competitive strategy, these questions deserve attention and constitute the focus for this paper

Longitudinal effects of task performance and self-concept on preadolescent EFL learners’ causal attributions of grammar success and failure

Learners’ academic self-concepts and attributions have been widely evidenced to substantially regulate their educational development. Develop­men­tally, they will not only oper­ate in a mu­tually reinforcing manner. Rather, self-concepts will di­­­­rectly affect learners’ out­come attri­bu­­tions in a particular academic set­ting. Current research in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context has increasingly anal­­yzed learners’ attributions and self-concepts on a task-spe­­cific construct level. Never­the­less, there still exist certain research gaps in the field, partic­ularly con­cerning learners’ gram­mar self-con­cept and attributions. There­fore, the present study aimed at anal­yzing lon­gi­tu­dinal re­­lat­ions of prior performance and self-concept with subsequent attri­bu­tions of gram­mar suc­cess and failure in a samp­le of preadolescent EFL learners. Findings demonstrated that attri­bu­tional pat­terns most­­­­ly but not en­tire­ly depended on learn­ers’ grammar self-concept. Poor per­­form­ing learn­ers hold­ing a low self-concept dis­­played a maladaptive attri­bu­tion pattern for ex­­plain­ing both gram­­­mar suc­cess and failure. Though not with respect to all causal factors, these findings largely con­firm the crucial role of task-spe­cific self-concept in longitudinally explaining re­­lated control beliefs in the EFL con­text

Social and motivational influences on reading

Pages numbered 1-70Bibliography: p. 47-69Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. NIE-400-81-003

Finding fault: causality and counterfactuals in group attributions.

Attributions of responsibility play a critical role in many group interactions. This paper explores the role of causal and counterfactual reasoning in blame attributions in groups. We develop a general framework that builds on the notion of pivotality: an agent is pivotal if she could have changed the group outcome by acting differently. In three experiments we test successive refinements of this notion - whether an agent is pivotal in close possible situations and the number of paths to achieve pivotality. In order to discriminate between potential models, we introduced group tasks with asymmetric structures. Some group members were complements (for the two to contribute to the group outcome it was necessary that both succeed) whereas others were substitutes (for the two to contribute to the group outcome it was sufficient that one succeeds). Across all three experiments we found that people's attributions were sensitive to the number of paths to pivotality. In particular, an agent incurred more blame for a team loss in the presence of a successful complementary peer than in the presence of a successful substitute

Service recovery's impact on customers next-in-line

Purpose - Previous research considers service recovery as a one-on-one interaction between a service provider and a complaining customer. However, customers frequently complain at the place where they receive the service, making an investigation of the impact of a service recovery on observing customers necessary. Using observational learning theory and attribution theory as theoretical anchors, this paper examines whether observing a service recovery influences the observing customers' satisfaction and repurchase intentions. In addition, this paper tests whether service quality perceptions mediate, and customers' locus of control attributions moderate these relationships. Design/methodology/approach - Study 1 tests the main hypothesis using a scenario-based experiment in two settings (restaurant, retail). Study 2 further elaborates on these findings using a scenario-based experiment in a hotel setting. Findings - The findings show that the negative consequences of a failed recovery extend beyond the complaining customers to observing customers, whereas the positive consequences of observing a satisfactory recovery do not influence the observing customer when compared to observing a failure-free service delivery. These relationships are driven by the service quality information customers extract from observing a service recovery. In addition, the results indicate that the negative spill-over effects are attenuated if the observing customer gets information about who caused the failure. Originality/value - From a theoretical point of view, this study contributes by outlining service recovery's different impacts on complaining and observing customers: whereas service recovery forms a critical for complaining customers, it only acts as a dissatisfier for observing customers. In addition, it is the first to test a potential explanation for why observing a service recovery leads to lower customer outcomes, and provides insights about how service providers might attenuate the negative spill-over effects of a failed recovery

Do Negative Consumption Experiences Hurt Manufacturers or Retailers? The Influence of Reasoning Style on Consumer Blame Attributions and Purchase Intention

Negative consumption experiences adversely influence consumer perceptions of manufacturers and retailers. The author theorizes and finds that analytical thinkers are more likely than holistic thinkers to attribute the cause of the negative consumption experience to the manufacturer, resulting in lower repurchase intention of the manufacturer brand. In contrast, holistic thinkers are more likely than analytical thinkers to attribute the cause of the negative consumption experience to the retailer, resulting in lower repurchase intention at the retailer. These findings are important to marketing managers at both ends of the marketing supply chain--manufacturers and retailers--who deal with consumers with diverse cultural backgrounds

Depression, School Performance, and the Veridicality of Perceived Grades and Causal Attributions

An external criterion was assessed to test whether depressives have distorted perceptions of covariation information and whether their attributions are consistent with this information. Students’ actual and self-perceived grades, depression status, and attributions for failures were assessed. Furthermore, partici pants estimated average grades. Generally, self-perceived own past grades were inflated. Depressed students and those with low grades distorted their own grades (but not the average grade) more to their favor than individuals low in depression and those with high grades. Depression went along with lower actual grades and with internal, stable, and global failure attributions. Mood differences in attributions were not due to differences in previous grades. Depressed individuals drew (unrealistically) more depressogenic causal inferences when they perceived average grades to be low than when average grades were perceived to be high. However, they (realistically) attributed failure more in a depressogenic fashion than did nondepressives when their own grade history was low