Academic Attributions Research Articles

Relationship of School-Based Attributions to Depression

Relationships among attributions for success and failure and depression were investigated for 63 5th-grade students. Significant relationships were found among school-based attributions, as measured by global scale scores from the Student Academic Attribution Scale (SAAS) and the Student Social Attribution Scale (SSAS), general attributions as measured by the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ), and depression as measured by the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC). Scores from the SAAS and SSAS tend to be more strongly related to depression than do those from the CASQ. When scores from the SAAS, SSAS, and the CASQ were entered into a stepwise multiple regression, only global scores from the SAAS and the SSAS explained significant proportions of the variance in the BASC depression score. Results suggest that school-related attributions are more highly related to depression in nonclinical intermediate-grade students than are general attributions.

Academic task persistence of normally achieving ADHD and control boys: performance, self-evaluations, and attributions.

The authors examined academic task persistence, pretask expectancies, self-evaluations, and attributions of boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as compared with control boys. Participants were 83 ADHD boys and 66 control boys, all normally achieving. Prior to the task, performance expectancies were assessed. After a success-failure manipulation with find-a-word puzzles, performance on subsequent trials, self-evaluations, and attributions were evaluated. Compared with controls, ADHD boys solved fewer test puzzles, quit working more often, and found fewer words on a generalization task. Consistent with these behavioral findings, research assistants rated ADHD boys as less effortful and less cooperative than control boys. Although ADHD boys did not differ significantly from controls in their posttask self-evaluations, they did differ significantly from controls in some aspects of their attributions. Attributional data indicated that ADHD boys endorsed luck as a reason for success more strongly and lack of effort as a reason for failure less strongly than controls.

The model student? an investigation of chinese Australian students' academic achievement, studying, and causal attributions for academic success and failure

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Australian students of Asian background are performing very highly in secondary and tertiary education. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this ethnic stereotype. The present study investigated Chinese Australian students' academic achievement, IQ, time spent studying, and causal attributions for academic success and failure. Based on the findings of North American research, it was hypothesised that the Chinese Australian students would have higher academic achievement than Anglo-Australian students of the same level of ability. It was also predicted that these students would have stronger beliefs in the importance of effort as a cause of academic success and would expend greater effort in their academic studies. While the results indicated no difference between the ethnic groups in terms of academic achievement and IQ, there were significant differences in academic effort such that the Chinese Australian students reported spending more time studying than a comparable group of Anglo-Celtic Australian students. Moreover, responses to the measure of causal attributions suggested a perception of Asian background students as “model” students. The results are discussed in relation to the role of effort beliefs and behaviour in the academic achievement of Asian Australian students.

Academic attribution: citation and the construction of disciplinary knowledge

In this paper I explore the ways in which academic citation practices contribute to the construction of disciplinary knowledge. Based on the analysis of a computer corpus of 80 research articles and interviews with experienced writers, the study investigates the contextual variability of citations in eight disciplines and suggests how textual conventions point to distinctions in the ways knowledge is typically negotiated and confirmed within different academic communities. Clear disciplinary differences are identified in both the extent to which writers refer to the work of others and in how they depict the reported information. Writers in the humanities and social sciences employed substantially more citations than scientists and engineers, and were more likely to use integral structures, to employ discourse reporting verbs, and to represent cited authors as adopting a stance to their material. It is argued that these differences in citation practices are related to the fact that the academics actively participate in knowledge construction as members of professional groups and that their discoursal decisions are influenced by, and deeply embedded in, the epistemological and social conventions of their disciplines.

The Relationship among Causal Attributions, Learning Strategies and Level of Achievement: A Hong Kong Chinese Study

The relationship between causal attributions, motives and learning strategies and their influence as determinants of achievement was investigated. Two hundred and thirty seven grade 9 high‐ and low‐achieving students from Anglo‐Chinese schools responded to the Academic Achievement Attribution and Learning Process Questionnaires. Both groups attributed academic success and failure more to internal than external causes, but high achievers were higher on achieving motive and approach to learning and low achievers were higher on surface motive and approach. The results of path analysis revealed that the influence of attributions on achievement was mediated by students’ motives and strategies for learning. Findings and implications are discussed in relation to the social and cultural context of Hong Kong. Descriptors: Causal attributions and learning strategies of Chinese students.1

Effects of Attractiveness and Gender on the Perception of Achievement-Related Variables

The present study was an examination of the effects of physical attractiveness and gender on perceptions of academic success, achievement-related traits, intelligence, initiative, and attributions of ability and effort in relation to academic success. It was hypothesized that attractive persons and men would be rated more favorably along these dimensions than would unattractive persons and women. The participants were 144 U.S. undergraduates who observed photographs of attractive and unattractive men and women and then rated the persons in the photographs on the aforementioned dimensions. Physical attractiveness had a differential effect on the dimensions within achievement. Also, being perceived as physically attractive created positive impressions of achievement-related traits for men but negative impressions for women.

Perceptions of Classroom Environment, Locus of Control and Academic Attributions of Adolescents With and Without Cognitive Disabilities

Perceptions of Classroom Environment, Locus of Control and Academic Attributions of Adolescents With and Without Cognitive Disabilities

Students' Personal and Academic Attributions of University Withdrawal

A Commission of Inquiry on Canadian University Education recently reported that approximately 42% of full-time undergraduate students who entered Canadian universities in 1985 failed to obtain a degree within five years. While this statistic is startling, perhaps, of greater concern is the apparent lack of interest shown by most Canadian universities in the subject of undergraduate student attrition. As an initial step toward addressing the issue of Canadian university attrition, a conceptual model of undergraduate student withdrawal is proposed. The model is based on the assumption that students are characterized by a wide range of personal and academic variables. Such characteristics interact or co-exist with institutional variables such as campus integration. This interaction results in the quality of student academic performance and the nature of student psychological condition. Poor quality of student academic performance results in institution-initiated undergraduate withdrawal; a variety of psychological variables (e.g., satisfaction, stress) result in student-initiated undergraduate withdrawal. The bases of this model were findings obtained from questioning 498 undergraduate students who had withdrawn from a large Western Canadian university. Personal student characteristics, institutional factors and societal variables frequently emerged as students' attributions of university withdrawal. Student academic performance was validated as the causal factor for institutional-based undergraduate withdrawal and student psychological state appeared critically related to student-based undergraduate withdrawal. From these findings, preadmission counseling, academic and personal student support and an increased commitment to accommodating students are recommended.

Attributions of Children with Learning Disabilities Who are Treated with Psychostimulants

Henker and Whalen (1989) suggested that there is support for the hypothesis that improvements in children's academic performance are the result of enhanced willingness to assume responsibility to exert effort. Psychotropic medication has been a major treatment regimen for children who exhibit problem behavior in the classroom. However, children who are medicated may report less personal responsibility for academic outcomes. Therefore, the attributions for academic situations may differ for LD children receiving stimulant treatment and those who are not. Two intact groups were studied, one receiving medication and one not receiving medication. Using the Intellectual Academic Responsibility Questionnaire (Crandall, Katovsky, & Crandall, 1965), we assessed whether LD boys who were taking medication reported fewer adaptive attributions in academic situations than their nonmedicated peers. Discriminant analysis revealed an approximately 86% correct classification of medication status. Boys who were not taking medication reported more internal-effort attributions in failure situations than boys who were taking medication. This result was replicated 8 weeks later. Behavior therapists who conduct evaluations for educational programming need to consider the possible relationship between children's academic attributions and stimulant medication status.

The Survey of Achievement Responsibility (SOAR): Reliability and Validity Data on an Academic Attribution Scale

The Survey of Achievement Responsibility (SOAR): Reliability and Validity Data on an Academic Attribution Scale

Academic Attributions and Coping with Tests

In the first of two studies, a factor analysis (N = 272 college students) of the academic attribution scale of the Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale produced a six-factor solution. Success and failure situations each produced three attributional factors: ability, effort, and external. All six factors had acceptable levels of reliability; alphas ranged from .63 to .78. In the second study, the relationship between attributional style, as measured by the factors determined in Study 1, and students' reactions to and coping with a classroom test was examined. Subjects (N = 211) completed the Ways of Coping Checklist and an Appraisal/Emotions scale 2 days before a midterm examination. Test-taking self-efficacy was also examined. Results indicated that the attributions subjects typically made about academic successes and failures were moderately related to test-taking self-efficacy and three of the coping scales. Test-taking self-efficacy was related to five of the six attributional scales. Mu...

Self-serving effect (bias?) in academic attributions: Its relation to academic achievement and self-concept.

Self-serving effect (bias?) in academic attributions: Its relation to academic achievement and self-concept.

Self-serving effect (bias?) in academic attributions: Its relation to academic achievement and self-concept.

Self-serving effect (bias?) in academic attributions: Its relation to academic achievement and self-concept.

The attributional beliefs of hearing-impaired students concerning academic success and failure.

Academic attributions, developed by students to explain success or failure, were examined for 225 hearing-impaired students. The students read descriptions of academic experiences of hearing or hearing-impaired students and derived causal explanations of these experiences. Results indicated that patterns of attributions of hearing-impaired students closely resembled those of hearing students. The internal factors of ability and effort received the strongest attributional ratings for success, whereas the external and unstable factor of luck received the weakest rating. Additionally, there was evidence for an in-group bias by hearing-impaired students in attributing more importance to the personal qualities of students like themselves when success was experienced, relative to the attributions made for hearing students; this bias was also shown in the explanations given for success in the classrooms of hearing-impaired versus hearing teachers.

How Teachers Explain Students' Academic Performance: A Categorization of Free Response Academic Attributions

A 12-category scheme is presented, which synthesizes systems developed by Frieze, Bar-Tal and Darom, and the present authors. The attribution categories vary along three dimensions relevant to teacher behavior: internality, stability, and teacher efficacy (or the degrees of teacher influence over the performance outcome). A study is then reported which found (1) students training to be teachers were aware of the teacher efficacy implications of attributions and (2) teacher efficacy was related to behavior intentions. Finally, examination of the convergent validity of academic attribution findings indicates that conclusions regarding (1) teacher expectations and performance attributions, and (2) unexpected events are methodologically robust.

How Teachers Explain Students’ Academic Performance: A Categorization of Free Response Academic Attributions

A 12-category scheme is presented, which synthesizes systems developed by Frieze, Bar-Tal and Darom, and the present authors. The attribution categories vary along three dimensions relevant to teacher behavior: internality, stability, and teacher efficacy (or the degrees of teacher influence over the performance outcome). A study is then reported which found (1) students training to be teachers were aware of the teacher efficacy implications of attributions and (2) teacher efficacy was related to behavior intentions. Finally, examination of the convergent validity of academic attribution findings indicates that conclusions regarding (1) teacher expectations and performance attributions, and (2) unexpected events are methodologically robust.