Although attribution theory continues to be a fertile area of social psychological research, much of the extant literature has suffered from questionable measurement of the constructs of interest. This is especially true in the case of assigning causal attributions placement in theorized dimensional space. Russell's (1982) Causal Dimension Scale represented an important development toward more precise measurement of causal dimensions; however, it has been criticized on a number of fronts. The present report presents the rationale for and initial psychometric properties of a revised version of the scale, the CDSII. Employing data from four studies, a confirmatory factor analysis is reported examining the goodness of fit of the hypothesized four factor oblique structure to the data. The results are discussed in terms of possible applications of the CDSII and the need for further validity testing.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abraham, I. L. (1985). Causal attributions of depression: Reliability of the Causal Dimension Scale in research on clinical inference. Psychological Reports, 56, 415-418.
2.
Abramson, L. Y. , Seligman, M. E. P., & Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans; Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74.
3.
Anderson, C. A. (1983). The causal structure of situations: The generation of plausible causal attributions as a function of type of event situation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 185-203.
4.
Anderson, C, A. , & Arnoult, L. H. (1985a). Attribution models of depression, loneliness, and shyness. In J. H. Harvey & G. Weary (Eds.),Attribution Basic issues and applications (pp. 235-279). Orlando, FL. Academic Press.
5.
Anderson, C. A. , & Arnoult, L. H. (1985b). Attributional style and the everyday problems in living: Depression, loneliness, and shyness. Social Cognition. 3, 16-35.
6.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
7.
Bentler, P. M. (1980). Multivariate analysis with latent variables: Causal modeling. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 419-456.
8.
Bentler, P. M. , & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588-606.
9.
Betancourt, H. (1990). An attribution approach to intergroup and international conflict. In S. Graham & V. S. Folkes (Eds.),Attribution theory: Applications to achievement, mental health, and interpersonal conflict (pp. 205-220). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
10.
Cronbach, LJ. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 296-334.
11.
Dobbins, G. H. (1985). Effects of gender on leaders' responses to poor performers: An attributional interpretation. Academy of Management Journal, 28, 587-598.
12.
Fincham, F. D. , Bradbury, T. N., & Grych, J. H. (1990). Conflict in close relationships: The role of interpersonal phenomena. In S. Graham & V. S. Folkes (Eds.), Attribution theory: Applications to achievement mental health, and interpersonal conflict (pp. 161-184). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
13.
Folkes, V. S. (1984). Consumer reactions to product failure: An attibutional approach. Journal of Consumer Research, 10, 398-409.
14.
Jöreskog, K. G. , & Sorbom, D. (1989). LISREL VVI user's guide. Mooresville, IN: Scientific Software.
15.
La Du, T. J. , & Tanaka, J. S. (1989). Influence of sample size, estimation method, and model specification on goodness-of-fit assessments in structural equation models. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 625-635.
16.
Lewis, E. M. , & Daltroy, L. H. (1990). How causal explanations influence health behavior. Attribution theory. In K. Glanz, F. M. Lewis, & B. K. Rimer (Eds.), Health behavior and health education: Theory, research and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
17.
Locke, E. A. , & Latham, G. P. (1990). Work motivation and satisfaction: Light at the end of the tunnel. Psychological Science, 1, 240-246.
18.
Mark, M. M. , Mutrie, N., Brooks, D. R., & Harris, D. V. (1984). Causal attributions of winners and losers in individual competitive sports: Toward a reformulation of the self-serving bias. Journal of Sport Psychology, 6, 184-196.
19.
Marsh, H. W. , Balla, J. R., & McDonald, R. P. (1988). Goodness-of-fit indexes in confirmatory factor analysis: The effect of sample size. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 391-410.
20.
McAuley, E. K. (1991). Efficacy and attributional determinants of affective responses to exercise participation. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 13, 382-393.
21.
McAuley, E. (1992). Self-referent thought in sport and physical activity. In T. S. Horn (Ed.), Advances in sport psychology (pp. 101-118). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
22.
McAuley, E. , & Duncan, T. E. (1989). Causal attributions and affective reactions to disconfirming outcomes in motor performance. Journal of Exercise and Sport Psychology, 11, 187-200.
23.
McAuley, E. , & Duncan, T. E. (1990a). The causal attribution process in sport and physical activity. In S. Graham & V. S. Folkes (Eds.), Attribution theory: Application to achievement, metal health, and interpersonal conflict (pp. 37-52). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
24.
McAuley, E. , & Duncan, T. E. (1990b). Cognitive appraisal and affective reactions following physical achievement outcomes in motor performance. Journal of Exercise and Sport Psychology, 11, 187-200.
25.
McAuley, E. , & Gross, J. B. (1983). Perceptions of causality in sport An application of the Causal Dimension Scale. Journal of Sport Psychology, 5, 72-76.
26.
McAuley, K. , Poag, K., Gleason, A., & Wraith, S. (1990). Attrition from exercise programs: Attributional and affective perspectives. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 5, 591-602.
27.
McAuley, E. , Russell, R., & Gross, J. B. (1983). Affective consequences of winning and losing: An attributional analysis. Journal of Sport Psychology, 5, 278-287.
28.
McAuley, E. , & Tammen, V. (1989). The effects of subjective and objective competitive outcomes on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11, 84-93.
29.
Michela, J. L. , & Wood, J. V. (1986). Causal attributions in health and illness. In P. C. Kendall (Ed.), Advances in cognitive behavioral research and therapy (Vol. 5, pp. 179-235). Orlando, F. L.. Academic Press.
30.
Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
31.
Russell, D. (1982). The Causal Dimension Scale: A measure of how individuals perceive causes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 1137-1145.
32.
Russell, D. , & McAuley, E. (1986). Causal attributions, causal dimensions, and affective reactions to success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 1174-1185.
33.
Russell, D. , McAuley, E., & Tarico, V. (1987). Measuring causal attributions for success and failure: A comparison of methodologies for assessing causal dimensions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1248-1257.
34.
Seligman, M. E. P. , Abramson, L. Y., Semmel, A., & von Baeyer, C. (1979). Depressive attributional style. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 242-247.
35.
Tanaka, J. S. (1987). "How big is big enough?" Sample size and goodness of fit in structural equation models with latent variables. Child Development, 58, 134-146.
36.
Tanaka, T. J. , & Huba, G. J. (1985). A fit index for covariance structure models under arbitrary GLS estimation. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 38, 197-201.
37.
Vallerand, R. J. (1987). Antecedents of self-related affects in sport Preliminary evidence on the intuitive-reflective appraisal model. Journal of Sport Psychology, 9, 161-182.
38.
Vallerand, RJ. , & Richer, F. (1988). On the use of the Causal Dimension Scale in a field setting: A test with confirmatory factor analysis in success and failure situations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 704-712.
39.
Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. Psychological Review, 92, 548-573.
40.
Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag.
41.
Wilson, T. D. , & Linville, P. W. (1985). Improving the performance of college freshmen with attributional techniques. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 287-293.
