Causal attribution, coping strategies, and learned helplessness

This study assesses the intervening role of coping strategies in mediating the effects of causal attribution for failure, expectancy of control, and off-task cognitions on performance. In study 1, a preliminary investigation, subjects were asked to recall a failure and then to report its major cause and how they coped with it. In study 2, subjects reported their habitual attributional style for negative events and were exposed to failure. Then their expectancy of control, off-task cognitions, coping strategies, and performance were assessed. Results showed that problem-focused coping was associated with less stable/global attribution for failure and with higher expectancy of control. Emotion-focused coping and distancing coping were associated with more internal/global/stable attribution for failure and more frequent off-task cognitions. In addition, distancing coping was found to have a direct effect on performance and to mediate performance effects of causal attribution. The results were discussed in terms of the Lazarus and Folkman stress-coping model.