Attributional Retraining: reducing the likelihood of failure

Failing a course is an acutely negative event for first-year university students, and a major contributor to high attrition rates at North American universities. Despite its prevalence, course failure receives relatively little research attention. What can be done to reduce course failure and help first-year students remain in university? This study examined the efficacy of an Attributional Retraining treatment intervention to reduce course failure in an Introductory Psychology course. Attributional Retraining is designed to restructure students’ causal explanations of poor performance by encouraging controllable attributions such as effort and strategy in place of immutable causes such as academic ability or intelligence. Relative to students in the control group, first-year students who received Attributional Retraining were less likely to fail the Introductory Psychology course (14.6% vs. 6.4%). This finding emerged beyond the effects of several well-established predictors of academic outcomes including student background characteristics (i.e., age, gender, and past academic performance) and learning environment variables (student registration status and participation in a first-year orientation program), suggesting the utility of Attributional Retraining for students with varying backgrounds and in different educational contexts. To the extent that Attributional Retraining is effective, inexpensive, and relatively easy to administer it may be a viable option for inclusion in orientation programs designed to reduce course failure and attrition among first-year university students.     

Assisting At-Risk College Students With Attributional Retraining and Effective Teaching1

Attributional retraining appears to be an effective remedial intervention for college students. However, the potential moderating effects of student and classroom characteristics have not yet been investigated systematically. In two studies, attributional retraining was provided to low- and high-risk students, followed by a videotaped lecture presented by either an ineffective or effective instructor. Attributional retraining enhanced achievement on a lecture-based achievement test only when combined with effective teaching, improving the achievement of students who had previously performed poorly (Experiment l), and of low-achieving externals (Experiment 2). The intervention provided no advantage for previously successful students and low-achieving internals. Moreover, attributional retraining induced a more internal attribution profile in students with an external locus, and increased expectations of future success in both externals and internals, but again only when students also received effective instruction. These results suggest that contextual factors related to the classroom, such as quality of instruction, and individual differences have to be considered when developing attributional retraining programs.     

Teaching Job Interview Skills to Alcoholics: Implications for Future Employment Rates

Twenty-three inpatient alcoholics participated in a job-finding skills workshop. They demonstrated better job interview skills and a higher employment rate compared with a control group.     

Beyond Words: Influence of Nonverbal Behavior of Female Job Applicants in the Employment Interview

Three experiments studied the influence on hiring decisions of the nonverbal communication of female job applicants. The first experiment found ratings of the applicants' subtle cues to be significant predictors of the hiring decisions made by college-student judges. Professional employment interviewers served as judges in the second study to cross-validate the first experiment. The third study measured the relative contributions of work histories and nonverbal behavior to hiring decisions. Regardless of the work history preceding the applicant, nonverbal style had a statistically significant effect on hiring decisions.     

Unfair Discrimination in the Selection Interview: An Attributional Account

The selection interview remains the most popular method by which organizations select employees, yet it is also widely criticized for being vulnerable to bias and unfair discrimination. This paper draws upon two specific areas of attribution research: cross-cultural studies of attributional processes and studies of intergroup attributional bias in order to discuss how attributional processes can contribute to unfair discrimination in selection interviews. It is argued that unfair discrimination can arise in two ways: first, as a consequence of ethnocentric attributional biases on the part of interviewers when explaining the behaviour of candidates associated with in-group or out-group status; second, as a result of different patterns of attributions manifest by candidates from diverse cultural groups.     

中小学生交往归因训练的研究

从普通学校选取小三、初二、高二各两个平行班的学生,采用等组对照设计,一为实验班,一为控制班。研究分前测验、教育干预、后测验三个阶段。结果发现：(1)归因训练可使学生的交往成败归因向积极方面转化。(2)归因训练可提高学生对未来交往成功的期望值。(3)短时间内的归因训练对高中生影响不大。     

The Employment Interview: The Role of Sex Stereotypes in the Evaluation of Male and Female Job Applicants in the Netherlands1

This field study focused on the influence of sex stereotypes in the evaluation of male (N=38) and female (N=21) job applicants in the Netherlands. The employee selection process for higher-level technical and academic jobs in real life situations was studied, with special attention to the assessment of applicants by members of selection committees. It was demonstrated that, according to the job interviewers, the ideal applicant had more masculine than feminine traits. Males and females were regarded as having the same qualifications for the job, but because male applicants were assessed as having more masculine characteristics and female applicants more feminine characteristics, the male applicants were accepted more often. The job interviewers acted according to a fit model: The applicant most similar in traits to the ideal applicant was hired for each job.     

企业员工工作倦怠研究:归因的视角

运用问卷调查法从归因视角对企业员工工作倦怠进行探讨,结果表明:(1)采用安戈夫(Angof)f方法得到倦怠标准的界定分数,其中情绪耗竭维度为21分,玩世不恭维度为14分,成就感低落维度为19分;(2)归因的物质环境、人际关系与价值感因子均与情绪耗竭、玩世不恭呈显著正相关,与成就感低落呈显著负相关,而归因的生活态度因子仅与个人成就感低落呈显著负相关;(3)人际关系与价值感因子对情绪耗竭有显著的正向预测作用;价值感因子对玩世不恭有显著的正向预测作用;物质环境与生活态度因子对成就感低落有显著的负向预测作用。     

Optimism and Attributional Retraining: Longitudinal Effects on Academic Achievement,Test Anxiety,and Voluntary Course Withdrawal in College Students1

A longitudinal study examined how optimism and attributional retraining (AR) influenced 256 first‐year college students' test anxiety, cumulative academic achievement, and course persistence in college over an academic year. Students' optimism was assessed at the start of the academic year and they were assigned to either an AR or no‐AR (control) condition. Measures of students' test anxiety, cumulative grade point average, and voluntary course withdrawal were obtained at the end of the academic year. Results suggest that although high optimism was an academic risk factor among students who did not receive AR, high‐optimism students who did receive the AR cognitive intervention benefited from its effects to a greater extent than did low‐optimism students.     

The Effect of Attributional Retraining on Mastery and Performance Motivation Among First-Year College Students

Motivation can be undermined among first-year college students as they face a multitude of unanticipated challenges during the transition from high school to college (Compas, Wagner, Slavin, &; Vannatta, 1986 Compas , B. E. , Wagner , B. M. , Slavin , L. A. , &; Vannatta , K. ( 1986 ). A prospective study of life events, social support, and psychological symptomatology during the transition from high school to college . American Journal of Community Psychology , 14 , 241 – 257 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Perry, Hall, &; Ruthig, 2005 Perry , R. P. , Hall , N. C. , &; Ruthig , J. C. ( 2005 ). Perceived (academic) control and scholastic attainment in higher education . In J. Smart (Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research ( Vol. 20 , pp. 363 – 436 ). New York : Springer .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). As a consequence, approximately 27% of first-year students do not return for the second year of college (Feldman, 2005 Feldman , R. S. ( 2005 ). Improving the first year of college: Research and practice . Mahwah , NJ : Erlbaum . [Google Scholar]). First-year college students (N = 336) participated in a study to examine the efficacy of an Attributional Retraining (AR) treatment designed to increase motivation and enhance academic achievement. Employing a pre–post study design spanning an academic year, we examined the impact of AR on student motivation as operationalized in terms of mastery and performance goals. Findings indicated that AR increased mastery motivation but did not affect performance motivation. Findings also demonstrated that mastery motivation mediated the relationship between AR and grade point average, suggesting that mastery motivation is a key mechanism of AR. Findings are discussed in terms of conceptual contributions to both the AR and achievement motivation literatures, and practical implications are outlined.     

The Employment Interview Context: Social and Situational Influences on Interviewer Decisions1

The employment interview context is broad and multifaceted, and it includes a number of social, situational, and affective influences which generate from the interviewee, interviewer, nature of the job in question, and interactions among these factors. The employment interview is proposed to be influenced by nonverbal and self-promotion behaviors of the applicant, interviewer training, and the requirements of the job. These variables then influence the intermediate variables of applicant similarity to the interviewer, perceived competence of the applicant, and interviewer affect toward the applicant. The intermediate variables then influence the perceived job suitability of the applicant. The present study tested and found support for modeling the employment interview context and how it affects interviewer decisions. The contributions and limitations of the present study are discussed, in addition to directions for future research.     

Attributional Retraining: A Motivation Treatment With Differential Psychosocial and Performance Benefits for Failure Prone Individuals in Competitive Achievement Settings

Our quasi-experimental, longitudinal treatment study examined whether Attributional Retraining (AR) facilitated adjustment among young adults (n = 324) making the challenging school-to-university transition. An AR by performance orientation group 2 × 4 design showed AR primarily benefited high-risk students: Failure-ruminators (high failure preoccupation, low perceived control) receiving AR reported higher intrinsic motivation and more adaptive attribution-related emotions than their no-AR peers. Failure-acceptors (low failure preoccupation, low perceived control) receiving AR had higher intrinsic motivation, higher grade point averages, and fewer course withdrawals than their no-AR counterparts. Thus, AR had differential benefits (emotions, achievement) for vulnerable students who were psychologically distinct.     

Job Interview Strategies For People with a Visible Disability1

A total of 117 students participated in the present investigation, which compared wheelchair-user and able-bodied job applicants as well as two interview-taking strategies available to wheelchair users: disclosing the disability during the telephone screening or not doing so and acknowledging it only during a face-to-face interview. Results show that wheelchair-user applicants were evaluated more favorably than able-bodied applicants during the telephone interview, a finding consistent with the positivity bias and “sympathy effect” findings of others. After a face-to-face interview, wheelchair-user applicants who did not disclose their disability over the telephone were evaluated somewhat more favorably than those who did so. However, they were less likely to be selected for the job. The implications of the results for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Enhancing the academic success of competitive student athletes using a motivation treatment intervention (Attributional Retraining)

Competitive student athletes who experience the typical challenges inherent in high school-to-university transitions must also overcome sport-related difficulties which can undermine their academic motivation and class attendance due to competitions, fatigue, injuries, identity issues, and novel training environments (MacNamara & Collins, 2010; Simons et al., 1999). In an eight-month quasi-experimental, randomized treatment field study, an attribution-based motivation treatment (Attributional Retraining: AR) was administered to student athletes (n = 185) and non-athletes (n = 281) who differed in perceived control beliefs (±1 SD) in a two-semester, online course. Simple slope regression analyses revealed the AR (vs. no-AR) treatment assisted competitive student athletes who had low control beliefs by increasing perceived success in the course (b = 0.84, p = 0.038), post-treatment test performance (b = 11.68, p = 0.001), year-end course grades (b = 6.32, p = 0.017), and by reducing course withdrawals (b = −1.00, p = 0.034, OR = 0.37). These results demonstrate the benefits of an attribution-based motivation treatment for vulnerable student-athletes in terms of perceived course success, performance, and persistence in making the transition from high school to college.     

The Validity of the Employment Interview: A Meta-Analysis

The interview is the most widely used personnel selection method, but has revealed low reliability and validity compared with other selection methods (Mayfield 1964; Ulrich and Trumbo 1965; Schmitt 1976; Arvey 1979). Thirty-one studies on the validity of the interview were meta-analyzed. The result was an average validity coefficient of .27. The estimated true validity of the interview was calculated to be .38. These values indicated that the interview has moderate validity as a personnel selection device. Six characteristics of the interview were also examined in relation to the validity of the interview: structure of the interview; number of interviewers; length of the interview; gender of the applicant pool; blue-collar/white-collar jobs; and use of college students versus job applicants. The six study characteristics accounted for 30.9% of the variance in the validity of the interview. Structure of the interview appeared to be the only characteristic that moderated the validity of the interview. The relationship of this study to other meta-analyses of the employment interview is discussed.     

The Employment Interview: A Self-Validation Model

I relate two subjects—speech communication and employment interviewing—by applying a developmental theory of interpersonal communication to the initial job interview. Since I view an employment interview as symbolic interaction, I provide a self-validation model that is analogous to interpersonal perception theory. I suggest the usefulness of the model by describing how interviewers and job applicants can enhance their interviewing skills.     

Elizabeth Adele Greenleaf: Having Some Fun Getting the Job Done

Elizabeth Adele Greenleaf, professor and coordinator of College Student Personnel Administration at Indiana University, made significant contributions to the development of the student affairs profession through her leadership as an educator, administrator, and mentor.