Causal attribution of performance in university examinations: A Filipino investigation

Abstract

Causal attributions for success and failure at a forthcoming examination by 246 Filipino college freshmen, 64 male and 182 female, are examined. Although there is no data with which to compare the results of this study, it would appear that these young Filipinos generally possessed adaptive patterns of attribution. They ascribed possible success somewhat more to internal rather than external sources but attributed possible failure almost equally to these factors. Luck was perceived as being only of relatively minor importance. Internal success attribution was found to correlate significantly with satisfaction with success in three out of four cases. Effort attribution correlated significantly with the students' ratings of how hard they had tried. Contrary to U.S. research, the female respondents if anything possessed more adaptive patterns of attribution than their male peers. It is suggested that this has been a neglected area of cross-cultural research but one that should be of concern to all developing countries.