Internal-external attributions and learned helplessness among lower and middle class adults

The present study tested Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale's (1978) reformulation of the learned helplessness hypothesis. Specifically, the study employed a laboratory paradigm to investigate: (a) whether attributions about uncontrollable events mediate subsequent deficits, particularly self-esteem loss; and (b) if lower socio-economic class individuals are more susceptible to helplessness following uncontrollability than are middle class individuals, All subjects were Black female college students, 25 from the lower class and 25 from the middle class. These subjects were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions: internal attribution provided for failure to a concept-identification task, external attribution provided for failure, no attribution provided for failure, no attribution provided for success, and no pretreatment task. All subjects were then tested for performance deficits on an anagram-solving task. Additional dependent variables included mood change, self-esteem change, and persistence at Rubick's Cube. A two-way analysis of variance using the factors social class and experimental condition revealed few differences across groups on any of the measures. Possible reasons for the failure to obtain differences were discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1982

Author dc:creator

• McDonnaugh, Linda Frances

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/74485

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/74485