Attribution

If students receive feedback on their performance (e.g. a specific grade for a class test), they will have a subjective explanation for this success (in the case of a good grade) or failure (in the case of a bad grade). Reasons for success or failure can, for example, be seen in their own abilities, exam preparation or the requirements set. The process of causation is called attribution and influences the motivation to learn, but also the emotional experience in the context of learning situations (Ziegler et al., 2001). The aim of the research projects in our attribution research area is to develop, implement and evaluate classroom-based attribution training for different age groups and school types in order to support students in developing favorable attribution profiles.

The causes of a particular achievement at school can differ significantly. In general, there are three dimensions of attribution:

• Locality: Is the result my own responsibility (internal attribution) or is it due to external factors (external attribution)?
• Stability: Is the cause rather persistent over time and also influences future events (stable attribution) or changeable (variable attribution)?
• Globality: Do the causal factors also have an influence on achievements in other areas (global attribution) or only on the school subject in question (specific attribution)?

The combination of dimensions results in a variety of attribution profiles: For example, if a student attributes a bad grade in a math test to a lack of mathematical ability, this is an internal, stable and specific attribution that also makes a good result in the next math test improbable, but should have no influence on the German grades. In general, attribution to one's own effort is considered favorable for learning motivation, i.e. an internal but variable and specific attribution. In this case, success or failure is largely regarded as self-controllable. Success can be achieved with a high level of effort.

In empirical research, there is another connection that is important for our projects: Depressive developments are often linked to an unfavorable attribution profile in which negative events are attributed internally, stably and globally (e.g. "I'm just too stupid"), while positive events tend to be attributed externally, variably and specifically (e.g. "This work was particularly easy"; Försterling & Binser, 2013; Sweeney et al., 1986).

Based on these findings, we are developing techniques in various projects that teachers can integrate into their lessons to support students in reducing unfavorable and developing favorable attribution profiles. These include, for example, commenting and modeling techniques implemented in the form of specific feedback (cf. Ziegler, 2001). These attribution trainings are adapted depending on the age of the students and the respective type of school. The effectiveness of the training is evaluated in quantitative and qualitative research designs.

Försterling, F., & Binser, M. J. (2002). Depression, school performance, and the veridicality of perceived grades and causal attributions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1441–1449. https://doi.org/10.1177/014616702236875

Gladstone, T. R. G., & Kaslow, N. J. (1995). Depression and attributions in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 23, 597–606. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01447664

Robertson, J. S. (2000). Is Attribution Training a Worthwhile Classroom Intervention For K-12 Students with Learning Difficulties? In Educational Psychology Review, 12, 111-134.

Sukariyah, M. B., & Assaad, G. (2015). The Effect of Attribution Retraining on the Academic Achievement of High School Students in Mathematics. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 177, 345–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.02.356

Sweeney, P. D., Anderson, K., & Bailey, S. (1986). Attributional style in depression: a meta-analytic review. Journal of personality and social psychology, 50, 974–991. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.50.5.974

Weiner, B. (1986): An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. Springer.

Ziegler, A., Schober, B., Stoeger, H., Dresel, M., Ziegier, A., Schober, B., Stöger, H., & Dresel, M. (2001). Motivationsförderung im Unterricht. In C. Hanckel, B. Jötten, & K. Seitfried (Eds.), Schule zwischen Realität und Vision (pp. 256–263). Deutscher Psychologen-Verlag.