The effects of self-esteem on attributions for success and failure in athletic and academic settings
Date
1991
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
This research was designed to show a correlation between self-esteem and the response times of attributions for success and failure. Prior research in the- area of self-esteem has found that it is a strong predictor of individual expectancy. Those with high self-esteem consistently expect to succeed, while those with low self-esteem continually expect to fail, regardless of the task. We looked at two groups of college undergraduates, psychology students (n=44) and squash and tennis players (n=26). After competing on the athletic court or receiving the grade from an exam, we measured reaction times to experimenter supplied attributions for success or failure. We were specifically looking for the difference between spontaneous and controlled attributions. Weiner (1985) has found that spontaneous attributions are produced from schematic unexpectancy. It has been found that in responding to attributional questions, response times should be significantly shorter for spontaneous attributions (Smith and Miller, 1983). We then used the Self-Description Questionnaire III to obtain general and specific self-esteem ratings. What we expected to find was that for high self-esteem subjects, success should produce controlled attributions with longer response times, whereas the unexpected failure should produce spontaneous attributions with shorter response times. The reverse was expected for low self-esteem subjects. Our results did not prove significant.