Attribution theory and unemployment: Kelley's covariation model,self-esteem,and locus of control

The validity of applying Kelley, 1967, Kelley, 1973, 28, 107–128) to understanding the perceived causes of success and failure of others' job seeking activities was first tested in a laboratory study before testing the same theory on the self-attributions made by 82 unemployed in a field study. The field study also examined the relationship of self-esteem and locus of control to attributions for success and failure. In general Kelley's theory was supported by the results from the laboratory study but only two of the twelve predicted relationships were found in the field study. Low distinctiveness (weak workrelated skills) was associated with strong attributions to lack of ability and low consistency (past job seeking activities successful) with strong attributions to bad luck. As predicted the unemployed with high self-esteem and an internal locus of control attributed failure to lack of effort and credited their success to ability. Unemployed with low self-esteem and an external locus of control attributed success to unstable factors, but failure was not attributed to lack of ability. Possible reasons offered for the lack of support for Kelley's theory in the field study included the influence of group identity, individual differences in the perception of the stability and locus of causes, the greater realism of the field setting, and the inadequacy of the assumptions underlying the model.     

Interal locus of control as a value

Internal and external subjects, who previously filled out Rotter's (1966) I-E scale, were asked to score the I-E scale of “another student”. Subjects were exposed to “an other's” score of either 0, 5, 10, 16, or 23, and were asked to rate themselves and the “other” on an evaluative questionnaire. It was predicted that ratings of the “other” would increase in positivity to the extent the “other” scored as an internal. A reverse direction was predicted for an index of negative evaluations. The predictions were confirmed. The results suggest that internal locus of control is a societal value. The findings did not support either Hannah's (1973) hypothesis that internals are more responsive to a need for social approval, or Byrne's (1969) similarity hypothesis.     

Causal attributions and information seeking to explain success and failure

Previous studies of attributions for success and failure have relied upon a theoretically derived set of causal attributions, either luck versus skill (derived from Rotter, 1966) or ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty (Weiner et al., 1971; Weiner, 1972). The same tendency of relying upon a set of logically derived cues has been evident in investigations of information-processing in making attributional judgments for success and failure (e.g., Fontaine, 1972; Frieze & Weiner, 1971). Two studies were conducted which employed an open-ended format to determine the relevance of the causal categories and information which have been utilized in previous studies. Results of these studies supported the validity of previously employed causal categories and information cues as well as establishing other important but previously ignored causes and sources of information.     

Caffeine ingestion,misattribution therapy,and speech anxiety

While theoretical analogs of misattribution therapy appeared promising (Nisbett & Schachter, 1966; Ross, Rodin, & Zimbardo, 1969), attempts with clinically relevant behaviors have not been so successful (Kellogg & Baron, 1975; Singerman, Borkovec, & Baron, 1976). Since the plausibility of the misattribution manipulation appears to be the central problem, the present study attempted to increase plausibility by manipulating familiarity with the setting and actual psychological arousal in a clinically relevant situation. Subjects only slightly fearful of giving speeches presented a speech in front of two observers. Familiarity was varied by having half of the subjects give a pretest speech, while arousal was manipulated by having half of the subjects ingest caffeine while the others ingested a placebo just prior to the test speech. The subjects' attributions were varied by giving them either arousal or irrelevant symptom instructions regarding the effects of the ingested drug. Direct suggestion rather than misattribution effects occurred: Those subjects receiving arousal symptoms reported more nervousness than subjects who had received irrelevant symptoms. The authors conclude that while the misattribution effect may have experimental validity, it is not effective with clinically relevant behavior.     

Elkind on egocentrism

The purpose of this paper is to respond to D. Elkind's (1985, Developmental Review, 5, 218–226) reply to D. Lapsley and M. Murphy's (1985, Developmental Review, 5, 201–217) critique of the adolescent egocentrism theory. After a reprise of the issues in contention, we address the problem of theoretical consistency and self-other differentiation in Dr. Elkind's (1967, Child Development, 38, 1025–1034) theory. The role of formal operations in the Lapsley and Murphy (1985) account of the imaginary audience and personal fable is revised, and the empirical support for Elkind's theory is reviewed. We conclude that there are good conceptual and empirical grounds for doubting the major assumptions of the adolescent egocentrism theory, and that the Lapsley and Murphy (1985) framework has promise in suggesting theoretical integration with other approaches to the self.     

The interaction of locus of control expectancies and providing purpose on children's motivation

Children differing in locus of control orientation (internals, mediums, and externals' were administered an extended coding task following either a fictional rationale for the study (purpose incentive statement) or no purpose. As predicted, externals' performance under no purpose was significantly poorer and their rated interest in the task was significantly less favorable than those of internals. Also as predicted, these differences were nullified under the purpose incentive condition. The findings extend Lefcourt's (1967) suggestion that cue explication is important for externals to include external children, and support the position (Mischel, 1973; Rotter, 1975) that personality variables are increasingly important as a function of greater situational ambiguity. Implications of these findings for education and child-rearing are discussed.     

Traits,processes, and the purpose of templates

The template method proposed by D. J. Bem and D. C. Funder 1978, Psychological Review, 85, 485–501) can have two separate purposes. First, template-behavior pairs can be used as a type of explanation in which situational influences are incorporated within a trait theory. Second, template matching can be used as a method for evaluating process theories. Recent discussion (D. J. Bem, 1983; Psychological Review, 90, 390–393; D. C. Funder, 1983; Psychological Review, 90, 283–289; W. Mischel & P. K. Peake, 1982, Psychological Review, 89, 730–755) confuses these two purposes. If used as a type of explanation, then templates can be criticized on the grounds of blunt empiricism; but if templates are used as a method for evaluating process theories, then process theorists should welcome this new technique.     

On the relations between random walk models for two-choice response times

We state a condition on the moment-generating functions of the random walk model derived by Link and Heath (1975), which is necessary and sufficient to yield the sequential probability ratio test of Wald (1947) and the reaction-time model proposed by Stone (1960). A restricted form of this condition can also be obtained by imposing the types of symmetries on the moment-generating functions considered by Link and Health (1975) and Thomas (1975). The various conditions are contrasted and their implications for empirical investigation are discussed.     

Androgyny,sex-typing,and the perception of masculinity-femininity in handwritings

Sex-typed and androgynous subjects rated the similarity of handwritings on masculinity-femininity and also rated the writings on an absolute scale of masculinity-femininity. The variances of sex-typed subjects' ratings were significantly higher than those of androgynous subjects, indicating that sex-typed subjects differentiated more along the dimension. Sex-typed subjects also agreed more highly with other raters and among themselves than did androgynous subjects. Multidimensional scaling of similarity ratings—using nonmetric multidimensional scaling (Kruskal, 1964; Shepard, 1962), and INDSCAL (Carroll & Chang, 1970)—showed interpretable dimensions along which subjects perceived masculinity-femininity. Further scaling solutions indicated again that sex-typed subjects differentiated more strongly along the dimension of masculinity-femininity and weighted the dimension more highly in making their similarity ratings. The data supported the hypothesis that subjects who monitor their own behavior on a given dimension are more sensitive to cues in others relating to that dimension.     

The applicability of Holland's typology to clients

Holland, 1966, Holland, 1973 has generated a vast amount of research seeking to validate or to challenge the hexagonal model and the associated constructs of consistency and differentiation. A review of the studies related to Holland's typology, however, reveals a very small number of studies with clients as subjects. The present study was an evaluation of Holland's model using the General Occupational Themes of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) (D. P. Campbell & J. C. Hansen, Manual for the SVIB-SCII, 3rd ed., Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1981) obtained from college students who had sought vocational counseling. The use of the hexagonal model as a framework for the interpretation of relationships among the SCII General Occupational Themes was supported, and the SCII was found to be a valid instrument for vocational counseling in a client population.     

Subjective utility,anticipated utility,and the Allais paradox

One of the most notable counterexamples to expected utility theory is the “Allais paradox” (M. Allais, 1953, Econometrica, 31, 503–546). A number of alternative theories have been proposed in an attempt to resolve this paradox, notably including Karmarkar, 1978, Karmarkar, 1979, 24, 67–72). It is shown that SWU theory necessarily involves violations of dominance, but that the theory can be modified to avoid these violations. The result is a special case of J. Quiggin's anticipated utility theory (1982, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, 3, 323–343).     

Effects of self-awareness on antinormative behavior

Based on Zimbardo's (1970) theory of deindividuation and Duval and Wicklund's (1972) theory of “objective self-awareness” it was predicted that self-awareness would lead to a decrease in transgressive behavior. Subjects were either made self-aware (seated in front of a mirror listening to their own tape-recorded voice) or nonself-aware (seated to the side of the mirror listening to another's voice) and were given an opportunity to cheat on an anagrams test. Significantly more cheated in the nonself-aware condition (71%) than in the self-aware condition (7%). The results support the basic premise of deindividuation theory that self-awareness influences impulsive, counternormative behavior and suggest that an integration of the theories of deindividuation and objective self-awareness is possible.     

Congruency,consistency, and differentiation of vocational interests as predictors of vocational satisfaction and preference stability

The Ramak interest inventory (Meir, E. I. Manual for the Ramak and Courses interest inventories, 1975; Barak, A. & Meir, E. I. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1974, 4, 377–387), together with an occupational choice satisfaction (OCS) inventory, was administered to 158 males and 202 females who had responded to the Ramak 7 years before. The results of the study show: (a) congruence (Holland, J. L. Making vocational choices, 1973) correlated positively with males' and females' OCS (p < .01), while consistency and differentiation correlated with males' OCS when vocational interests were congruent with occupational field; (b) congruency, consistency, and differentiation all had a positive effect on OCS of males (p < .05); (c) when there was incongruency, no negative correlations between consistency and differentiation on the one hand and OCS on the other were found; (d) for males and females, positive correlations (p < .05) were found between congruency, consistency, differentiation, and stability of occupational interests; and (e) differentiation measured in percentages was found valid twice. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Brain responses related to semantic meaning

Evoked Potentials from electroencephalogram (EEG) recording were averaged to many visually presented word stimuli whose semantic meanings were specified along Osgood's semantic dimensions of Evaluation, Potency, and Activity [Miron &; Osgood, 1966, in R. B. Cattell (Ed.), Handbook of multivariate experimental psychology, Chicago: Rand-McNally; Osgood, 1971, Journal of Social Issues, 27, 5–63; Osgood, May, &; Miron, 1975, Cross-cultural universals of affective meaning, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press]. Multivariate analyses classified the Evoked Potentials to six semantic classes with success rates more than twice chance expectation. The pattern of brain activity related to the six semantic classes was similar for (i) two sets of words, (ii) 10 subjects used to develop the analyses, and (iii) an added, new subject.     

Comment on Bernbach's prediction of the invariance of Type 2 d′ in confidence-rated recall

Bernbach Bernbach, 1967, Bernbach, 1971 has claimed that empirical findings of Type 2 d′ invariance in confidence-rated recall experiments confirm a prediction of his two-state theory of recognition and disprove strength theories of memory. In order to derive this prediction from his recognition theory, Bernbach (1967) found it necessary to add to the theory an assumption concerning recall processes. However, this recall assumption is untenable, as it leads to an empirically false prediction concerning accuracy on recognition and recall tests. Moreover, an alternative recall assumption proposed by Bernbach and Kupchak (1972) does not lead to a prediction of Type 2 d′ invariance. Thus, Bernbach's theory predicts the invariance of Type 2 d′ only with the aid of an untenable recall assumption. Consequently, empirical findings of Type 2 d′ invariance cannot be regarded as supportive of Bernbach's theory.     

Need for uniqueness,self-schemas,and thought as moderators of the false-consensus effect

L. Ross and his colleagues (L. Ross, D. Greene, & P. House, 1977, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32, 880–892) have demonstrated the tendency for people to expect peer similarity in behavior, termed the “false-consensus” bias. The present study was concerned with factors that might affect the generality of this bias. Specifically, we looked at the impact of level of need for uniqueness (C. R. Snyder & H. L. Fromkin, 1977, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 5, 518–527), existence of a self-schema (H. Markus, 1977, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 63–78), and thought on expectations of peer similarity. It was predicted that thought would polarize the estimates of high and low N Uniq individuals in opposite directions, but only when the individual possessed a self-schema along the relevant behavioral dimension. The results for behaviors reflecting independence supported this prediction. Discussion centered around limits of the false-consensus bias, along with consideration of the complexities involved in the link between availability factors and interpersonal judgments.     

Authoritarianism and recall of evidence about criminal behavior

Research by Marshall (1966) suggested that high authoritarian persons might be more accurate at recalling evidence about criminal behavior than low authoritarian persons. Drawing on other research findings, Marshall's hypothesis was expanded to predict that high authoritarians would recall more about evidence relating to defendant character and low authoritarians would recall more about situational evidence. In two jury-simulation experiments the new hypothesis was confirmed.     

Occupational prestige: Exploration of a theoretical basis

Drawing on the theory and research of psychophysics, a nonlinear model is hypothesized to explain the connection between education and income and occupational prestige. To achieve this, Weber's (R. L. Gregory, 1981, Mind in Science, Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 501–503) and Stevens' (S. S. Stevens, 1970, Science170, 1043–1050) laws are brought together in an intrinsically nonlinear model. Guided by the earlier work of R. L. Hamblin (1971, Sociometry, 34, 423–452) and others, the work of O. D. Duncan (1961, in A. J. Reiss, Jr., O. D. Duncan, P. K. Hatt, & C. C. North (Eds.), Occupations and Social Status, New York, Free Press) is reanalyzed testing the possibility that work on the socioeconomic index can be understood as a prestige allocation process which follows psychophysical principles. That is, prestige is assigned to occupations, given specifiable levels of educational and income attainment, in a manner parallel to the way in which individuals respond to changes in the intensity of other stimuli. Using first the data developed by Duncan (1961) to test the model and the 1963 NORC data (R. W. Hodge, P. M. Siegel, & P. H. Rossi, 1964, American Journal of Sociology, 70, 286–302) to replicate it, a measurement model consistent with the theoretical model is evaluated. Comparing the results of the nonlinear model to that of the linear, it is concluded that a model is obtained yielding theoretical confirmation with no loss in predictive accuracy. The resultant nonlinear model yields alternative substantive implications concerning the relative influence of income and education on occupational prestige to those to be inferred from linear models. Perhaps most important, however, is the candidacy given by these results to psychophysics as the explanatory mechanism in the prestige allocation process.     

The abstraction of visual prototypes by children

The present studies demonstrated that children as young as second graders could form prototypical representations from a set of highly similar stimuli. The prototype-plus-transformation model of this performance (Franks & Bransford, 1971) was contrasted with an attribute-frequency model (Neumann, 1974). Results supported the latter model when trigram stimuli were used to test differential predictions from the models.     

Effects of preexisting and manipulated self-efficacy on weight loss in a self-control program

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of self-efficacy on weight loss utilizing self-control techniques. Subjects high and low in preexisting self-efficacy were randomly assigned to high or low manipulated self-efficacy groups in a 2 × 2 (preexisting self-efficacy × manipulated self-efficacy) factorial design. Preexisting self-efficacy was assessed using procedures employed byBandura and Adams (1977, Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1, 287–308). Selfefficacy was manipulated by having subjects attribute successful task performance to a previously unrecognized capacity for self-control. Subjects met in groups once a week for a total of 8 weeks and received a comprehensive weight control program within the context of self-control. Results indicated significant manipulated and preexisting × trials interactions with both the high manipulated and preexisting self-efficacy groups losing more weight over the 8 weeks than the low preexisting and manipulated groups. In addition, locus of control was predictive of weight loss, with internals tending to lose more weight than externals. Results are discussed in terms of Bandura's (1977, Psychological Review, 84, 191–215) theory of self-efficacy.