The attribution patterns of 132 Japanese-American and 63 Anglo-American students at the University of Hawaii were studied in 1984. Students were administered the Mathematics Attribution Scale as well as measures of achievement motivation, anxiety, and self-esteem. Japanese-American students were found to have lower achievement motivation and higher anxiety than the Anglo-American students. Attributions for success in algebra were significantly correlated with achievement motivation for both cultural groups. For both groups, those who attributed their success to their effort tended to be higher in achievement motivation and self-esteem. Those who attributed their success to the ease of the task tended to be lower in self-esteem. In addition, for both groups, those who attributed their failure to a poor educational environment tend to be lower in achievement motivation and self-esteem. It appears that Japanese-Americans who have higher achievement motivation also tend to attribute their success to their ability, while no such correlation was found for Anglo-Americans. Compared to Anglo-Americans, Japanese-Americans more often attributed their success in Algebra to educational environment and ease of the task, and they more often attributed failure to lack of ability and poor educational environment. (SW)