Causal Attributions and the Likelihood of Future Performance / S. Mark Pancer.

There is evidence that anticipating continued performance at a task can enhance one's need for control, and will thereby influence the kinds of attributions that are made for one's performance. Causal attributions for performance in an introductory psychology course were examined with respect to students' estimates of the likelihood of their taking similar courses in future. Attributions to ability were more negatively correlated with future performance likelihood for unsuccessful (students receiving a final grade of C or less) than for successful (A or B) students. In addition, unsuccessful students tended to say that they had worked less, the more they anticipated future performance, while successful students said they had worked more, the more they anticipated future performance. Results can be interpreted in terms of the "controllability" of the two causal factors, effort and ability. (Author/BN)

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