Multiattributional Causality for Social Affiliation Across Five Cross-National Samples

Abstract

Summary This study examined four individual causal attributions (ability, effort, context, and luck), using both an internal-external and a stable-unstable dimension in success and failure conditions for social affiliation. Subjects were 684 university students from India, Japan, South Africa, United States, and Yugoslavia majoring in education, social science, and physical science. In general all subjects attributed their social affiliations about equally to their effort, ability, and context, and less to luck. Subjects attributed their affiliations more to internal than external factors. Subjects across all countries attributed success mostly to context and failures largely to lack of effort. Except for Japan, students across the countries attributed success significantly more to stable than unstable causes. Differences among countries were significant for all four attributions for both success and failure and also for the internality and stability dimensions.