Perceived Personal Control and Attribution of Causality

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Abstract
The present study examined the relation between the assignment of causality for successes and failures on an ambiguous task and personal control and control ideology as measured by scales derived from factor analysis. As predicted, 60 high personal-control Ss in comparison to 60 low personal-control Ss perceived that successful outcomes were determined by skill rather than by luck and exhibited a lower tendency to attribute causality to physical surroundings and experimental factors for task failures. Furthermore, when high personal-control Ss were asked how hard they tried on the ambiguous task, these Ss indicated that they showed more effort for successful outcomes than for failure outcomes. These results suggested that high personal-control Ss believe in internal attribution of causality, while low personal-control Ss believe in external attribution of causality.

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