Personality Dispositions, Expectancy and Context in Attributional Thinking

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between attribution and selected personality dispositions, as well as self‐serving attribution. Four hypotheses were formulated: (1) Attributions for positive events correlate differently with the five personality dispositions than attributions for negative events, (2) factor analysis and cluster analysis of attributions for positive and negative events and the five personality dispositions will generate a general bipolar expectancy factor, (3) self‐serving attributions will dominate irrespective of subcultural context, and (4) the dominance of self‐serving attributions will be stronger in an individualistic‐oriented context than in a collectivistic‐oriented context. One‐hundred‐and‐fifty students, selected from two educational contexts (one individualistic‐oriented and one collectivistic‐oriented), were scored on attributions for positive and negative events as well as on the five personality dispositions on the basis of an inventory. All four hypotheses were supported. Educational implications are discussed.