Attributions, affect, and expectations: A test of Weiner's three-dimensional model.

Abstract

In a test of predictions derived from Weiner's reformulated three-dimensional model of attributions, college students who had performed well or poorly on an examination reported the locus, stability, and controllability of the causes of their performance, their affective reactions, and their expectations. As is consistent with Weiner's model, more positive affective reactions were reported by students who (a) felt they controlled the causes of their performance, (b) attributed success to internal factors or failure to external factors, and (c) attributed their outcomes to factors that were stable, controllable, and internal. Expectations, however, were related more to perceived locus of cause and controllability than to stability. The implications of attributions and perceived control in educational settings are discussed in relation to learned helplessness, expectations, and reactions to failure. Weiner's approach to classroom motivation and experience (Weiner, 1972, 1979, 1980) emphasizes the importance of causal attributions in explaining the consequences of academic failure and success. According to this perspective, achievement striving, affective reactions, and expectations concerning future outcomes are determined, in part, by students' attributional conclusions concerning their classroom experiences. Following performance on an academic task, students react affectively in a generally positive or negative manner, formulate causal attributions to explain their performance, and then experience further affect and expectancy changes dependent on the nature of these attributions. Although a substantial amount of laboratory research suggests such linkages exist (Weiner, 1979), relatively few studies have examined Weiner's three-dimensional model in the context of actual academic tasks. The present study examined Weiner's proposed model of educational attributions by assessing the relationship between the attributions, affect, and expectations of college students following a course examination.