Testing the Assumptions of Attribution Theory in India

Abstract

Although numerous studies have investigated Weiner's (Weiner et al., 1971) attribution theory, little of this work has been conducted outside the West. Thus, the cultural boundaries of the theory have not been well established. In the present research, the basic tenets of the theory were tested in a conservative Asian Indian setting by examining the patterns of causal attributions, task evaluations, affective responses, and predictions for future performance among Asian Indian students when task outcomes were similar or discrepant with initial expectancies. Patterns of sex differences were also examined. The results showed that high expectancy individuals attributed their success more than their failure to ability and were less outcome contingent in their affective and cognitive reactions to their performance than lower expectancy groups. Indian women held slightly lower generalized expectancies than Indian men and attributed outcomes less to ability if initial performance expectancies were not high. The general pattern of results showed that Weiner's theoretical model was quite generalizable to the non-Western Asian setting.