Learned helplessness and egotism: Effects of internal/external attribution on performance following unsolvable problems

The study reported here tests the egotism hypothesis for poor performance following insoluble problems. In Expt 1 subjects were exposed to no feedback or to failure in insoluble problems which were attributed to internal or external causes. They were then given Raven problems that were alleged to be either highly or moderately difficult. In Expt 2, subjects exposed to no feedback or to failure attributed to internal or external causes were further divided according to the importance of the Raven problems. It was found that the egotism theory accounted for performance deficits among subjects who made an internal attribution for failure. Among such subjects, performance deficits were greatest in moderately difficult and in highly important tasks. However, this theory failed to account for performance among subjects who made an external attribution for failure. Among these subjects, performance deficits were greatest in highly difficult and in low importance tasks. Results are discussed in terms of the achievement motivation theory. 1989 The British Psychological Society