Stereotype threat is the fear that a person's behavior or performance will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which that person identifies. The purpose of this study was to look at the effect of instruction and emphasis on the female performance on an analytical reasoning task. This study tested undergraduate students taking a psychology course from California State University at San Bernardino. In this thesis, the task was framed as either an analytical reasoning task, a creative reasoning task, or there was no framing present. This study found that performance did differ as a result of instruction type, with creative instruction yielding higher scores. Varying instruction type performance can improve performance on an analytical reasoning task.

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in how parents of ADHD children and non-ADHD parents attribute undesirable and prosocial child behavior, and to determine if attributions about undesirable child behavior influence parents' perceived levels of parenting stress. Parent attributions from 69 parent-child dyads, half with a child ADHD diagnosis, were measured coding videotaped interactions. Results indicated that parents of ADHD children do not make significantly more stable attributions about undesirable child behavior than non-ADHD parents. Additionally, compared to non-ADHD parents, parents of ADHD children did not make significantly more unstable attributions about their children's prosocial behaviors. Regarding parenting stress, individuals who generated higher frequencies of stable attributions also appeared to maintain more negative views of their children's behaviors in comparison to other children.

The problem addressed in this study was to determine if a significant association exists between attributions and academic achievement among students in a program of religious training at a Bible college. The research was designed to ascertain if optimistic attributions are more frequently associated with students in programs of religious education than with students in a public state-supported university environment. No significant correlation was found between optimistic explanatory styles and the academic achievement of Bible college students. A significant positive difference was found to exist between the explanatory styles of students at The Criswell College and students at the University of North Texas. Students in religious courses of study tended toward attributions for negative events that were external, unstable, and specific. The University of North Texas students tended toward attributions for negative events that were internal, stable, and global.

Previous research examining the impact of training and practice effects on modifying performance of fluid intelligence tasks (Gf) and crystallized intelligence tasks (Gc) were extended to include self-rated performance attributions among non-depressed and depressed older persons. The following general questions were addressed. How does level of depression affect performance on Gf and Gc measures and performance attributions? How does level of depression and degree of benefit from either training or practice relate to changes in attributional styles? The framework used for predicting shifts in attributional styles was the reformulated learned helplessness model. Three hundred twenty-five community-dwelling older persons completed the Gf/Gc Sampler, Beck Depression Inventory, and Attributions for Success/Failure Questionnaire at pretest, posttest (one week), and follow-up (one month). Between the pretest and posttest sessions, subjects participated in one of three experimental conditions; (a) cognitive (induction) training, (b) stress inoculation training, and (c) no-contact control groups. The results from univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance procedures provided partial support for the hypotheses. At pretest, both non-depressed and depressed older persons had internal attributional styles, although based on differential performance outcomes. The depressed persons were found to have more failure experiences as a result of their significantly poorer performance on Gf tasks, versus the non-depressed. Specific Gf training effects were documented regarding attributional shifts for the non-depressed, while there were no changes on their attributional style due to practice on either Gf or Gc tasks. In contrast, only differential practice effects were documented for depressed subjects across Gf and Gc tasks. The importance of assessing personality dimensions in older persons and their xelationship to training and practice effects were discussed, in addition to limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

The proposed interaction between race and sex on achievement orientation has not been adequately demonstrated when cognitive measures are used. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of sex and race on attributions for achievement., Elementary level students made attributions to ability, effort, task-difficulty, or luck for 16 academic successes or failures described in a questionnaire. Girls made significantly (p < .001) fewer ability and significantly (p < .001) more effort attributions on success items than boys, regardless of their race. Six success items that had been sex-typed (3 girl, 3 boy) provided similar results. Sex-typing data indicated these subjects exhibited strong sex-role stereotypy. Results were discussed in terms of sex-typing of the individual and not the task.

Parents' and children's behaviors are intricately woven together over the course of development. Consequently it is difficulty to determine the sources of influence predicting socially and academically oriented outcomes. Research from several developmental fields suggests that developing mechanisms of attention during the preschool years is crucial for both emotional and cognitive control. The current study shows that parental responsive behavior is important in understanding the development of voluntary attention. More specifically, the results suggest that parental awareness, assessed utilizing their perceptions of attentive temperament is an important factor in predicting their own behavior and the developmental outcomes of their children. / by Aviva R. Kadin-Pessoa. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

by Wong Ding Pang. / Includes questionaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-120). / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vii / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter I. --- Background of the Study --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Purpose of the Study --- p.4 / Chapter III. --- Significance of the Study --- p.5 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE --- p.8 / Chapter I. --- Attributional Theory --- p.8 / Chapter A. --- Weiner's Model --- p.8 / Chapter B. --- Specific Causal Ascriptions and Causal Dimensions --- p.10 / Chapter C. --- An Attributional Approach to Expectancy Change --- p.12 / Chapter D. --- Attributions and Academic Behavior --- p.13 / Chapter II. --- Causal Attributions and Affective Reactions --- p.17 / Chapter A. --- The Cognition-Emotion Process --- p.17 / Chapter B. --- Specific Causes and Affective Reactions --- p.19 / Chapter C. --- Causal Dimensions and Affective Reactions --- p.20 / Chapter D. --- Guilt versus Shame --- p.21 / Chapter E. --- Anger and Pity --- p.26 / Chapter F. --- Pride --- p.28 / Chapter G. --- Gender Differences in Emotional Responses --- p.30 / Chapter H. --- Specific Causes versus Causal Dimensions --- p.31 / Chapter III. --- Depression --- p.33 / Chapter A. --- Cognitive Theories of Depression --- p.33 / Chapter B. --- Depressogenic Style --- p.35 / Chapter C. --- Hopelessness Theory of Depression --- p.38 / Chapter D. --- Measurement of Depression --- p.42 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.43 / Chapter I. --- Definition of Variables --- p.43 / Chapter II. --- Theoretical Framework --- p.45 / Chapter III. --- Hypotheses --- p.46 / Chapter IV. --- Instrumentation --- p.48 / Chapter V. --- Sampling and Procedures --- p.52 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- RESULTS --- p.54 / Chapter I. --- Psychometric Properties of Instruments --- p.54 / Chapter II. --- "Relations among Performance, Attributions, Expectancy and Affects" --- p.62 / Chapter III. --- Gender Differences --- p.69 / Chapter IV. --- Relations between Attributions and Affects --- p.74 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION --- p.94 / Chapter I. --- Attribution and Affect --- p.95 / Chapter II. --- Causal Cognitions and Behavior --- p.97 / Chapter III. --- Cultural Differences --- p.99 / Chapter IV. --- Gender Differences --- p.103 / Chapter V. --- Limitations and Further Researches --- p.104 / REFERENCES --- p.107 / APPENDICES --- p.121 / Chapter I. --- Beck Depression Inventory (Chinese Version) --- p.121 / Chapter II. --- Actual Attainment and Perceptions of Performance and Success on Mathematics Final Examination --- p.124 / Chapter III. --- Examination Attribution Questionnaire --- p.125 / Chapter IV. --- Causal Dimension Scale --- p.126 / Chapter V. --- Affect Scales --- p.127 / Chapter VI. --- Expectancies and Approach Towards Mathematics --- p.128

Florence J. J. Yip. / Includes questionnaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-40).

Although age-related differences in the correspondence bias are often attributed to cognitive decline, the present study found that age-related differences in the correspondence bias were differentially influenced by the participants mood states. Young and older participants completed an attitude-attribution task after having been induced to experience a positive, neutral, or negative mood. Whereas older adults demonstrated the correspondence bias more strongly in the negative mood condition relative to the positive mood condition, young adults exhibited the exact opposite pattern of results. Interestingly, the positive mood manipulation led older adults to be no more dispositionally biased than their younger counterparts. Further, mood and age-related differences in attributional confidence were not eliminated after controlling for individual differences in cognitive functioning.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences