The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among mood, task performance, and attribution. It was hypothesized that type of mood would affect task performance and causal attributions for success and failure. Subjects viewed one of three films, selected for their humorous (positive mood), educational (neutral mood) and violent (negative mood) content and performed an anagram task in which success and failure was manipulated. After completing the task, subjects were asked to write down the most important cause of their success or failure and rate the cause on three 9point subscales, one subscale for each of the attributional dimensions of internality, stability, and controllability. In addition, subjects responded to an ascription scale that assesses the extent to which specific factors (e.g., task difficulty) are perceived to influence performance. The study found the expected effect of outcome on the causal ascription measure of attributions but not for the dimension measure. Contrary to the hypothesis, there was no effect of mood on attributions or task performance. These results raise the question of the measurement of attribution by causal ascriptions versus dimensions, and leave unresolved the questions of the relationships of mood to attribution and task performance. Possible explanations for the discrepancy between ascriptions and attributions and the lack of an effect of mood are discussed. Implications for future research are examined and suggestions are proposed. / Department of Psychological Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/184074 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Tremont, Geoffrey |
| Contributors | Ball State University. Dept. of Psychological Science., Whitley, Bernard E. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 42 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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