Lecture 4 Attributions in Action

Question 1

internal attribution (dispositional attribution)

Answer 1

something within the person we observe. ex. personality

Question 2

external attribution (situational attribution)

Answer 2

caused by something outside the person we observe ex. their situation

Question 3

Attributions across the Age span by Nicholls

Answer 3

5-6 yrs old focus on outcome
7-9 yrs old focus on outcome and effect
9-11 yrs old recognize effort as necessary for success
12-13 yrs old use ability and effort to account for outcomes

Question 4

what distinguishes “deteriorates” from “persisters”?

Answer 4

their behaviour and cognitions about failure, whether they stick to it or give up

Question 5

what is the goal of attributional retraining

Answer 5

manipulate dysfunctional attributional thoughts to produce more functionally adaptive ways of attributing

Question 6

what 3 perspectives does Attributional Retraining involve?

Answer 6

stable vs. unstable
controllable vs. uncontrollable
internal vs. external

Question 7

those who attributed failure to stable factors such as ability showed ___ in performance

Answer 7

decrease

Question 8

those who attributed variable factors such as lack of effort to failure showed ___ performance

Answer 8

increased

Question 9

Mastery-oriented

Answer 9

characterized by attributions that imply mistakes are reversible

Question 10

learned helplessness

Answer 10

losing is inevitable, they could do nothing to succeed, their life is just terrible and they get stuck in an unhealthy cycle

Question 11

True or false: not trying hard enough is not always the reason for failure

Answer 11

true

Question 12

should effort or strategy be worked on first?

Answer 12

effort

Question 13

people with controllable, unstable, attributions tend to:

Answer 13

persist longer

increase performance

Question 14

what is the main point of attribution retraining

Answer 14

to keep individuals from attributing their failutre to lack of ability.