Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Causal Attributions and Exercise Behavior

The primary purposes of this study were to examine whether the attribution–intention link was mediated by self-efficacy and whether the attribution–behavior link was mediated by self-efficacy. As a secondary purpose, we examined whether the attribution–behavior link was mediated by exercise intentions. These relationships were tested prospectively at multiple time points. Participants were 260 adult exercisers ( M age=32 years) enrolled in 12 weeks of structured exercise classes. Social cognitive measures were assessed at early and midprogram; attendance was tracked for the first and second half of the program. Hierarchical multiple regression procedures indicated support for self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between attributions and behavior. Secondary analyses revealed support for intention as a mediator of the attribution–behavior relationship. Finally, additive relationships in support of social cognitive theory also were detected. The attribution/self-efficacy/behavior link is important for adherence interventions and should be investigated further in both asymptomatic and symptomatic populations.     

Perspective Effects on Causal Attributions of Success and Failure

The performance attributions of actors (participants on a task or in an interaction), active observers (co-actors who make observations of the actor) and passive observers (non-participants who observe but do not interact with the actor) were compared on a task in which actors succeeded or failed after competing or working independently. Contrary to Jones and Nisbett's (1971) divergent perspectives hypothesis, the results indicated that the subjects' person attributions were influenced interactively by the actor's outcome and the subjects' perspective while their situation attributions were influenced interactively by their perspective and the nature of the task. The implications of these findings for the divergent perspectives hypothesis were discussed.     

Temporal Perspective and Attributions: The Role of Causal Stability and Certainty

Examinations of the effect of temporal perspective on attributions have resulted in a set of apparently contradictory findings. Our results suggest that rather than a dispositional shift versus a situational shift, these findings can be reconciled in terms of a "stability shift" in attributions over time. In Study 1, participants were given scenarios and were asked to imagine themselves, or another person, succeeding or failing in the past, present, or future. In Study 2, participants provided attributions for their own real-life exam performances, with a design that instituted a time delay. The dependent measures were eight achievement attributions corresponding to the cells of Weiner's model. Discussion centers around the stability and certainty of causes, and directions for further research.     

The Romance of Leadership Scale and Causal Attributions1

Two empirical studies examined the relationship between individual‐level Romance of Leadership and causal attributions to test and extend the construct validity of the Romance of Leadership Scale. As anticipated, Romance of Leadership significantly predicted attributions to the leader, but not to the situation or the followers. The effect of leader experience on the relationship between Romance of Leadership and attributions was also examined. It was determined that individuals high in Romance of Leadership weigh information about leader experience more heavily than do others. Implications for organizations are discussed.     

Bouncing Back: How Salesperson Optimism and Self-Efficacy Influence Attributions and Behaviors Following Failure

Previous research reports a relationship between attributions and specific behaviors following a failed sales call. This study investigates the influence of individual differences on both the attribution process and the relationship between attribution and the behavioral intentions of sales representatives following a failure using a sample of financial services salespeople. This research reveals the important roles that optimism and self-efficacy play in shaping salespeople’s attributions for failed sales calls and in their behavioral responses to attributions for failure. Implications for managers and future research are discussed.     

Reciprocal Relations Among Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Prosociality Across Time

ABSTRACT The present study examined the longitudinal relations between individuals' prosociality and their self-efficacy beliefs in regard to emotional regulation and responding empathically to others' needs. The participants were 244 females and 222 males with a mean age of 17 years ( SD =1.5) at T1, 19 years ( SD =1.4) at T2, and 21 years ( SD =1.6) at T3. The findings corroborated the posited paths of relations assigning empathic self-efficacy a major role in predicting the level of individuals' prosociality. Empathic self-efficacy beliefs mediated the relations of regulative emotional self-efficacy beliefs to prosocial tendencies such as caring, sharing, helping, and empathic concern toward others. The posited conceptual model accounted for a significant portion of variance in prosociality and has implications for interventions designed to promote and sustain prosociality.     

Causal Attributions of Male and Female Performance by Young Children

Males and females in kindergarten and third grade predicted whether a boy or a girl would succeed on a masculine or a feminine task. Some predictions were confirmed; others were not. The children were asked to explain the winner's success by choosing among four determinants of achievement: ability, effort, task ease, and luck. For third graders, luck was more important in determining the success of an unpredicted winner than a predicted winner. For both ages, female success on a masculine task was attributed more to effort than to ability. These findings support attribution theory and indicate that differential perceptions of male and female performance exist in young children.     

Causal Attributions of Ghanaian Industrial Workers for Accident Occurrence

This study confirms the self-defensive attribution hypothesis on causal attributions of accidents in Ghana's work environment. In this investigation, Ghanaian industrial workers and their supervisors assigned causality to industrial accidents, and their responses were compared. The results showed that the victims attributed their accidents to external causes to a greater extent than did the supervisors, and to internal causes to a lesser extent than did the supervisors. This finding reflects the tendency toward self-protective bias, whereby people tend to project blame for their failures onto external circumstances.     

Causal Attributions and Sex Differences Associated With Perceptions of Occupational Barriers

This study extends previous research addressing sex differences in perceived occupational barriers and evaluates the mediating role of causal attributions in the relationship between perceived occupational barriers and career maturity. Participants (85 women and 30 men) listed their perceived barriers to occupational goals, completed a measure of attributions for career decision making, and completed 2 different measures of career maturity. Findings revealed that a larger proportion of women than men perceived past barriers associated with family-related issues. Results also revealed a significant, negative relationship between the number of perceived occupational barriers and career maturity for participants who believe that career decision making is an externally caused, uncontrollable process. The implications of these findings and suggestions for career counselors to integrate perceived barriers into the counseling process are discussed.     

Age Bias in the Workplace: The Impact of Ageism and Causal Attributions1

This study considers the roles of managerial ageism and causal attributions in the age bias process. Specifically, we predicted that employee age and manager ageism would interact in predicting the severity of recommendations made about an employee's performance errors, such that ageist managers would be more likely to engage in age bias. Second, we proposed that age bias is caused partially by differential attributions made about the performance errors of older vs. younger workers. Results indicated that older employees received more severe recommendations for poor performance than did their younger counterparts. Also, some ageist attitudes moderated the relationship between age and performance recommendations. Stability attributions mediated the relationship of employee age on endorsement of the more punitive recommendations.     

Causal Attributions for Poorly Performing Projects: Their Effect on Project Continuation Decisions

This study examined the escalation problem within an attribution theory framework. Students read a case scenario containing causal attribution information that described a poorly performing project under their supervision. They made estimates of its future success, as well as a decision whether to continue it. Perceived stability of causality had the primary effect on expectancy of success. A project whose performance downturn was attributed to a stable cause had a lower expectancy. Locus of causality had a smaller but still significant effect. Project downturns attributed to internal causes had a lower expectancy. Expectancy of success was significantly correlated with project continuation decisions. Discrepancies between these results and those reported by Staw and Ross (1978) are accounted for in terms of Weiner's (1985, 1986) attributional analysis.     

The Effects of Gender and Measurement Strategy on Causal Attributions for Infertility

Investigators of causal attributions for threatening events have typically studied either male or female samples and have interchangeably used two methods of assessing attributions. To examine the effect of gender and measurement strategy on causal attributions, we interviewed 31 men and 33 women with impaired fertility. Causal attributions were measured using open-ended questions, as well as by asking participants to rate the influence of five specific causes. The results of a multitrait-multimethod matrix revealed only modest convergence between measurement methods. As predicted, both method and gender influenced causal attributions. Women were more likely to attribute the infertility to their behavior. Causal attributions were related to psychological symptoms, but differentially depending on how attributions were measured.     

Causal Relationships among Self-Concept,Attributions, and Achievement in Filipino Students

Abstract

Path-analytic models linking measures of self-concept, attributions, and grades of 194 Filipino high school students were examined. Attributions for successful outcomes to ability or effort were found to mediate the causal relationship between achievement and self-esteem within specific areas of academic content. Negative paths leading from ability attributions for success in math to reading self-concept and for success in reading to math self-concept were interpreted to reflect the simultaneous operation of internal and external frames of reference (Marsh & Shavelson, 1985).     

Conservative Ideology,Economic Conservatism,and Causal Attributions for Poverty and Wealth

The purpose of the study is to analyze the effects of different features of Conservative Ideology, measured via the Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Economic Conservatism (EC) scales, on Internal and External casual attributions for poverty and wealth. Participants were a group of 181 university students. Results of multiple regression analyses suggested that EC influenced Internal causal attributions for poverty and wealth positively but influenced the External ones negatively. Of the other measures, only SDO showed a negative effect on External causal attributions. Theoretical and practical implications of results are discussed.     

Causal Attributions, Depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Victims of Crime

The major purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between causal attributions and symptomatology in victims of crime. Fifty-one subjects who had not been crime victims and 120 subjects who had been crime victims participated in the study and were assessed for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Subjects also completed two attributional questionnaires. The potential differences in symptomatology among victims of a single crime, multiple crimes, and nonvictims were investigated. Results did not indicate differences in depression and PTSD based on single vs. multiple victimization, although differences between victims and nonvictims were found. Results using the Causal Dimension Scale (CDS; Peterson et al., 1982) indicated significant differences in the causal attributions of victims and nonvictims. On the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Russell, 1982), group comparisons among nonvictims, PTSD victims, depression victims, both depression and PTSD victims, and victims with low symptoms did not yield significant results. However, regression analyses indicated that several subscales of both the CDS and ASQ were found to be moderate predictors of symptomatology. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The Dynamics of Creative Self-Concept: Changes and Reciprocal Relations Between Creative Self-Efficacy and Creative Personal Identity

Although creative self-concept constructs are intensively studied in the creativity literature, little is known about the dynamics of their changes during the life span and the relationships between different aspects of the creative self-concept. Using a longitudinal and a cross-sequential design, this investigation aimed to test changes in two important creative self-concept constructs—creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity—over short (6 months) and longer (20 months) periods of time, while simultaneously examining reciprocal relationships between them. The results showed the short-term stability of both constructs, but they also revealed significant change over the longer period―specifically, a growth of creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity in people from late adolescence to early adulthood and a drop among older participants. Reciprocal longitudinal relationships between creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity were also demonstrated, with creative self-efficacy being a more stable predictor of creative personal identity than the reverse.     

Responses to Successful and Unsuccessful Performance: The Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy on the Relationship between Performance and Attributions

This paper reports on two experiments which explore how individuals with high and low self-efficacy differ in the way they interpret performance feedback and make causal attributions to sustain their self-efficacy perceptions for subsequent performance attempts. The results from Study 1 show that high self-efficacy people make self-serving attributions for unsuccessful performance, while low self-efficacy individuals make self-effacing attributions for unsuccessful performance. In Study 2, these attribution patterns were replicated and shown to combine with past performance, to account for 53% of the variance in subsequent self-efficacy. The implications for improving training interventions, and for understanding the causes of poor performance, are discussed.     

Causal Attributions,Perceived Control,and Psychological Adjustment: A Study of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome1

Causal attributions control, beliefs, and helpful and unhelpful support attempts were examined among people experiencing chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and their close others. Results revealed that 84% of respondents with CFS believed that their illness was due, at least in part, to physical or external causes, whereas 47% mentioned internal/psychological causes. Reports of internal causal attributions for CFS were positively correlated with indicators of poor psychological adjustment among those with CFS. Having an external locus of control (i.e., to powerful others) was also associated with poorer psychological adjustment among respondents with CFS. Close others' causal attributions to internal factors were related to frequency of self‐reported unhelpful support attempts and to reports of depression and anxiety those respondents with CFS.     

Performance Expectations of Salespeople: The Role of Past Performance and Causal Attributions in Independent and Interdependent Cultures

The study compares the role of self-reported causal attributions of past performance on self-generated expectations of future performance among salespeople from independent and interdependent national cultures. The results suggest that salespeople from independent cultures attribute successful past performance to internal factors (i.e., effort or ability), but not external factors (i.e., luck or organizational support). Salespeople from interdependent cultures, however, attribute successful performances to both internal and external factors. Furthermore, the relationship between past performance and future performance expectation is mediated by internal or external causal attributions depending upon whether the salespeople operate in independent or interdependent cultures, respectively.