Explaining Teacher Explanations of Pupil Performance: A Self-Presentation Interpretation

Abstract

Professional teachers often make counterdefensive attributions for pupil performance-they tend to assume responsibility for student failure and to give the student credit for success. This study examines the possibility that teachers' counterdefensive attributions are self-presentations designed to establish favorable social identities. The study simulates an experiment by Ross et al. (1974) in which teachers were led to believe that they had been successful or unsuccessful in teaching a lesson to a pupil. Simulation observers were assigned to one of ten conditions in a 2 x 5 experiment. Observers learned that a particular teacher either failed or succeeded and offered either no explanation or one of four explanations that varied from highly or moderately defensive to moderately or highly counterdefensive. The moderately counterdefensive attributions corresponded to the mean attributions given by teachers in the Ross et al. study. Consistent with the prediction of the self-presentation analysis, observers rated the moderately counterdefensive teacher significantly more positively than the moderately or highly defensive teacher on traits relevant to professional competence as well as concern for others and overall likability.