| Abstract: | The effects of success and failure on task performance, and attributions about performance, were compared for high and low instrumental college women. For the high instrumental group, success facilitated task performance, whereas failure, had no debilitating effect; for the low instrumental group, success had no effect on subsequent performance, whereas failure interfered with it. High instrumental women attributed their success primarily, to internal factors and their failures to external factors (the egotistical attribution profile) whereas low instrumental women revealed the opposite profile. The gender-appropriateness of the task had little effect on performance or attribution. Four potential mediators of these differences were investigated: self-esteem, perceived ability, expectancy of success, and attainment value. High-instrumental women's higher perceived ability and performance expectations accounted for their superior task performance, but none of the four mediators accounted for the relationship of instrumentality to attributions. |
