The relationship of attributional beliefs to self-esteem

Adolescence, Summer, 1998 by Lisa A. Turner, Shannon Pickering, R. Burke Johnson

The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine if the scores on a multidimensional instrument measuring attributional beliefs - the Students' Perception of Control Questionnaire (SPOCQ) - are related to self-esteem and grade point average (GPA). Additional objectives were to (1) determine if there are gender differences on subscales of the SPOCQ, (2) determine if there are gender differences in the correlations of the subscales with self-esteem, and (3) determine the adequacy of the internal consistency of the SPOCQ subscales in a sample of adolescents and adults.

The measurement of attributional beliefs in adolescents and adults is an important issue because a substantial amount of research indicates that these beliefs about the causes of events are related to achievement-oriented behavior (Koestner, Zuckerman, & Olsson, 1990; Ames, 1984; Butler, 1987; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Jagacinski & Nicholls, 1984) and self-esteem (Jagacinski & Nicholls, 1984). Persons who believe that their behavior has no impact on outcomes are likely to develop learned helplessness, avoid challenging situations, and fail to persist (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). This can result in a "cycle of failure" in which negative beliefs result in a lack of persistence, which leads to failure and potentially lowered self-esteem. Failure and low self-esteem confirm the negative beliefs, and the cycle continues.

Weiner (1985) has indicated that beliefs about the causes of success and failure vary along three dimensions: locus (internal or external), stability (stable or unstable), and control (controllable or uncontrollable). He has suggested that persons who attribute failure to ability view failure as an internal, stable, uncontrollable event. Failure is seen as beyond their control and they have little incentive to persist in similar tasks in the future.

Skinner (1995) suggests that there may be important individual differences in the perceived importance of causes (e.g., effort and ability) and in one's perceived capacity to access these causes. Although previous attribution scales have assessed individual differences in perceived importance of effort and ability for a given outcome (e.g., Nowicki & Strickland, 1973), Skinner argues that it is necessary to determine not only the importance of the cause, but also the person's perceived access to that cause. Skinner suggests that action is related to beliefs about what strategies are successful and one's perceived capacity to access those strategies. She contends that individuals are likely to behave effortfully when they believe effort is an effective strategy, and when they believe they can behave effortfully.

Based on Skinner's theoretical conceptualization, Wellborn, Connell, and Skinner (1989) developed the Students' Perception of Control Questionnaire (SPOCQ) to measure children's beliefs about specific strategies and the extent to which they believe they have control over those strategies. The SPOCQ provides a more complete description of attributional beliefs than do other scales available for use with adolescents and adults. If this scale can be used effectively with adolescents and adults, it will provide a new perspective and an attractive option to investigators working in the area of attributional beliefs.

METHOD

Participants

One hundred forty-seven college students were recruited from introductory psychology classes. (Students participated in research as an option for course credit.) Eighty-five females and 62 males, with a mean age of 22 years (range = 17 to 52), participated.

Materials and Procedure

Students participated in a group session which lasted approximately 30 minutes. Group size ranged from 10 to 25 participants. The students completed the SPOCQ (Wellborn et al., 1989) and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) in counterbalanced order. After completing both questionnaires, students provided demographic information, including age, gender, race, and GPA.

The SPOCQ was originally developed for use with school-age children and adolescents. In the present study, it was adapted for use with college students by making minor wording changes, such as changing the term "homework" to "course work," while keeping the meaning of each statement intact. Three constructs are addressed in the 60-item questionnaire: general control beliefs, strategy beliefs, and capacity beliefs. Control refers to beliefs about one's ability to reach a desired goal (e.g., I can do well; I can learn hard things).These control beliefs are similar to self-efficacy (Bandura, 1989). Strategy beliefs refer to the means deemed necessary to reach a goal. Five strategies are measured by the SPOCQ: effort, ability, luck, powerful others, and unknown factors. Finally, capacity reflects beliefs about the capacity to access the strategies of effort, ability, luck, and powerful others. For example, a student may indicate that effort is important for success (strategy effort) but that he or she cannot try hard (capacity effort). Assessing these three constructs - control, strategy, and capacity - can provide a relatively complete picture of attributional beliefs.