Causal Attributions for Success and Failure as a Function of Sex and Job Status in India

Abstract

This experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that causal attributions for the success and failure of male and female stimulus persons will vary depending on the job status involved. It was predicted that the success of a male in a high status, typically masculine job (bank manager) would be attributed to internal causes like ability and effort, whereas the success of a female in the same job would be attributed to external causes like luck and the nature of the job. The experiment had a 2 (subject's sex) by 2 (stimulus person's sex) by 2 (stimulus person's job status) by 2 (stimulus person's successs or failure) factorial design. with 336 Indian undergraduate students as subjects who read the relevant biographical information about the stimulus person and made attributions for success or failure to effort. luck. ability and the nature (difficulty or ease) of the job. The results were in general support of the hypothesis, which was derived from the conception of sex-role stereotypes with respect to ...