Casual attribution patterns of mainstream school students and their effect on achievement

ABSTRACT

The present study was designed to draw the comparison of the academic achievement of high and low attribution groups and to find out the effect of these causal attributions on students' subsequent academic achievement. Sample of the present study was 490 tenth grade students from Rawalpindi and Islamabad districts of Pakistan. Out of these 4990 students 260 belonged to mainstream schools and 230 came from religious schools. The design of study was causal comparative. The data was analysed by using the techniques of frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, median, quartile deviations and t-test. The conclusions of the study depicted that there was worth mentioning diversity between the academic achievement of two groups of students, that is, intrinsically motivated students with high causal attributions and extrinsically motivated students with low causal attributions, consequently confirming Weiner's attribution theory. It is concluded here that the students who experience success usually attribute their failure to external and uncontrollable factors and usually consider themselves as helpless in the face of any achievement related task