Attributions refer to people’s various explanations for success and failure.

These explanations have many implications for learning and behavior, such as persistence of tasks, risk taking, optimism, pessimism, depression, and a sense of mastery or its converse, learned helplessness.

Dimensions underlying attributions

Keep in mind that a person’s attributions about the events in his or her life are perceptions of reality, and not necessarily an accurate representation of reality itself.

Three dimensions describe the variations in people’s attributions about success and failure:

Locus: internal vs. external

Do we attribute the causes of events to factors within ourselves (internal things) or to factors outside of ourselves (external things)?

For example, attributing success on an exam to hard work would be an _________ attribution.
internal
external

Attributing a classmate’s irritability toward you to her bad mood would be an example of an ___________ attribution.
internal
external

Temporal stability: stable vs. unstable

Do we attribute success or failure to factors which are unlikely to change in the near future (stable) or to factors which might change from one time to the next (unstable)?

Attributing a poor exam grade to lack of effort would be an example of a(n) ___________ attribution.
stable
unstable

Attributing a poor exam grade to lack of ability would be an example of a(n) ____________ attribution.
stable
unstable

Controllability: controllable vs. uncontrollable

Do we attribute success and failure to factors that we can influence and change (controllable) or to things over which we have no influence (uncontrollable)?

If you feel that the director of a play did not pick you for the romantic lead because he didn’t feel you have the right look, you have just made a(n) ____________ attribution.
controllable
uncontrollable

If you felt you did poorly on the exam because you didn’t study enough, this would be a(n) ____________ attribution.
controllable
uncontrollable

The controllability dimension may have two subcomponents: a contingency between the behavior and an outcome, that a particular behavior will cause a given event to occur, and a sense of competence (self-efficacy) that one is actually capable of performing the necessary behavior.

If either belief is lacking, a person will not feel that an event is controllable.

For example, in your speech class you have learned what qualities of your speech will lead to a good grade (clarity, organization, speaking clearly and in complete sentences, eye contact with audience, etc.)

This would be an example of the __________ component of controllability.
contingency
competence

Suppose you know what needs to be done but this is not accompanied by the belief that you have the ability to do this. You lack the _____________ component of the controllability dimension.
contingency
competence

If one lacks either the belief that there is a contingency between our behavior and an outcome or that we lack the competence to perform this behavior, then we will perceive an event is ______________.
controllable
uncontrollable

Various student attributions about success and failure can by analyzed in terms of these three dimensions.

For example, task difficulty would be an _______________ factor.
internal, stable, and uncontrollable
internal, unstable, and controllable
external, stable, and uncontrollable
external, unstable, and uncontrollable

Effort would be an ______________ factor.
internal, stable, and uncontrollable
internal, unstable, and controllable
external, stable, and uncontrollable
external, unstable, and uncontrollable

Inherited ability would be an ___________ factor.
internal, stable, and uncontrollable
internal, unstable, and controllable
external, stable, and uncontrollable
external, unstable, and uncontrollable

Luck or chance would be an ___________ factor.
internal, stable, and uncontrollable
internal, unstable, and controllable
external, stable, and uncontrollable
external, unstable, and uncontrollable

Some effects of self-attributions

Emotional reactions to success and failure

Success leads to feelings of happiness and failure to sadness.

In the following cases, what kind of attribution leads to the described emotion?

You are successful and you also feel proud?
internal attribution
external attribution

Whatever your attribution, when you fail, you feed sad.

However, when you attribute your failure to external factors, you feel _________.
guilt or shame
resentment and anger

When you attribute your failure to internal factors, you feel___________.
guilt or shame
resentment and anger

Expectations for the future

When people attribute their successes and failures to stable factors, they expect their future performance to be _________ from their current performance.
similar
different

When people attribute their successes and failures to unstable factors, they expect their future performance to be _________ from their current performance.
similar
different

Effort and persistence

Failure can be attributed to lack of effort or lack of ability.

How would attributing failure to lack of effort affect future performance?
You will give up easily.
You will try harder.

Responses to failure situations

Many people have an “entity” view of intelligence. In this view, intelligence is an uncontrollable, stable characteristic.

They also believe that there is an inverse relationship between intelligence and effort.

For example, people who have success with little effort have _________.
high ability
low ability

People who have success with much effort have ________.
high ability
low ability

Effort as a “double-edge sword”

For people who have the above belief about the relationship between ability and effort and also believe that they themselves have low ability, effort is a “double-edge sword.”

If they don’t make much of an effort, they _________
look stupid.
fail inevitably.

If they make an effort and still fail, they _________
look stupid.
fail inevitably.

In other words, they are in a no-win situation.

The choice that such people often make is to “self-handicap”, deliberately not put in much effort because this allows them to save face.

Attributions that lead to the most favorable responses to failure

Certain attributions lead to the favorable response of not giving up after failure.

For example, if one attributes failure to effort or poor strategies, one would be making an ___________ attribution.
internal, stable, and uncontrollable
internal, unstable, and controllable
external, stable, and uncontrollable
external, unstable, and uncontrollable

But again, as we said earlier when discussing the double-edge sword of effort, blaming lack of effort can backfire. If one makes more effort and fails, one might conclude that one lacks ability.

Explanatory styles: mastery orientation vs. learned helplessness

A person’s explanatory style is the general way in which the individual interprets daily events and consequences.

Mastery orientation

A mastery orientation is when people attribute their accomplishments to their own ability and efforts. This is an “I can do it” attitude.

Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness typically occurs when a person has learned that he or she can neither avoid nor escape from aversive stimuli. Eventually he or she gives up.

If a person attributes successes to external and uncontrollable factors and failures to a personal lack of ability, that person has an “I can’t do it” attitude called learned helplessness.

The key dimension in all this is the belief that the person has little control over the events that affect his or her life.

A student who has developed learned helplessness about his ability to learn statistical concepts is most likely to say which of the following?
I can eventually learn statistics, but it is not worth the effort to do so.
I have to work harder than any of my fellow students to learn statistics.
I can learn to do statistics without even trying.
No matter how hard I study statistics, I can't seem to understand statistical concepts.

Bonus questions

Which of the following is the best example of a student attributing success to an internal factor?
Jerry got a good grade on his history paper and is glad that his mother enrolled him in the Sylvan Learning Center.
Mary got a good grade on her Psychology exam and is glad that the student sitting next to her, whose answers she copied, did so well.
LuLu got a good grade on her Literature test and is proud that she did so well and studied so hard.
Steven is happy that his teacher was in a good mood and gave him an extension on his paper.

Which of the following boys is most likely to attribute a low exam grade to an external cause?
Roger’s parents don’t make a big deal out of his occasional failures.
Pete thought he knew the material when he really didn’t.
Eric is aware that most other students in the class did very well on the exam.
John’s teacher encourages him to seek her help if he needs it.

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