The Effects of General Success-Related Beliefs and Specific Metacognitive Experiences on Causal Attributions

Abstract

In the last two decades performance in achievement settings is often explained as the outcome of the dynamic interplay between cognition, metacognition and motivation. At a micro-level this interplay is evidenced when the person is confronted with a task and various cognitions and feelings emerge as his/her response to the task. These cognitions and feelings are part of the person’s subjective experience. Subjective experience in achievement settings comprises metacognitive task-related feelings, judgements and ideas the person forms while performing a task (see Efklides, 1997). These are called metacognitive experiences (see Efklides, chapter 16 in this volume). The study of this kind of subjective experience has started recently on the ground that it plays an important role in online self-regulation (Efklides, Samara, & Petropoulou, 1999). However, in motivational research the emphasis is on another kind of cognitions or ideas evoked in achievement situations: these are the causal attributions (Weiner, 1985). Causal attributions follow task completion and refer to possible causes of performance outcome. The question, therefore, is if subjective experience, in the form of metacognitive experiences, has a role to play in the attributional process. Thus, the focus of the present chapter is on causal attributions and their relations with aspects of metacognitive experiences, such as task-related feelings, judgements, and ideas. The question we had in mind was if the causal attribution process makes use of online, task-specific metacognitive experiences or more general success-related beliefs regarding one’s ability and performance in a specific domain, as achievement theory posits. In what follows, we shall firstly give the theoretical framework on causal attributions and the reasons that justify their con