Divergent Perspectives in Abortion Counseling
- 1 June 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Psychological Reports
- Vol. 50 (3) , 819-822
- https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1982.50.3.819
Abstract
Attribution theory predicts that actors have a tendency to see their own behavior as being caused by external factors, whereas observers may perceive the causes to be internal. This study investigated the accuracy of observers' predictions in abortion counseling clinics. As part of intake procedures, 40 clients from 8 abortion clinics completed the Rotter Internal-External scale. The scale was also completed by 40 professional counselors from the same clinics. Contrary to predictions from attribution theory, clients perceived themselves to have substantial internal control in this situation, whereas the counselors expected clients to feel primarily externally controlled. This disparate perspective is suggested as having a possibly counter-productive effect on the counseling process.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Understanding intentional actions from observers’ viewpoints: A social neuroscience perspectiveNeuroscience Research, 2016
- Field-Study Evidence of an Ego-Defensive Bias in Attribution among Two Categories of ObserversPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1980
- Adolescents' Attributions for Delinquent BehaviorPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1980
- Actors, observers, and the attribution process: Toward a reconceptualizationJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1977
- Videotape and the attribution process: Reversing actors' and observers' points of view.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973
- Self-Perception TheoryPublished by Elsevier ,1972
- Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 1966