Gender Differences in Attributions for Success and Failure Situations Across/Subject Areas

Abstract

To examine gender differences in attributions for success and failure across subject areas, the Survey of Achievement Responsibility (SOAR), a school-related attribution scale, was administered to a randomly selected sample from a large urban school district in the Northwest. The SOAR assesses attributions for success and failure in language arts and mathematics/science. Gender differences for the 165 girls and 160 boys did emerge. As the literature might suggest, girls had a more learned-helpless orientation in mathematics/science than did boys. In language arts, however, both were somewhat mastery oriented. Overall, both reflected a more adaptive pattern in language arts than in mathematics/science.