Relationships of parents’ and child’s general attributional styles to academic performance

This study examined the relationships among student academic performance and child’s and parents’ attributional styles. One hundred seventy-nine students (87 boys and 92 girls) who were enrolled in primary public schools in New South Wales, Australia, and their parents volunteered to participate in the study. Only English-speaking, two-parent families were included. Participants completed age-appropriate attributional style questionnaires. Academic performance was obtained from student records of course grades. The results indicated that both mothers’ and fathers’ attributions for their own positive and negative life events were related to their children’s attributions for their academic performance. We present implications of these results for research on attributions and academic performance.     

Attributional style,attributional retraining,and inoculation against motivational deficits

College students periodically experience many challenges in pursuit of their educational goals. Such experiences can have deleterious effects on subsequent motivation and performance when they are perceived as negative. Research shows that some students who experience negative events are buffered against motivational deficits, whereas others are motivationally at-risk. Several individual difference variables have been proposed to account for such diverse reactions. A longitudinal field study that involved three phases was conducted to extend this research. Phase I examined the motivational buffering effects of academic attributional style on students' performance, motivation, and emotions. Results indicated that attributional style related to students' performance, motivation, and emotions. Specifically, students who routinely made unstable and controllable attributions for negative academic events exhibited the greatest performance and motivation compared to students who typically made stable and uncontrollable attributions. Phases II and III were designed to examine the remedial benefits of attributional retraining for different attributional styles. Findings indicated that attributional retraining influenced motivation, emotions, and course grade. These results were qualified by the interaction between attributional style, attributional retraining, and time. Findings are discussed within Weiner's (1985, 1986) attribution theory. This research was based, in part, on the first author's dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) doctoral fellowship, a University of Manitoba doctoral fellowship, and a SSHRCC postdoctoral fellowship to the first author. In addition, the research was also supported by a SSHRCC research grant (#410911296) to the second author. The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Bernard Weiner, Harvey Keselman, John Adair, Rodney Clifton, and Robert Altemeyer. Also appreciated was the assistance of Verena Menec and the Higher Education Research group.     

Cognitive effects of life stress and learned helplessness

Abstract Stressful life events and learned helplessness attributional styles have been shown to impact a variety of personal outcomes. This study examined how these factors influence two classes of cognitive behaviors: the occurrence of intrusive thoughts and performance in memory and verbal-spatial reasoning tasks. Negative life change and attributions for negative events predicted different types of cognitive responses. Individuals reporting higher levels of life stress were more likely to experience distracting thoughts that were unrelated to the current task, whereas individuals with learned helplessness attributional styles tended to have more worrisome thoughts about their task performance. In general, individuals reporting high levels of negative life stress tended to perform more poorly in tasks, whereas individuals with learned helplessness attributional styles tended to perform better than those who did not share this explanatory style. These results suggest that life stress and attributional style have important influecnes on cognitive processes, and that a learned helplessness attributional style can have beneficial effects on behavior in some situations.     

The relationship between attributions and depression varies across attributional dimensions and across samples

Two hypotheses implicit in the use of composite measures of attributions in tests of learned helplessness theory (but not implicit in the theory itself) were tested: the hypotheses that relationships between depression and the three types of attributions are equal in magnitude and are linear. To test these hypotheses, data from three published studies of the reformulated learned helplessness theory (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978) were reanalyzed. The hypothesis that internal, stable, and global attributions are equally related to depression was tested and rejected. Increases in internal attributions were related to depression in one sample; increases in global attributions for negative events were related to depression in two samples; stability attributions for negative events were unrelated to depression. The relationship between attributions and depression was nonlinear in one of the three populations studied. Finally, a third hypothesis was tested: the hypothesis that the relationship between attributions and depression is equal across samples. The hypothesis was rejected: attributions for negative events were more highly related to depression in a psychiatric sample than in normal populations. Implications of these findings for learned helplessness theory and for the use of composite measures of attributional style are discussed.     

Sex Differences, Attributional Style, and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents

This study examined attributional style, sex, and depressive symptoms and diagnosis in high school students. The results revealed that (1) for females and males, higher levels of depressive symptoms correlated with a more depressive attributional style; (2) females and males who met diagnostic criteria for a current depressive disorder evidenced more depres-sogenic attributions than psychiatric controls, and never and past depressed adolescents; (3) although no sex differences in terms of attributional patterns for positive events, negative events, or for positive and negative events combined emerged, sex differences were revealed on a number of dimensional scores; (4) across the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ) subscale and dimensional scores, the relation between attributions and current self-reported depressive symptoms was stronger for females than males; and (5) no Sex × Diagnostic Group Status interaction effects emerged for CASQ subscale or dimensional scores. Implications of the complex findings from this large-scale, methodologically sophisticated study are addressed.     

Depression and attributions in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review

This article presents a meta-analytic review of the association between attributional styles and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents. In 28 studies involving 7500 subjects, the correlations were consistent with those predicted by the reformulated learned helplessness model of depression. For negative outcomes, attributions along the internal, stable, and global dimensions were associated positively with depression. Conversely, higher levels of depressive symptoms were related to more external, unstable, and specific attributions for positive events. Additionally, overall composite maladaptive attributional patterns for positive and negative events were correlated with higher levels of depressive symptoms in youth. Effect sizes for these associations ranged from moderate to large (Cohen, 1977). Findings from the significance tests of the combined results support the theory. A large number of unretrieved studies revealing null effects would be needed to invalidate these findings.     

The mediation component of the hopelessness depression in relation to negative life events

A necessary test of the mediational processes component of the hopelessness theory of depression is to test whether the individuals who have negative attributional style and experience negative life events are likely to make negative attributions for the negative events they confront. The present study, using undergraduate students, find that the negative attributional style do not predict negative attributions subjects made for the negative life events they experience within a period of 3 months. However, subjects' negative attributions for the negative life events coupled with the experience of a high number of negative life events predicted their depressive symptomatology. The depressive symptomatology is found not to be mediated through hopelessness. The findings are discussed in relation to the hopelessness theory of depression.     

Modeling the relations of attributional style, expectancies, and depression

Structural modeling techniques were used to assess relations of attributional style, expectancies, and depression. According to an initial theoretical model, attributions are directly related to expectancies, and expectancies are directly related to depression, but attributions are only indirectly related to depression by means of their relation to expectancies. The results of Study 1 indicated that this model was flawed in 2 respects: (a) Attributions for positive and negative events did not form a single latent variable, and (b) attributions for negative events both were indirectly related to depression by means of expectancies and were directly related to depression. Attributions for positive events only were indirectly related to depression by means of expectancies. The model derived in Study 1 was replicated in Study 2. Discussion centers on the interpretation of this modified model and on issues in the measurement of attributional style.     

Affective and attributional features of acculturative stress among ethnic minority college students

Little is known about the affective features of acculturative stress or its relation to attributional styles for negative events. The authors examined associations among acculturative stress, attributional style, and positive and negative affect among 96 ethnic minority college students. They hypothesized that acculturative stress would be characterized by elevated negative affect and global and stable attributions for negative events. Consistent with prediction, acculturative stress was significantly associated with negative affect and global attributions, even when controlling for other relevant predictors. Attributional style did not account for the association between negative affect and acculturative stress. Positive affect and stable and internal attributional styles were not related to acculturative stress. The authors discuss implications for reducing stress associated with acculturation.     

Personality correlates of attributional style

Previous research, much of it based on the learned helplessness model of depression, suggested that a wide variety of personality variables might be related to attributional style. The Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson et al., 1982) and Comrey Personality Scales (CPS; Comrey, 1970) were administered to 329 subjects, and their scores were subjected to correlational and multiple regression analysis. The CPS scales were also factor analyzed, and the resulting scores were correlated with ASQ scores. Results indicated that a variety of personality variables have statistically significant relationships with attributional style, that these variables show significant positive relationships with internal, stable, and global attributions for positive events and significant negative relationships with these same attributions for negative events, and that an Activity-Extraversion-Stability factor demonstrates the strongest relationships with attributional style. Findings are interpreted within a revised theoretical framework, and emphasis is placed on understanding the personality correlates of attributional style for adequate interpretation of the concept.     

Improving the Performance of Failing Students by Overcoming Their Self-Serving Attributional Biases

The causal impact of attributions on academic performance was examined by changing low-scoring students' attributions regarding their poor performances. Initially, when students who were failing a college course identified the cause of the performance, they emphasized external, uncontrollable causes. Because these self-serving attributions could have perpetuated poor performance on subsequent examinations, students in the experimental condition were exposed to information that suggested that grades in college are caused by internal, controllable factors such as effort and motivation. As predicted, on subsequent tests and on the final examination, these students earned higher grades than control students who received no attributional information. These findings lend support to an attributional model of academic achievement and also suggest that educational interventions that shift attributions away from a self-serving pattern to a performance-facilitating pattern may improve academic outcomes.     

Experimental modification of attribution processes

Attributional style is hypothesized to be a causative factor in depression vulnerability; however, no studies to date have examined whether manipulation of attributional style influences depressed mood. The purpose of this study was to determine whether computer-based cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures could modify attributional style and influence stress vulnerability. Participants were provided with multiple training trials that were intended to promote the use of either a positive or a negative attributional style. Compared with individuals in the negative attributional style condition, individuals in the positive attributional style condition showed decreased tendency to make self-deficient causal attributions for poor performance on a difficult anagram test. Furthermore, individuals in the positive attributional style condition reported less depressed mood in response to this academic stressor. These results suggest that attributional style is not invariable and can potentially be modified with CBM approaches.     

Importance of attributions as a predictor of how people cope with failure

This study examined the extent to which causal attributions were predictive of depressed mood in college students who experienced a negative event. In a replication and extension of a study by Metalsky, Abramson, Seligman, Semmel, and Peterson (1982), we evaluated students' attributional style and their attributions for an examination performance in the college classroom. Additionally, an indirect probe was used to assess unsolicited attributions. Subjects were asked about their plans to prepare for the next examination in order to test for the motivational deficits predicted by the reformulated learned helplessness (RLH) model. Unlike Metalsky et al., attributional style did not predict depressed mood following a disappointing examination performance. Attributions for the particular examination performance were predictive of depressed mood for students who were disappointed in their examination performance. Few subjects, 31%, gave attributions in response to the indirect probe, and there was no support for the prediction that unexpected negative events would lead to subjects' making more attributions. Internal, stable, and global attributions for poor examination performance resulted in students making more plans to study for the next examination, a finding contrary to what is predicted by the RLH model.     

The Disclosure–Intimacy Link in Computer‐Mediated Communication: An Attributional Extension of the Hyperpersonal Model

The present research investigated whether the attribution process through which people explain self‐disclosures differs in text‐based computer‐mediated interactions versus face to face, and whether differences in causal attributions account for the increased intimacy frequently observed in mediated communication. In the experiment participants were randomly assigned to a face‐to‐face or computer‐mediated interaction with a confederate who made either high‐ or low‐intimacy self‐disclosures. Results indicated that computer‐mediated interactions intensified the association between disclosure and intimacy relative to face‐to‐face interactions, and this intensification effect was fully mediated by increased interpersonal (relationship) attributions observed in the computer‐mediated condition. The article presents an attributional extension of the hyperpersonal model ( Walther, 1996 ) by demonstrating the role of causal attributions in interpersonal intensification processes in text‐based computer‐mediated interactions.     

Attributional versus preattributional variables in self-esteem and depression: a comparison and test of learned helplessness theory

Predictions made according to the attributional reformulation of learned helplessness theory concerning the cognitive determinants of low self-esteem and depression were tested in two samples of undergraduates; real and hypothetical life events were used. As predicted, internal attributions for hypothetical success and failure were correlated with self-esteem, but there was an unexpected correlation with global attributions for negative outcomes. Two "preattributional" variables, consensus and consistency judgments, were also related to self-esteem and depression. In contrast to learned helplessness theory, a path analysis indicated that these variables were not attributionally mediated. Consensus judgment was as strong a predictor of depression as the number of recent distressing life events that subjects had experienced. Other evidence that links depression to perceived low consensus is described, and a possible etiological role for this variable is outlined.     

Comparing two attributional models of job performance in retail sales: A field study

Research investigating attributional style and job performance among sales staff has been limited by its focus on specific sales roles: notably selling insurance by telephone. Important questions therefore remain regarding the mechanism by which attributions influence job performance in sales roles more generally. This paper describes a field study comparing two attributional models of job performance: (1) a learned helplessness (LH) model, and (2) an achievement motivation (AM) model. Managers' performance ratings were collected for 452 retail sales assistants who completed a job‐specific attribution questionnaire and a work‐satisfaction questionnaire. Results indicate that sales assistants who made more internalcontrollable attributions for positive outcomes received higher performance ratings (r =.20, p<.01) and were more satisfied in their work (r =.12, p< .05). The findings provide support for an AM model of job performance among retail sales assistants. They suggest that more successful sales assistants proactively manage their environment in order to create opportunities for successful interactions with customers.     

The relationship of relatives' attributions to their expressed emotion and to patients' improvement in treatment for anxiety disorders

In a test of Hooley's (1987) attributional model of expressed emotion (EE), attributions for negative behaviors and events in patients' lives were examined in relatives of 74 outpatients with panic disorder with agoraphobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Attributions were extracted from 10-minute problem-solving interactions between relatives and patients, whereas EE was assessed during a separate interview with the relative. Consistent with prior findings in relatives of individuals with other disorders, relatives who made greater proportions of attributions of patient responsibility demonstrated significantly higher levels of EE-hostility. In addition, nonspousal relatives (mostly parents) who attributed any negative behaviors or events to a patient's disorder were significantly higher in emotional overinvolvement (EOI); no such relationship was found for spouses. Finally, patients with relatives who made attributions to the patient's disorder received less benefit from behavior therapy than did those whose relatives made no such attributions, even when EE variables were controlled.     

Trust and communicated attributions in close relationships

The attributional statements intimate partners communicate to one another were examined as a function of trust. In discussions by 35 married couples, 850 attributions and corresponding events were coded on dimensions of valence, globality, and locus. Results of regression and contingency analyses indicate that attributional statements expressed in high-trust relationships emphasized positive aspects of the relationship. Medium-trust couples actively engaged issues but focused more on negative events and explanations. Low-trust couples expressed more specific, less affectively extreme attributional statements that minimized the potential for increased conflict. Results could not be accounted for by relationship satisfaction. These findings also highlight the importance of focusing on features of the events for which attributions are expressed.     

Moderating effects of attributions on the relationship between emotional dissonance and surface acting: a transactional approach to health care professionals' emotion work

Based on a transactional model of stress, this study aims to understand the role played by attributions in selecting surface acting as emotion regulation strategy when coping with emotion‐rule dissonance. A sample of primary health care professionals (n = 87) based in Madrid filled in a questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test hypotheses on the moderating effects of attributions on the relationship between emotion‐rule dissonance and surface acting. Results showed that high levels of attribution to patients of responsibility for negative events, low levels of professionals' self‐accountability, and low attribution of being able to promote a positive change strengthen the positive association between emotion‐rule dissonance and surface acting. This could explain why professionals use a potentially damaging emotion regulation strategy.     

Exploring attributions in natural settings: Gender and self-esteem effects

Two studies investigated the attributions of undergraduates for the outcomes of satisfying and dissatisfying achievement events that occurred naturally over the course of a 3-week period. In both studies, women with low performance self-esteem gave less ego-enhancing attributions than high self-esteem women, high self-esteem men, or low self-esteem men. Also, in Study 2 high self-esteem subjects attributed greater stability to causes of satisfying events than to causes of dissatisfying events, whereas low self-esteem subjects gave both types of events equivalent stability ratings. Both studies provide evidence of consistent individual differences in attributional style across occasions and situations. The gender differences were interpreted in the context of sex-role socialization factors and Anderson and Slusher's (1986) two-stage model of the attribution process.