An Individual Differences Measure of Attributions That Affect Achievement Behavior

Abstract

Attributing a negative achievement outcome (e.g., failing a test) to causes that are personally uncontrollable and stable elicits a low expectancy of future success, feelings of hopelessness in that domain, and reduced behavioral efforts to succeed. Thus, a tendency to make such attributions (i.e., dysfunctional academic attributional style) is an individual differences variable that puts people at risk. Two studies examine the factor structure and predictive validity of the Academic Attributional Style Questionnaire (AASQ). Study 1 (using two independent samples) found that the AASQ is a factorially valid measure of functional and dysfunctional attributional styles. In Study 2, during repeated failure in an academic task, the success expectancies, hopefulness, and behavioral persistence of students with a dysfunctional attributional style were lower than those of students with a functional attributional style. These findings modify the attributional theory of achievement motivation (Weiner, 1985) by positing an individual differences moderator variable (i.e., attributional style) and extend attributional research on at-risk students.

Attribution Styles as Correlates of Technical Drawing Task-Persistence and Technical College Students’ Performance

“…This finding is in line with that of Higgins & LaPointe (2012) who reported that functional attribution style resulted to increased persistence while dysfunctional attribution style resulted in low persistence. They also said that, taskpersistence of low achieving students is vital because it is a learning skill that when applied can help the students overcome the issue of poor achievement.…”

“…This implies that academic performance increases with functional academic attribution and decreases with dysfunctional academic attribution of low achieving learners. The findings of this study is in line with those of Higgins & LaPointe (2012); Pierce & Henry (1993) who reported that attribution style is what made students to success and failure significantly correlated with their grade point average.…”

“…Task-persistence is the length of time and amount of effort a learner is able to apply in order to master a task or solve a problem or attain a goal (Higgins & LaPointe, 2012). It is related to learning goals and motivation (Onatsu-Arvilommi & Nurmi, 2000).…”

“…These characteristics which may affect learning include learners' attribution styles, among others. Higgins & LaPointe (2012) stated that attribution is an individual's characteristic tendencies when inferring the cause of behaviours or events. Attributions are the causal explanations that people assign to the events that happen to and around them.…”

“…Persons tend to create diverse inferences about the cause of their successes or failures, hence attribution styles. Higgins & LaPointe (2012) posited that attribution styles are the different dimensions which individuals tend to infer or explain the causes of events or outcomes. If referring from educational context, the two influential theories of attribution are Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale's (1978) theory of learned helplessness and Weiner's (1986) theory of motivation.…”