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ERIC Number: ED217637
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1980-Jan
Pages: 52
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
An Application of Attribution Theory to Developing Self-Esteem in Learning Disabled Adolescents.
Tollefson, Nona; And Others
The effect of an attribution retraining program intended to teach 35 learning disabled (LD) junior high school students to attribute achievement outcomes to the internal factor of effort was examined in the study. The research was concerned with LD adolescents' perceptions of personal (internal) and environmental (external) causality as explanatory constructs in their academic success and failure. LD students were administered the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale, and the Task Attribution Questionnaire before and after attribution retraining which consisted of giving verbal attribution statements during the oral administration of a weekly spelling test. Findings were that LD adolescents did not differ significantly from nonLD adolescents in their responses to general self esteem and attribution questionnaires. Effort attribution training brought no significant increase in effort attributions for the experimental group of LD students. Effort attributions were high prior to the training and remained high after training, but no significantly higher scores were obtained. In addition, LD students reported that effort was a factor that explained success or failure in achievement tasks, but reported that factors other than effort explained their personal success or failure on the spelling task. Tables and charts with statistical data are included. (Author/SB)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (DHEW/OE), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Kansas Univ., Lawrence, Inst. for Research in Learning Disabilities.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A