Gender Differences in Achievement and Affiliation Attributions

Abstract

This study examines attributions (ability, effort, task, and luck) for success and failure in both achievement and affiliation domains across cultures as a means of evaluating whether gender differences are associated with cultural variations. Participants included 684 university students (314 males; 370 females)from India, Japan, South Africa, the United States, and Yugoslavia currently enrolled in teacher training, physicial science, and social science. While there were statistically significant differences between males and females across all five countries for achievement attributions to task and for the internal/ external dimension, the differences of attributions to ability, effort, and luck, as well as for the stable/unstable dimension, were not significant.

A multi‐level analysis of cultural experience and gender influences on causal attributions to perceived performance in mathematics

“…Similarly, Ability, which was highly rated for making attributions for 'failure', can be classified as being internal, stable and uncontrollable. The results concur with findings from Asian countries and among non-Caucasian subjects who attribute success to external factors and failure to internal factors (Chandler, Sharma & Wolf, 1983;Miller, 1984;Power & Wagner, 1983).…”

Exploring the Role of National Culture on Knowledge Practices: A Comparison between Spain and the UK

“…A possible explanation for the different performance of the countries may relate to the different scores for individualism and masculinity indexes plotted in Figure 1. As Chandler, Shama and Wolf (1983) point out, individuals from individualistic cultures, compared to those from collectivistic cultures, have personality traits that reflect a greater sense of an internal locus of control. The results for the individualism-collectivism index plotted in Figure 1, showed the UK as the most individualist society.…”

A Comparative Study of Coping Strategies and Optimism among Korean, Korean-American, and Caucasian American Older Men

“…However, failure to conform to group norms may frequently trigger anxiety in individuals (Hofstede, 2001;Shulruf, Hattie, & Dixon, 2007). Collectivistic society demands the individual to use collective coping (Kashima & Triandis, 1986), which makes males less likely to attribute their failures internally than males in an individualistic society (Chandler, Shama, & Wolf, 1983). On the other hand, in the individualistic society such as North America stressing "I" consciousness, individuals are likely to control their environment to fit their own personal needs, showing high levels of self-esteem (Suh, 2000) and self-expression (Lam & Zane, 2004;Triandis, 2001;Triandis & Suh, 2002).…”