Affect as a mediator of attributional egotism (original) (raw)
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Affect as a determinant of egotism: Residual excitation and performance attributions
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1982
An experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of outcome-related affect on subsequent causal attributions. After working on a social skills test, college students engaged in a physical exercise task. The students were given success or failure feedback on the social skills test either 1, 5, or 9 minutes after the exercise. Excitation transfer theory suggests that the residual arousal from the exercise in the 5-minute condition may elevate the positive and negative affective states elicited by the success and failure feedback. Thus, increased attributional egotism in the 5-minute condition was predicted. The principal findings are as follows: (a) Subjects preferred internal factors to explain success, whereas external factors were blamed for failure, and (b) ego-defensive attributions following failure and ego-enhancing attributions following success were more pronounced in the 5-minute condition than in the 1-minute and 9-minute conditions. The results support the idea that outcome-related affect mediates egotistical performance attributions.
Praise or blame? Affective influences on attributions for achievement
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1990
Three experiments showed that mood influences achievement attributions and that cognitive processes underlie these effects. In Experiment 1, happy Ss made more internal and stable attributions for success than failure in typical 'life dilemmas'. In Experiment 2, attributions for real-life exam performance were more internal and stable in a happy than in a sad mood. Dysphoric moods resulted in self-critical rather than self-enhancing attributions, contrary to motivational theories, but consistent with cognitive models and the clinical literature on depression. In Experiment 3 this pattern was repeated with direct self vs. other comparisons, and for self-efficacy judgments. The results are interpreted as supporting cognitive rather than motivational theories of attribution biases. The implications of the results for clinical research, and contemporary affect-cognition theories are considered.
Journal of Personality, 1979
Group members often try to claim personal credit for the successes of their group while avoiding blame for group failures. Two experiments examined the effects of evaluations from their fellows on such egotism in groups. In Experiment 1, 96 subjects participated in fourperson, problem-solving groups, and, after completing the group tasks, rated the competency and worth of each of the other group members. Subjects then received bogus written feedback indicating that the group had either succeeded or failed, and that the other members had considered them: (a) the most competent member of the group, (b) the least competent, or (c) of average competence. Group performance and personal evaluations interacted in influencing subjects' perceptions of their personal performances, relative responsibility for the group performance, and potency within the group, generally supporting predictions derived from self-esteem and equity theory. Subjects claimed more responsibility for success than for failure only when they were favorably evaluated by their peers, and claimed the least responsibility for group success when they were unfavorably evaluated. The latter acceptance of negative peer evaluations was examined in Experiment 2, which manipulated the consensus of the evaluations given 76 high or low self-esteem subjects. Regardless of their selfesteem or the consensus of the evaluations, subjects again seemed to accept unfavorable evaluations. High self-esteem subjects did, though.
An attributional analysis of assertiveness
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1984
Assertive and nonassertive females participated in a social interaction task and were provided with either positive or negative feedback on their performance. Subjects then completed a measure of causal attributions that assessed the extent to which the outcome was due to the internal factors of personal ability and effort and to the external factors of task difficulty and luck. Assertive subjects attributed positive outcomes more internally than negative outcomes. Nonassertive subjects, on the other hand, were more evenhanded; that is, they responded equivalently to positive and negative feedback, Nonassertive subjects attributed both outcomes to more stable factors than did assertive subjects. The results suggest that these particular nonassertive subjects displayed a cognitive set that buffered positive feedback. Although nonassertive individuals are critical when asked to evaluate themselves (e.g., Alden & Cappe, 1981; Schwartz & Gottman, 1976), we have yet to determine how they respond when another person provides a more objective evaluation. The question of interest is whether the nonassertive person openly accepts feedback or whether he or she distorts input from others, perhaps accepting the negative while discounting the positive. One way of studying this possibility is to assess causal attributions for social outcomes. It has been widely noted that many individuals display a bias in assigning responsibility for outcomes, attributing positive outcomes to personal ability or other internal factors, and assigning negative outcomes to external factors. While situational factors can offset such self-serving biases, it is believed that this process helps maintain self-esteem and motivation. The low self-esteem and behavioral paralysis of nonassertive individuals suggest that processes of this type may be absent.
Attributional Effects in Interpersonal Settings
1981
,Res Sarch has shown that attributing 'failure to lack of, ability .e\adsito lower motiv,ation'than does attributing the failure to lack of-effort. An attributional model of motivation and performance following failure was tested with colde0 students (R=63), who were preselected On the basis of, their attributional styles tor interperspnal failures, as measured' by the Attributional Style Assessment Test. Subjects in the two groups (Character style versus Behavioral style attributors) were randomly' assilted to one of three experi,mettal manipulations of-attr'ibntions for failure at an interpersonal+ persuasion task-no manipulation: ability/trait manipulation, or strategy/effort manipulation. Subjects engaged in a telephone blood drive task, trying to persuade other students to donate blood. Success expectancies, ottvation, add actual, perforpance were assessed. Subjects who made strategy/effort type attributions,, whether by experimental manpulation, or pebsalection, expected4more success, expected more improvement,with practice, displayed higher levels of motivation, and performed better at thetask than did subjects who ade,ability/trait type attributions.
Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 1977
The effects of another's attributions for performance on one's own expectations, aspirations, and evaluations of performance were examined. Subject witnessed an other (O) who had attributed his performance (successful or unsuccessful) on an anagram task to luck, task ease or difficulty, effort, or ability. When O had succeeded, subjects expected to perform best if O had attributed his success to the task (rather than to luck, effort or ability); when O had failed, subjects expected to perform worst when O had attributed his failure to the task. In addition, subjects witnessing a successful O were more hopeful if O had made a task attribution, but subjects witnessing an unsuccessful O were more hopeful if O had made an effort attribution. Finally, subjects showed a tendency to attribute their own performance to the same cause to which O had attributed his own performance. Results were discussed in relation to the stabilityinstability and internal-external dimensions of causal attributions, and the need to perceive oneself as exercising effective control over the environment.
The Influence of Positive Reflection on Attributions, Emotions, and Self-Efficacy
The Sport Psychologist
The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of postcompetition positive reflection on attributions, emotions, and self-efficacy. Following a golf putting competition, participants (n = 80) were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. In the experimental group participants completed a modified version of the performance evaluation sheet (Holder, 1997). In the control group participants completed the concentration grid exercise (Harris & Harris, 1984). All participants subsequently completed measures of causal attribution, emotion, and self-efficacy. Findings showed that participants in the experimental condition made attributions that were significantly more internal and personally controllable than participants in the control group irrespective of competition outcome. No differences were observed between groups on measures of emotion and self-efficacy. This study suggests that reflecting back on positive elements of performance is a useful strategy f...
Self-esteem and responses to success and failure: Subsequent performance and intrinsic motivation
Journal of Personality, 1985
A model is proposed in which the goal of people with high self-esteem is to cultivate personal strengths in order to excel, whereas the goal of people with low self-esteem is to remedy personal deficiencies in order to become adequate In two experiments, subjects received initial outcome feedback of either success, humiliating failure (internal attribution), or failure that allowed face-saving (external attnbution) Expenment 1 then measured subjects intrinsic motivation to pursue the task during free-choice time Subjects with high self-esteem had the highest intrinsic motivation after success Subjects with low self-esteem had the highest intnnsic motivation after the humiliating failure Expenment 2 required a second performance on a similar task Performance results were consistent with the intrinsic motivation results of Expenment 1, with one exception High self-esteem subjects were sensitive to the different failure treatments, performing well after humiliation but poorly after face-saving Subjects with low self-esteem performed the same in both failure conditions The relation of the present model and results to previous work is discussed The purpose of the present article is to articulate a general model of how trait self-esteem predisposes behavioral responses to success and failure, and then to provide evidence relevant to that model Self-Esteem and Responses to Success vs Failure Self-esteem means a global evaluation of the self, and it is typically measured by the degree to which the person endorses yanous We thank Joel Brockner, Judy Harackiewicz, and Dean McFarlin for their critiques of an early draft associate editor Steye West and three anonymous reviewers were also extremely helpful We are indebted to Alex Chervinsky for his painstaking and
Egotism in Group Members: Public and Private Attributions of Responsibility for Group Performance
Social Psychology Quarterly, 1985
The attributional egotism of individuals may be particularly important when they serve as members of cooperative groups. Within a group one's fellow members may be granted or denied credit for a group performance in order to manipulate one's own perceived responsibility for the outcome. In this study, group members privately or publicly reported their assessments of their own and others' responsibility for group successes and failures. Subjects privately claimed more responsibility for success than for failure but did not do so (in public) when the other members were expected to see their reports. Moreover, under public conditions, subjects claimed less responsibility for a group success than they gave to the other members, an effect which disappeared in private. Subjects were clearly sensitive to the interpersonal implications of their attributions, displaying less egotism under public conditions.
1983
This study attempted to extend the concept of achievement motivation, as proposed by Weiner's attributional model, to social affiliative contexts. It was proposed that low social anxiety individuals behave like high achievement motivation individuals who make more self-attributions for success, but more external attributions for failure, whereas high social anxiety individuals take more personal responsibility for failure social outcomes, but make more external attributions when successful. Subjects were 243 undergraduate students, 143 females and 100 males. They completed the Leary Social Anxiety Scale, the Lefcourt Affiliation Locus of Control Scale, the Fenigstein Social Anxiety Scale, the Social Attribution Scale, and the Russell Causal Dimension Scale.