大学生对艾滋病患者的责任归因及惩戒行为反应

本研究通过被试对特定情景的反应借助于结构方程模型来确定对艾滋病患者的部位和控制性归因、责任判断、情感以及惩戒行为之间的数量化关系。309名大学生被试参与了该项研究,研究结果表明：对艾滋病的内部可控归因引起较高责任推断,较高生气类情感反应和较低同情类情感反应,以及较高惩戒行为;部位和控制性归因影响到责任判断和情感反应,责任推断除了直接影响到惩戒行为反应外,还间接地以情感反应为中介对惩戒为发挥作用。论文还结合中国文化的特点对结果进行了讨论。     

What individuals believe they can and cannot do: explorations of realistic and unrealistic control beliefs

We examined construct validity and implications of scales that assess perceived control over controllable events (realistic control belief) and perceived control over uncontrollable events (unrealistic control belief). We found that people high in unrealistic control belief are less likely to discriminate between controllable and uncontrollable situations and to distort task outcomes so as to make them appear more favorable (more under control). We also found that people high in realistic control belief are more likely to assume responsibility for past mistakes. In additional studies on coping and health risk behavior, higher realistic control belief was related to direct engagement with the stressor and to less risky sexual behavior; higher unrealistic control belief was related to less emotional processing and to more risky sexual behavior. The results demonstrate a need to discriminate between the two types of control beliefs.     

Attributional style and the type A coronary-prone behavior pattern

The present two studies examined the attributional styles of Type A and B individuals. Past research suggests that Type A's exhibit greater performance deficits than Type B's following exposure to extended, salient uncontrollable stimuli. The reformulated learned helplessness model suggests that individuals most prone to such performance deficits should exhibit an attributional style characterized by internal, stable, and global attributions for negative outcomes, but external, unstable, and specific attributions for positive outcomes. However, a self-esteem protection explanation of learned helplessness findings predicts an opposite, self-serving attributional style. Results from both studies indicated that Type A's are more self-serving than Type B's in their attributions for positive and negative outcomes.     

College Students’ Perceptions of Peers Who Cheat1

Two studies investigated the efficacy of 3 theoretical models in explaining college students judgments of peers who cheat and of accomplices who assist cheaters. The value pluralism model predicted that accomplices who acted for money would be judged more harshly than those who acted from friendship; the attributional model predicted that cheaters whose actions were caused by internal controllable factors would be judged more harshly than those who actions were caused by external uncontrollable factors, and the relative preference model predicted that students who saw themselves as more likely to act as the cheater and accomplice did would make less harsh judgments. Overall, the results provided the best support for the relative preference model.     

Type A Behavior and Diabetic Control: Implications of Psychological Reactance for Health Outcomes1

According to laboratory research, Type A coronary-prone individuals are sensitive to threats to their personal control and react to such threats with active and often stressful coping responses. The present investigation tested the prediction that these features of Type A behavior would interfere with blood glucose regulation in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients. Two independent hypotheses were investigated. Because elevated sympathetic arousal, a concomitant of stressful coping, is associated with elevated glucose levels, it was predicted that Type A diabetics experiencing high levels of life stress would display poorest blood glucose control (indexed by Hemoglobin A₁c). The second hypothesis was derived from the observation that Type As are more likely than Type Bs to respond to control threats with reactance in order to restore the perception of control. Given that illness or treatment can reduce personal control, it was predicted that Type A diabetics would be most reactant and, thus, most medically noncompliant. To test these hypotheses, 37 Type 1 diabetics were assessed for Type A behavior, life change, attributional style, desire for control (both within treatment and in general), and specific perceptions of and actions to their diabetes. Type As were more likely than Type Bs to show poor blood glucose control. However, for patients in general, and Type As in particular, blood glucose regulation was not related to life stress. Rather, those Type As who displayed poor glucose control made more extreme self-attributions about the cause of their diabetes, were angrier about it, and felt they should fight it. The implications of these findings for a reactance-Type A model of medical compliance are discussed.     

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.     

人际责任推断与行为应对策略的归因分析

探讨人际责任归因与行为应对策略之间的内在联系。376名被试参与了此项研究。结果表明：(1)内在的可控的失败原因引起最高责任推断、最高程度的责备和最低程度的安慰;相反,内在的不可控的稳定的原因与最低责任、最低责备以及最高程度的安慰相联系。(2)责任归因与责备和安慰之间的数量化关系通过结构方程模型得以确定。(3)女大学生更倾向于对失败行为作可以控制的归因;在行为反应上,教师或管理者更倾向于使用安慰策略     

责任、情感及帮助行为的归因结构模型

责任归因研究将归因理论应用于对他人行为的责任分析之中,为行为责任的推断提供了一个崭新的视角。该研究通过一个真实具有较大社会反响的案例探讨责任归因与帮助行为之间的内在联系。238名管理者和被管理者参与了此项研究,并通过EQS建立了有关归因的控制性、情感反应、期望改变、责任推断以及帮助行为之间关系的结构方程模型。结果提示：责任推断与情感反应具有双向关系,符合心理学中“知”和“情”相互作用的观点;员工与管理者相比更倾向于认为行为者失败的原因是外在的、不可控的并且应承担较低的责任     

Durability and generalization of attribution-based feedback following failure: Effects on expectations and behavioral persistence

ObjectiveThis experiment investigated, following perceived failure, the immediate, long-term (i.e., durability), and cross-situational (i.e., generalization) effects of attribution-based feedback on expectations and behavioral persistence.DesignWe used a 3 × 2 (Group × Time) experimental design over seven weeks with attributions, expectations of success, and persistence as dependent measures.Method49 novice participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment (attributional feedback) groups: (a) functional (i.e., controllable and unstable); (b) dysfunctional (i.e., uncontrollable and stable); or (c) no feedback. Testing involved three sessions, in which participants completed a total of five trials across two performance tasks (golf-putting and dart-throwing). In order to track whether the attributional manipulation conducted within the context of the golf-putting task in Session 2 would generalize to a new situation, participants performed a dart-throwing task in Session 3, and their scores were compared with those recorded at baseline (in Session 1).ResultsAnalysis of pre- and post-intervention measures of attributions, expectations, and persistence revealed that the functional attributional feedback led to more personally controllable attributions following failure in a golf-putting task, together with increases in success expectations and persistence. In contrast, dysfunctional attributional feedback led to more personally uncontrollable and stable attributions following failure, together with lower success expectations and reduced persistence. These effects extended beyond the intervention period, were present up to four weeks post intervention, and were maintained even when participants performed a different (i.e., dart-throwing) task.ConclusionsThe findings demonstrate that attributional feedback effects are durable over time and generalize across situations.     

愤怒和悲伤情绪对助人决策的影响:人际责任归因的作用

基于具体情绪理论——评价倾向框架理论(ATF),采用两项研究考察负性情绪愤怒和悲伤对助人决策的影响,并探究人际责任归因在这一关系中的作用。两项研究均采用自传体情绪记忆任务诱发情绪,研究一中自变量情绪为组间变量,包括愤怒、悲伤和中性三个水平,因变量助人决策操作为为他人花费时间;研究二中自变量1为组间变量情绪,包括愤怒和悲伤,自变量2为组内变量人际责任归因,操作为模糊归因、不可控的情景归因、可控的自我归因三种情境,因变量助人决策操作为为他人花费金钱。结果发现:(1)与愤怒情绪相比,悲伤情绪下个体为他人花费的时间和捐助的金钱更多;(2)在模糊的人际责任归因条件下,悲伤个体会比愤怒个体捐助更多的钱。研究表明:同为负性情绪的愤怒和悲伤在助人决策上的作用不同,悲伤个体比愤怒个体做出更多的助人决策;人际责任性归因会影响附带情绪和助人决策的关系。研究结论有助于理解附带情绪对助人决策的影响,进一步丰富并延伸ATF理论的证据和领域,对发挥情境中人际责任归因在助人决策中的作用具有一定的现实意义。     

Attributional feedback-induced changes in functional and dysfunctional attributions,expectations of success,hopefulness, and short-term persistence in a novel sport

ObjectiveThis experiment investigated the influence of functional and dysfunctional attributional feedback on causal attributions, expectations of success, emotions, and short-term persistence during failure in a novel sport.MethodsThirty novice golfers who made either dysfunctional or functional attributions for failure in a pre-test were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: (1) functional (i.e., internal, controllable, and unstable) attributional feedback; (2) dysfunctional (i.e., external, uncontrollable, and stable) attributional feedback; or (3) non-attributional feedback. Participants completed four test trials (all involving failure) consisting of six putts each. The feedback was administered after the second test trial.ResultsAnalysis of the pre- and post-intervention measures of attributions, expectations of success, affective reactions, and behavioral persistence revealed that the attributional feedback-induced changes related to the type of feedback. Functional attributional feedback produced improvements in causal attributions about failure, as well as in success expectations, hopefulness, and persistence after failure. In contrast, dysfunctional attributional feedback produced deterioration in causal attributions about failure, and lower success expectations, hopefulness, and persistence after failure. The effects of the attributional feedback overrode individuals’ initial functional or dysfunctional attributions about failure; that is, improvement or deterioration depended on the type of feedback received rather than the initial attributions.ConclusionsThe findings demonstrate that it is possible to change the persistence behavior of individuals in a novel athletic domain by changing the attributions they make about failure. The findings show that those in positions of giving attributional feedback to sports’ novices (e.g., coaches) could produce cognitive, emotional, and behavioral improvements by using functional attributional feedback about failure.     

Effects of laboratory-induced controllable and uncontrollable stress on Rorschach variables m and Y.

The research literature regarding stress and the Rorschach has frequently produced contradictory results. A possible explanation for the lack of consensus may be that past research has failed to consider the nature of the stressor. A potentially important dimension is whether the stressor is perceived as controllable or uncontrollable, particularly because these two types of stressors invoke distinctive sets of biobehavioral reactions. We examined the effects of experimentally induced uncontrollable and controllable stress on m and Y Rorschach responses. Uncontrollable laboratory stress was associated with an increase in both m and Y variants, whereas controllable laboratory stress was associated with an increase only in m. Potential implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

The spirited, the observant, and the disheartened: social concepts of optimism, realism, and pessimism

The social concepts of optimism, pessimism, and realism were investigated by assessing the prototypical acts (thoughts, feelings, goals, and actions) that laypersons assign to optimists, pessimists, and realists responding to a controllable and an uncontrollable situation. Optimists and realists, but not pessimists, were seen as adjusting their behavior to the situation. However, whereas optimists were characterized by flexibility in thoughts and feelings but invariance in goals and actions (i.e., they pursued their goals in both controllable and uncontrollable situations), the act profiles assigned to realists varied on all of these dimensions. The profile assigned to pessimists was characterized by cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioral invariance, encompassing negative construals of the situation, giving up, and a focus on distress.     

Attributional style and the generality of learned helplessness

According to the logic of the attribution reformulation of learned helplessness, the interaction of two factors influences whether helplessness experienced in one situation will transfer to a new situation. The model predicts that people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to global factors will show helplessness deficits in new situations that are either similar or dissimilar to the original situation in which they were helpless. In contrast, people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to only specific factors will show helplessness deficits in situations that are similar, but not dissimilar, to the original situation in which they were helpless. To test these predictions, we conducted two studies in which undergraduates with either a global or specific attributional style for negative outcomes were given one of three pretreatments in the typical helplessness triadic design: controllable bursts of noise, uncontrollable bursts of noise, or no noise. In Experiment 1, students were tested for helplessness deficits in a test situation similar to the pretreatment setting, whereas in Experiment 2, they were tested in a test situation dissimilar to the pretreatment setting. The findings were consistent with predictions of the reformulated helplessness theory.     

Learned helplessness and learned resourcefulness: effects of noncontingent success and failure on individuals differing in self-control skills

We designed two experiments to investigate the role of self-control processes in learned-helplessness studies by assessing the differential reactions to uncontrollability of subjects who presumably had either a rich (high resourceful, or HR) or poor (low resourceful, or LR) repertoire of self-control skills. HR and LR subjects received noncontingent success feedback, failure feedback, or no feedback on a task that ostensibly assessed "therapeutic abilities." Subjects were subsequently tested on insolvable puzzles (Experiment 1) or on solvable anagrams (Experiment 2). According to Kanfer and Hagerman's (1981) self-regulation model, self-regulatory activities are evoked primarily in situations in which subjects are faced with repeated failure. Hence we predicted that individual differences in self-control would influence performance on the insolvable puzzles and not anagram performance after exposure to noncontingent failure. This prediction was confirmed: Only the performance of LR subjects on the insolvable puzzles was debilitated by the helplessness induction, whereas HR and LR subjects showed equal helplessness-induced deficits on the anagrams. The latter finding was interpreted in terms of the learned-helplessness model without the mediating effects of self-regulatory processes. As predicted from the self-control model, HR subjects more frequently checked statements indicating positive self-evaluations and task-oriented thoughts and less frequently checked negative self-evaluations than did LR subjects during exposure to uncontrollability in both experiments. We concluded that the self-control model accounts best for subjects' self-reactions during exposure to uncontrollability or failure, whereas the learned-helplessness model accounts for the generalization of helplessness from uncontrollable situations to controllable ones.     

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.     

Adolescent Type A Characteristics and Socially Problematic Behaviors1

Researchers have increasingly advocated social and developmental psychology perspectives to studying Type A behavior to increase understanding of how it emerges and of how Type A individuals’ entry into different naturalistic social situations may exacerbate their stress reactions. As an initial step in these directions, we tested structural equation models relating components of Type A behavior in adolescents to childhood and adolescent socially problematic behaviors. Results from two high-school district cohorts (Ns = approximately 300 and 700) showed that impatience, hostility, and leadership all were related to childhood problems, but that only impatience predicted an adolescent problem (conflict with friends).     

Preference for control and the coronary-prone behavior pattern: "I'd rather do it myself"

We explored differential preference for control among Type A and Type B individuals. Forty-six subjects were threatened with an aversive event (loud noise) and were allowed to choose whether to turn off the noise themselves or to yield control to another (more competent) individual. The results showed that Type B subjects (regardless of sex) tended to relinquish control to their more competent confederates and thus reduce the aversive stimulus, whereas the choice behavior of Type As was less clear. In addition, although female subjects tended to yield control, male subjects were more inclined to retain it. Because the willingness to yield control in general appears to be stronger in women than in men, the behavior observed in Type As may be partly moderated by the subject's sex. Although there were suggestive trends in the data, the central psychological features of the Type A pattern remain ambiguous and await studies in which researchers explore these effects, using a variety of situations and larger sample sizes.     

人际责任归因与助人意愿的关系

人际责任归因研究是归因研究与责任推断相结合的一个新领域,它将归因理论应用于对他人失败行为的责任分析之中,为行为责任的推断提供了一个崭新的视角。本研究结合助人行为探讨人际责任归因与助人意愿之间的内在联系,204名教育硕士生和大学生被试参与了此项研究,并通过EQS建立了有关归因的控制性、情感反应、责任推断以及助人行为之间关系的结构方程模型。研究结果支持Weiner的人际责任归因理论假设,并且表明在归因与助人意愿关系模型中责任推断与情感反应是双向的而非单向的关系。     

Attributions for Successful and Unsuccessful Health Behavior Change

In an application of Weiner's (1985) attributional theory of motivation, 466 undergraduates gave attributions for their own successful or unsuccessful health behavior changes using a retrospective incident-report questionnaire. Scores from the Causal Dimension Scale (CDS; Russell, 1982) indicated that the average attribution was internal, unstable, and controllable, and that success attributions were more stable and controllable than failure attributions. By a large margin, the most common attribution types were internal-unstable-controllable causes for unsuccessful attempts, followed by internal-stable-controllable and internal-unstable-controllable causes for successes. These findings correspond to a pattern known as personal changeability of causes, which enhances perceived control ova both positive and negative outcomes. Stable attributions were associated with maintenance of health behavior changes and with expectations that negative outcomes would continue into the future. The personal-changeability tendency was strong for change attempts involving eating, but modified by a self-serving effect for exercise and substance use and by a self-effacing effect for road safety.