An exploration of graduate learners’ academic attributions: a case study from higher education context

The purpose of the study was to investigate graduate students’ attributions to their academic successes and failures. Apart from quantitatively-oriented studies, qualitative techniques in gathering and analysing data were used to make an in-depth interrogation of the representations of causal attributions of the participants to their academic failures and successes. Causal attributions of the participants were examined through Weiner’s model of attribution in terms of four aspects as ability attributions, effort attributions, chance attributions and attributions to specified contextual factors. Intentional social interactions were found to be an external executing functioning in modifying the participants’ attributional orientations to successes and failures. Moreover, it was found out that individually developed adaptive strategies may turn externally-oriented attributions into internal causal attributions. Idiosyncraticness of attributional reasoning styles was the determinants of the participants’ attributional tendencies and learned helplessness behaviour was seemed as an associated component of attributional orientations of the participants.