This study examined four causal attributions (ability, effort, task difficulty and luck) for success and failure in achievement and affiliation contexts across five countries (U.S., South Africa, Japan, India, and Yugoslavia) in three subject majors: teacher training, social science, and science. Each 5x2x3x2 analysis of variance assessed the effects of five countries, both sexes, and three academic majors repeated across both success and failure situations. Although there was some support of earlier studies of sex differences and western-eastern country distractions, the findings are more complex than previously determined using a single dimension and only one context. Results suggest more similarities than differences among subjects from the five nations studied. They believed their failures mainly due to lack of effort. Females attributed their achievement significantly less to contextual factors than did males. Education majors attributed more to context than did social science majors. Social affiliation was attributed more to ability than to other causes, and more so by females than by males. (Author/CTM)