The comparison of two models of causal attributions of school success/failure

Abstract

The article deals with and checks some basic hypotheses of Weiner’s and Kelly's models od causal attributions tif school success/failure and the author compares these two models as tar as their efficiency is involved in regard to predictions of affective and cognitive reactions (in the sense of changes of expectations of future success) of pupils to such achievement. The investigation was conducted on 80 pupils in the fourth grade of middle school in natural setting on knowledge tests in physics. It is consisted of two parts: in the first (pre-test) part the pupils were evaluating their intellectual capacities and the expected success in the tests and the second (post-test) part they evaluated their own success in that test, emotional experience of that success, the importance of each of the four given samples of achieved success (ability, devotion for work, the difficulty of the task, and luck), consistency, distinetivness and consensus of the achieved results and the expected success on the coming test. The estimation was done on seven degree scale with defined concepts. The data was obtained nbottl the intellectual abilities of the pupils nnd their school success. Tje analysis was conducted by regressive analyses and two-way analyses of variance, Il has been established that Weiner’s and Kelly's models have satisfactory efficiency in the prediction of emotional and cognitive reactions of pupils to the achieved success. Kelly's model gives us a better prediction of cognitive reactions. The pupils were quite accurate in estimating the dimensions of consistency and distinctiveness of achieved grades but not the dimension of consensus (probably because of some self-defensive mechanisms).