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CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS FOR TASK PERFORMANCE: THE EFFECTS OF PERFORMANCE OUTCOME AND SEX OF SUBJECT
Author(s) -
CALLAGHAN CAROL,
MANSTEAD A. S. R.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1983.tb02531.x
Subject(s) - attribution , anagram , psychology , anxiety , task (project management) , social psychology , causality (physics) , developmental psychology , outcome (game theory) , physics , mathematics , management , mathematical economics , quantum mechanics , psychiatry , economics
S ummary . Each of 70 sixth‐form grammar school students was allocated to one of four treatments produced by the factorial combination of manipulations of their performance (success or failure) on two successive anagram tasks. Prior to each task, self‐reports of anxiety and performance expectations were obtained. After each task, subjects were asked to make attributions about the outcome. When both tasks were completed, subjects were questioned about future performance on similar tasks. Predictions concerning attributions were derived from “logical” and “self‐serving” analyses of how such attributions are made. In general, the results on the attributional measures tended to support the predictions derived from the self‐serving analysis. Sex differences were found in relation to two of the four attributional measures employed, and in relation to the measures of anxiety about task performance and expectations concerning future performance. Subjects were also asked to make attributions about the outcomes of recent public examinations, and here females ascribed greater causality than did males to the factors of help from teachers and help from home. Possible reasons for inconsistencies between previous findings concerning sex differences in achievement‐related attributions and those obtained in the present study are discussed.