Reaction of Expectation of Success and Failure Attribution among Indian College Adults

The present study is an attempt to investigate reactions to Expected Success followed by Success/Failure feedback (ESS/ESF) in the hypothetical setting. Investigated the effects of personality variable, namely, self-esteem, a cognitive variable, namely, confirmation (actual success, when success was expected) and disconfirmation of expected success, (actual failure, when success was expected), as well as the sequence of these two events, on attribution of Success/Failure along with a social variable, namely, working in an individual or group setting, on reactions to success/ failure. 129 participants were employed through random sampling. The main dependent variables were (a) Subsequent choice of Individual setting/ Group setting, and (b) Attribution of Success/Failure. Subjects, classified into High / Low on Self-esteem (SE), initially expected success working with Group or Individual condition followed by success / failure. They were then asked to make attributions for their unexpected/expected success/failure, and choose an individual and group condition for the next trial. Findings indicated that after individual/ESF and group/ESS, HSE preferred to remain in the same condition. In contrast LSE preferred both conditions equally likely. There were significant differences between Success and Failure conditions with respect to the Attribution dimensions. This line of results supported the cognitive explanation of attribution.