To test predictions of learned helplessness theory and attribution theory, depressed and nondepressed subjects were exposed to a word-association task in a skill, chance, or no-instructional-set condition. Subjects were asked to make attributions of success and failure to four factors--ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck--and rate expectancy of success. The predictions of both theories were only partially confirmed. Difficulties relating to the experimental design may account for the failure of nondepressed/skill subjects to show greater expectancy change. As predicted, all subjects in the chance condition displayed similar expectancy changes. Also as predicted, nondepressed subjects did not rate effort as being the least influential factor. Depressed subjects, however, rated all factors equivalently, instead of rating effort least influential.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc504019 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Toppins, John D. |
| Contributors | Hughes, Anita E., Kennelly, Kevin J., Harrell, Ernest H. |
| Publisher | North Texas State University |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | v, 60 leaves, Text |
| Rights | Public, Toppins, John D., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. |
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