The attribution model of achievement motivation has been applied to academic achievement as a way of understanding underachievement and as a basis for developing intervention programs. There has been little applied research in this area, however, that supports the use of the model in school settings. The purpose of the present study was to test the applicability of the model to an actual school setting. Subjects were 149 tenth grade students in a large urban school district. In accordance with the model, specific attributions for success or failure were assessed, as well as subjects' perceptions of the locus, stability, and controllability of attributions. Attribution patterns found in previous analog research were not found in a school setting. Immediate effort attributions were the most prevalent, regardless of performance level or outcome. Causal beliefs were found to relate to performance in ways predicted by the model but also in some ways not predicted. Relationships were generally stronger for high performers. Comparing subjects' perceptions of the dimensional properties of attributions across outcomes showed a strong outcome bias. Attributions were perceived as more internal and stable following successes, consistent with previous research. In addition, a performance level bias was found. Low performers rated attributions as less internal, stable, and controllable following successes and more so following failures than did high performers. This bias, termed the underachievement bias, was discussed in terms of its detrimental effects on school performance. The differences between high and low performers regarding perceptions of dimensionalities were consistent with the predictions of the attribution model. It was concluded that the attribution model is applicable to school settings. Suggestions were made that more applied research be conducted, that intervention programs based on this model should target subjects' perceptions of attributions rather than just the specific attributions themselves, and that because of the differences among subjects in perceptions of dimensional properties of attributions, researchers should obtain a direct measure of subjects' perceptions rather than assuming them.

La psychologisation est une explication causale en des termes psychologiques des évènements qui arrivent aux individus (Beauvois, 2006). Alors que le terme de psychologisation fait référence à la caractéristique interne des explications fournies par les individus, celui de psychopathologisation ferait référence aux caractéristiques à la fois internes mais aussi incontrôlables de ces explications (Haslam, Ban, & Kaufmann, 2007). Attribuer la cause d’une situation d’échec académique à une disposition contrôlable serait majorer la responsabilité de l’individu qui échoue dans cette situation (Weiner, 1995). En revanche attribuer la cause d’un échec académique à une disposition psychopathologique serait minorer la responsabilité de cet individu. Le but principal de cette thèse est 1) de métaboliser le concept de psychopathologisation 2) de révéler un lien entre l’échec académique et l’explication de cet échec par des causes psychopathologiques 3) de montrer que ce lien est distinct de celui existant entre l’échec académique et l’explication de celui-ci par des causes internes et contrôlables. Nous avons tenté de démontrer que les explications causales faites en des termes psychopathologiques avaient bien des caractéristiques différentes de celles faites en des termes internes et contrôlables. Nous avons très parcimonieusement montré un lien entre l’échec académique et les attributions causales d’ordre psychopathologique. Enfin la distinction entre la psychopathologisation et l’attribution causale à des causes internes et contrôlables reste à explorer plus avant. / Psychologization is a causal explanation in psychological terms of events occurring to people (Beauvois, 2006). Although psychologization refers to internal characteristic of explanations given by the people, psychopathologization refers to characteristics both internal and uncontrollable of these explanations (Haslam, et al., 2007). Attributing the cause of an individual’s academic failure to a controllable disposition would increase the perceived individual’s responsibility for this situation (Weiner, 1995). Conversely attributing to an uncontrollable disposition the cause of the same issue would decreased his responsibility. The main goal of this work is to 1) metabolize the psychopathologization concept 2) reveal a link between academic failure and psychopathologization 3) show that this link is different from the one that exists between attribution to internal and controllable causes and academic failure. We tried to show that psychopathologization and attribution to internal and controllable causes are different in essence. We hardly succeeded to reveal a link between psychopathologization and academic failure. Finally, further work is needed to show a distinction between the two processes.

Dans cette thèse, l’étude des verbes copules ser et estar est abordée de deux points de vue complémentaires. D'une part, une analyse grammaticale d'un large corpus d’occurrences orales authentiques est réalisée afin d'évaluer la pertinence de certains outils théoriques appartenant à une approche cognitive de la question. D’une autre part, à partir d’un contexte d’enseignement des langues secondes, une recherche expérimentale est menée pour examiner l’influence que le type d’approche grammaticale utilisée lors de l’enseignement peut avoir sur les résultats des apprenants. Dans les deux cas, la priorité est donnée à la validation empirique des hypothèses de travail suivant des méthodologies appartenant, dans un cas, à la linguistique et, dans un autre cas, à la didactique des langues. De cette manière, il a été possible d’identifier le champ de spécialisation de chacune des disciplines quant à la description des copules susmentionnées, ainsi que les points de convergence entre les champs d’étude concernés. / In this thesis, the study of the Copulus verbs Ser and Estar is approached from two complementary points of view. On the one hand, a grammatical analysis of a large corpus of authentic oral occurrences is carried out in order to evaluate the relevance of certain theoretical tools belonging to a cognitive approach to the question. On the other hand, from a second language teaching context, experimental research is conducted to examine the influence that the type of grammatical approach used in teaching can have on learners' outcomes. In both cases, priority is given to the empirical validation of working hypotheses according to methodologies belonging, in one case, to linguistics and, in another case, to language didactics. In this way, it was possible to identify the field of specialization of each of the disciplines in terms of the description of the above-mentioned copulas, as well as the points of convergence between the fields of study concerned.

L’approche constructiviste de l’émotion considère que les traits émotionnels ne sont pas des propriétés intrinsèques des objets mais se construisent « ici et maintenant » lors de l’interaction sensorimotrice individu/environnement. Notre objectif dans ce travail de thèse était de mettre en évidence des effets réciproques entre l’action et l’évaluation émotionnelle, fondés sur le caractère hédonique de la fluence motrice, c’est-à-dire l’aisance avec laquelle une action est réalisée. Nous avons choisi de manipuler la fluence motrice par des mouvements latéralisés des mains exécutés lors d’une tâche de jugement de valence. En effet, il existe des liens marqués entre valence et latéralité, de sorte que le côté dominant d’un individu est associé à la valence positive (Casasanto, 2009). Nous comparons des conditions de congruence et de non-congruence entre la valence des items et le geste de réponse. Nos résultats ont montré des influences bidirectionnelles des actions et de l’évaluation basées sur deux processus distincts. D’une part lors d’un jugement de valence, un effet de compatibilité facilite la réalisation du geste de réponse compatible grâce à la fluence motrice. D’autre part la fluence d’un comportement moteur entraine, par un effet d’attribution, des variations dans l’évaluation de mots neutres ou connotés positivement et négativement. De plus, nos travaux ont mis en évidence le rôle du dispositif de réponse (échelle de jugement de valence et localisation des touches de réponse) sur l’évaluation émotionnelle, soulignant le caractère situé du jugement. Ces résultats sont discutés à la lumière de la conception constructiviste de l’émotion en accord avec une approche incarnée et située de la cognition. / The constructivist approach of emotion considers that emotional features are not intrinsic properties of objects but are rather constructed « right here, right now » during the sensorimotor interactions between an individual and his environment. Our objective in this work was to demonstrate the mutual effects of action and emotional evaluation, grounded on the hedonic character of motor fluency (i.e. the ease with which an action is executed). We manipulated motor fluency by the use of lateralized hand movements in a valence judgment task. Indeed, valence and laterality appear to be linked since our dominant side is associated to positive valence (Casasanto, 2009). We compared conditions based on the congruency and non-congruency between the valence of items and the affective connotation of response movements. Our results indicated bidirectional influences of actions and evaluation based on two separate processes. On one hand during valence judgment, a compatibility effect facilitated the execution of a movement that was consistent due to motor fluency. On the other hand an attribution effect allowed the fluency of a movement to induce variations in the evaluation of neutral and emotional words. Furthermore, our works demonstrated the impact of the response device (orientation of a valence judgment scale and localization of response keys) on emotional judgment, underlying the situated character of evaluation. Those results are discussed in the light of the constructivist conception of emotion, in accordance with an embodied and situated approach of cognition.

It is proposed that differences in rejection attribution could yield variations in subsequent prosocial behavior. To test the attribution hypothesis, 109 participants were randomly assigned to a performance based rejection, a personally based rejection, or a control condition and then worked with an ostensible partner via the Internet to develop uses for a common household item. Prosocial behavior was measured by the number of uses a participant generated (working harder for the team). When generating creative uses, participants in the rejection conditions performed significantly worse than nonrejected participants (F(2,74) = 4.576, p<.05, r2=.11). However, in contradiction to the attribution hypothesis, participants in the 2 rejection conditions did not differ in performance. Explanations for why the rejection attribution hypothesis was not supported are discussed in addition to directions for future research regarding rejection attribution.

What Places Adolescents and Adults, Respectively, in Need of Social Assistance?  A Qualitative Study of How Social Workers Whom Administrate Financial Assistance for Adolescents and Adults, Respectively, Describe Reasons Behind the Need of Social Assistance Amongst Their Clients The purpose of this essay was to study and compare how social workers whom administrate social assistance for adolescents and adults, respectively, describe reasons behind the need of social assistance amongst their clients. This was done due to the use of qualitative interviews with a total of six social workers. Of these six, three administrated social assistance for adolescents while the other three did the same for adults. Prior research of poverty attribution greatly inspired this essay. This research shows that public explanations for poverty vary from individualistic to structuralistic/social and fatalistic attributions. Research also argues that explanations amongst social workers, specifically, may constitute further attributions which are unique to that group and that can appear alongside the aforementioned attributions. The results of this essay showed that both groups of administrators explained the need of social assistance in similar ways. Although many of the mentioned reasons were similar, making up several of the aforementioned attributions, some of them varied between the groups. Furthermore, a new set of attributions emerged from one group of administrators. / Syftet med denna uppsats var att studera och jämföra hur socialsekreterare som handlägger ekonomiskt bistånd för ungdomar respektive vuxna beskriver orsaker till biståndsbehovet hos sina klienter. Detta genomfördes med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med sex stycken socialsekreterare; tre ungdomshandläggare och tre vuxenhandläggare. Studien inspirerades till stor del av tidigare forskning om fattigdom, som bl.a. pekar på att fattigdom allmänt förklaras enligt tre olika förklaringsmodeller - individuella, strukturella/sociala eller fatalistiska sådana. Denna forskning visar också att det hos vissa socialarbetare kan finnas ytterligare förklaringsmodeller utöver de som nämnts ovan. I denna uppsats framkom att ungdoms- och vuxenhandläggarna i huvudsak förklarade biståndsbehovet genom att använda gemensamma förklaringsmodeller - både de mer allmänna och de övriga som förekommit bland socialarbetare. Vad gäller de specifika orsaker som lyftes upp var vissa gemensamma för båda handläggargrupperna medan andra endast förekom hos en av grupperna. Hos en av grupperna framkom dessutom en helt ny förklaringsmodell.

L’objet de cette thèse porte sur la pratique de la copie d’après l’antique et les maîtres à l’Académie de France à Rome sous la direction de Charles-Joseph Natoire entre 1752 et 1775. Il s’attache au domaine du dessin et s’étend aux artistes qui gravitent dans l’orbite de cette institution. Sont examinés tout d’abord le cadre institutionnel, le lieu et les enseignements obligatoires afin de définir le contexte dans lequel se pratique le dessin d’après l’antique et les maîtres. La réalisation de copies peintes en dehors du palais Mancini ouvre sur la question d’une dichotomie entre modèles imposés et choix des pensionnaires lors de l’exécution d’études dessinées dans les basiliques, les églises, les palais et les musées de Rome. La deuxième partie propose une analyse comparative entre les sources antiques puis modernes sélectionnées et les interprétations graphiques des pensionnaires. Elle offre un aperçu des lieux les plus fréquentés, des types d’œuvres privilégiés et de la réception de l’antiquité comme des sculptures et des peintures du Quattrocento au Settecento. L’examen des commandes de quatre amateurs démontre leur influence sur les travaux des pensionnaires et permet de définir d’autres formes d’utilisation des copies dessinées. Enfin, nous nous intéressons à la conservation et à la circulation des dessins comme témoignages matériels des relations entres pensionnaires et proches de l’Académie. Elles reflètent des pratiques artistiques individuelles ou partagées. Elles attestent le rôle de modèle assumé par certains et les fonctions de la copie par-delà le séjour à Rome. / The aim of this dissertation covers the practice of copying after the Antique and Masters at the French Academy in Rome while Charles-Joseph Natoire was its director between 1752 and 1775. It relates to the field of drawing and extends to the artists who gravitated around this institution. First the institutional context is considered, the premises and compulsory classes, in order to define the context in which drawing after the Antique and the Masters was practiced. The creation of painted copies outside the Palazzo Mancini raises the question of a dichotomy between models imposed and the choices of the pensionnaires when they were drawing studies in the basilicas, churches, palaces and museums of Rome. The second section provides a comparative analysis between the ancient and modern sources chosen and the pensionnaires’ interpretation of them. It provides an overview of the most commonly visited locations, the types of works favoured and the reception both of antiquity and sculptures and paintings from the Quattrocento to the Settecento. A study of four connoisseurs who commissionned drawings shows their influence on the pensionnaires’ work and allows other uses of drawn copies to be defined. Finally the conservation and circulation of drawings as material evidence of the relations between pensionnaires and those close to the Academy is examined. These confirm the role as a model assumed by some and the functions of the copy beyond an artist’s time as a student in Rome.

A questionnaire was used to study causal attribution to social roles as influenced by perceived deviance of the role, instructions to identify with the role, and participant gender. The perceived deviance or nondeviance of the roles was determined by a pilot study. The roles were varied randomly through 12 hypothetical events, and identification or nonidentification instructions randomly assigned. The participants were 194 male and female university students. Participants gave the cause of each event and rated the cause on five dimensions: internality, externality, stability, globality, and controllability. Causal attribution to deviant social roles was found to result in a significantly higher across-scales score and to be more internal, less external, and more global than attribution to nondeviant roles. Participant gender showed an interaction with deviance overall and on the dimensions of stability and globality due to significantly higher ratings by women participants than those by men. Identification instructions did not produce a significant effect.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka om det går att predicera individers attribution av negativ kritik från sin chef till externa eller interna orsaker i hypotetiska situationer, beroende på individens personlighetsdrag enligt femfaktormodellen. Datainsamling genomfördes på sociala medier via en digital enkät, baserad på The Attributional Style Questionnaire och en svensk översättning av Ten-Item Personality Inventory. De 116 respondenterna i studien har varit verksamma i arbetslivet under minst ett år på en anställningsgrad på 50% eller mer. Studien visade att personlighetsdragen från femfaktorsmodellen inte kunde predicera om en individ attribuerade externt eller internt avseende negativ kritik från chefen. Ingen signifikant skillnad mellan könen hittades. / The purpose of the study was to investigate whether it was possible to predict an individual's attribution of negative criticism from their boss in hypothetical situations (based on internal- external attribution and the five-factor model). Data collection was carried out on social media through a digital survey, based on The Attributional Style Questionnaire and a Swedish translation of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. The 116 participants involved in the study had a work experience of a minimum of one year, with a full-time position or part- time employment of 50% or higher. The study showed that personality traits could not predict whether an individual attributed external or internal negative criticism from the manager. No significant difference between the sexes was found.

When UN peacekeeping forces engage in unauthorized actions the question of which entity, the UN or the troop contributing nation, can be held responsible arises. UN peacekeeping forces are generally not considered to be UN subsidiary organs, but organs of the state put at the disposal of the UN. Therefore, a conduct of the peacekeeping force is attributable to the UN if it exercises effective control over that conduct.  The presumptive view of the effective control test consists of a presumption and a rebuttal phase. The conduct of a UN peacekeeping force is presumed to be attributable to the UN. If national contingents follow instructions from their contributing state and therefore fall out of the effective control of the UN, the presumption is rebutted. The presumptive view may, however, lead to responsibility gaps by presuming attribution to the UN, which enjoys immunity in national courts leaving victims without effective remedies. Dual attribution creates a possibility of attributing one conduct not only to the UN but also to the troop contributing nation. By applying dual attribution on conduct of UN Peacekeeping Forces some responsibility gaps could be avoided. If this possibility will be used in the future to ensure victims effective remedies, is up to the courts to decide.