An attributional analysis of reactions to poverty is presented. The article begins by discussing ... more An attributional analysis of reactions to poverty is presented. The article begins by discussing the perceived causes of poverty and their taxonomic properties (locus, stability, and controllability). One antecedent of causal beliefs, political ideology, is then examined in detail, followed by a review of the effects of causal beliefs on emotions and behavior. It is contended that helping the poor is a moral issue, but the moral evaluation concerns the targeted recipient of aid rather than the potential help giver. Persons perceived as responsible for their plight, a dominant construal for conservatives, elicit anger and neglect. In contrast, those seen as not responsible for their financial hardship, an outlook predominantly endorsed by liberals, arouse sympathy and help giving. Sympathy is the most important proximal determinant of aid. This analysis is extended to reactions to achievement failure, abortion, and rape. Policy implications are also examined.
The history of ideas guiding the development of an attribution-based theory of motivation is pres... more The history of ideas guiding the development of an attribution-based theory of motivation is presented. These influences include the search for a “grand” theory of motivation (from drive and expectancy/value theory), an attempt to represent how the past may influence the present and the future (as Thorndike accomplished), and the incorporation of causes and their properties (from Heider and Rotter). The goal of this approach is the formulation of a conception in which causes influence action via the mediating mechanisms of specific affects (as first suggested by Atkinson) and expectancy. The empirical and conceptual contributions of the theory are summarized.
Bad Starts and Better Finishes: Attributional Retraining and Initial Performance in Competitive Achievement Settings
Transitions to new achievement settings are often accompanied by unfamiliar learning conditions w... more Transitions to new achievement settings are often accompanied by unfamiliar learning conditions wherein individuals experience unanticipated failures and engage in dysfunctional explanatory thinking. To counter these developments, attributional retraining (AR) was presented to 457 first-year students following an initial test in a two-semester course. A Semester 1 AR treatment (no, yes) and initial-test-performance (low, average, high) 2 x 3 quasi-experimental design was used to assess Semester 2 attributions, emotions, and performance outcomes. AR encouraged all students to endorse controllable attributions and de-emphasize uncontrollable attributions in explaining achievement outcomes in Semester 2. For low- and average-initial-performance students, AR improved subsequent in-class tests, final course grades, and first-year GPAs. Higher initial-test-performance was related to positive emotions and better achievement in Semester 2. The discussion focused on the implications of AR for attributional thinking in unfamiliar achievement settings.
This article presents a history of the study of motivation from approximately 1900-1975, focusing... more This article presents a history of the study of motivation from approximately 1900-1975, focusing on achievement strivings and containing little-known and often surprising facts about the main contributors to this field. Four theorists are highlighted: David McClelland, Kurt Lewin, John Atkinson, and Fritz Heider, each associated with a different theoretical approach (respectively and in order of historical emergence: trait, Gestalt, expectancy/value, and attribution theory). A fifth conception, drive theory, is also represented. In addition, a number of individuals who influenced these theorists and others who followed them are discussed. The article emphasizes the interrelations between the theorists and the interaction between personal and scientific life.
Stereotypic beliefs about older adults and the aging process have led to endorsement of the myth ... more Stereotypic beliefs about older adults and the aging process have led to endorsement of the myth that 'to be old is to be ill.' This study examined community-dwelling older adults' (N = 105, age 80+) beliefs about the causes of their chronic illness (ie, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.), and tested the hypothesis that attributing the onset of illness to 'old age' is associated with negative health outcomes. A series of multiple regressions (controlling for chronological age, gender, income, severity of chronic conditions, functional status and health locus of control) demonstrated that 'old age' attributions were associated with more frequent perceived health symptoms, poorer health maintenance behaviours and a greater likelihood of mortality at 2-year follow-up. The probability of death was more than double among participants who strongly endorsed the 'old age' attribution as compared to those who did not (36% vs. 14%). Findings are framed in the context of self-directed stereotypes and implications for potential interventions are considered.
Whose fault is it anyway: How do parents respond to their child’s setbacks?
ABSTRACT We documented what parents report as the cause of their child’s academic and conduct set... more ABSTRACT We documented what parents report as the cause of their child’s academic and conduct setbacks and what they say they do in response. We recruited an opportunity sample of 479 parents and narrowed our sample to parents of children without disabilities between the ages of 5–18 (N = 312). Parents responded to open-ended questions, and we coded responses into categories of disciplinary tactics and types of attributions. Parents who reported experience with child setbacks significantly differed from parents who did not report such experience on several outcome variables. Parents did not exhibit hedonic biasing such that most reported causes of setbacks were controllable by the child; reported controllable causes correlated with the reported use of punishment. Our findings suggest that parental behavior change efforts must also address parents’ attributions, or verbal explanations, of causes of events. We discuss implications of our findings for child and parent researchers, educators, and practitioners.
Attribution theory includes mastery and maintenance of society among its ultimate determinants of... more Attribution theory includes mastery and maintenance of society among its ultimate determinants of action and a variety of information sources and emotions as the proximal or immediate determinants of motivation. These goals are guided by two metaphors: the person as a scientist and the person as a judge. I discuss these positions and point out some of the perceived limitations of the articles in this special issue.
The Attribution Approach to Emotion and Motivation: History, Hypotheses, Home Runs, Headaches/Heartaches
In this article the history of the attribution approach to emotion and motivation is reviewed. Ea... more In this article the history of the attribution approach to emotion and motivation is reviewed. Early motivation theorists incorporated emotion within the pleasure/pain principle but they did not recognize specific emotions. This changed when Atkinson introduced his theory of achievement motivation, which argued that achievement strivings are determined by the anticipated emotions of pride and shame. Attribution theorists then suggested many other emotional reactions to success and failure that are determined by the perceived causes of achievement outcomes and the shared characteristics or dimensions of causality. The article outlines the hypothesized dimensional antecedents of a number of self-and other-directed achievement-related emotions following success (admiration, apprehension, confidence, disliking, envy, gratitude, liking, pride, and surprise) and failure (anger, guilt, helplessness, hope, hopelessness, pity, regret, Schadenfreude, scorn, shame, surprise, and sympathy). Motivational consequences of emotions also are highlighted.
An Attributional Approach to Perceived Responsibility for Transgressions: Extensions to Child Abuse, Punishment Goals and Political Ideology
Abstract: A theory of social conduct is reviewed in which attributions of causality and inference... more Abstract: A theory of social conduct is reviewed in which attributions of causality and inferences of responsibility are the key concepts. A meta-analysis testing this theory in the domain of help-giving provides strong support for the conceptualisation. Current research ...
It wasabout 10years agothat mybook, Judgments of Responsibility: Foundations for a Theory of Soci... more It wasabout 10years agothat mybook, Judgments of Responsibility: Foundations for a Theory of Social Conduct (Weiner, 1995) was published. In the subsequent decade, the theoretical and empirical work presented there has expanded in many directions. These extensions ...
Within impression management and attribution research confession presents a paradox. Rather than ... more Within impression management and attribution research confession presents a paradox. Rather than trying to reduce blame, confessors accept responsibility for the transgression. Yet confession is an effective strategy for positive impression formation. In this article, the explanation for these benefits focuses on other's utilitarian concerns regarding future expectations of negative behavior by the transgressor. In 3 studies, level of remorse, harm, personal relevance, and group status are examined in situations of transgression. Remorse had the largest overall multivariate effect on the measures of forgiveness. Most affected by level of remorse was the perceived stability of the cause of transgressor's actions, which was a major antecedent of expectancies regarding future negative acts. It appears that an effective confession must include remorse to positively affect these future expectancies.
The present review syntheses 64 investigations on the determinants of helping and aggression invo... more The present review syntheses 64 investigations on the determinants of helping and aggression involving more than 12,000 subjects, providing empirical tests of Weiner's (1986, 1995) theory of social conduct. A meta-analytic test of the proposed causal cognition-emotion-behaviour sequence reveals that judgements of responsibility determine the emotional reactions of anger and sympathy, and that these emotional reactions, in turn, directly influence help giving and aggression. Results are highly consistent across several potential moderator variables including type of culture, sample characteristics, publication year, and publication status. Moreover, the present analyses suggest that the hypothesised model holds true for real events as well as for simulated data. Exploratory comparisons between the helping versus the aggression domain suggest that comparable results are obtained for these two domains, except that perceptions of responsibility are more likely to exert an additional proximal role in aggressive retaliation as compared to help giving. The implications of these findings for a general theory of motivation in the interpersonal and the intrapersonal domains are discussed.
This paper provides an overview of the cognitive approaches that have recently been used to study... more This paper provides an overview of the cognitive approaches that have recently been used to study stress and coping. Our review focuses on empirical research that links an individual's initial cognitive interpretation (e.g. appraisal, attribution) of a stressor to coping methods and psychological and physical adjustment. The cognitive interpretation of an experience as 'stressful' is crucial in that it varies from person to person, and sets the stress and coping process in motion. Recent findings: Research has shown that appraising a stressor as a threat is associated with negative psychological and physical adjustment, whereas appraising a stressor as a challenge is associated with positive psychological and physical adjustment. There is also some evidence to suggest that the initial cognitive interpretation of a stressor indirectly influences adjustment via the elicitation of certain coping methods. Cognitive interventions that emphasize the alteration of negative interpretations or perceptions result in improved subsequent adjustment. Furthermore, the efficacy of treatment is maximized when other treatment components are also included, such as relaxation and social support. Summary: Clinical practitioners should be sensitive to individual differences in how clients appraise, explain, and cope with stressors. Moreover, it may be clinically beneficial to focus on the initial cognitive interpretations related to stress rather than directly changing coping behaviors.
Valuable insights about emotional well-being can be learned from studying older adults who have w... more Valuable insights about emotional well-being can be learned from studying older adults who have wrestled with differentiating and regulating their emotions while they navigate through the many joys and traumas of a lifetime. Our objective was to document the underlying reasons for older adults' (n = 353, ages 72 -99) emotional experiences. Using a phenomenological approach, we identified participants' reported reasons (i.e., antecedents) for a broad variety of positive and negative emotions, classifying them into thematic categories through a content analysis. The array of thematic categories that emerged for some emotions was more differentiated than for others. For example, 14 antecedent categories were required to account for the emotion of happiness; whereas, only 4 categories were needed to capture all antecedents for anger. Our analysis provided a rich description of what older adults report as the causes of their emotions, showing that later life is characterized as a time when the loss of love ones elicits sadness, self-limitations elicit frustration, and others' transgressions elicit anger. Yet, our data show that old age can be portrayed even more so as a time when a variety of positive emotions are elicited by social factors (interactions and relationships), achievements, and personal attributes. Finally, in an analysis of the most common antecedents for pride (accomplishments) and anger (other's transgression), we suggest that pride over accomplishments is most likely elicited by internal attributions to skill and effort; whereas, anger over others' transgressions is most likely elicited by controllable attributions to the transgressor's inconsiderate or offensive behavior. Overall, this shows the utility of applying Weiner's attributional framework (Weiner, 1985) to an analysis of emotion antecedents in late life.
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2010s by Bernard Weiner
2000s by Bernard Weiner