Effects of strategy attribution for success/failure on self-efficacy

Causal attribution may influence one's motivation through choice of strategies. The present study was conducted to explore how an individual's self-efficacy is affected by strategy attribution for success/failure, and to identify the types of strategies that contribute to changes in self-efficacy. Participants in the study were 80 high school students, 60 of whom were interviewed. While half of the interviewees were asked to attribute their Success to strategies (Strategy Attribution for Success; SAS group), the other half were asked to attribute their failure to strategies (Strategy Attribution for Failure; SAF group). Participants completed questionnaires on self-efficacy before and after the interview. The results showed a statistically significant increase in the self-efficacy of the students in the SAS group. The results of a quantitative analysis conducted of the types of strategies the students said that they would prefer to use in the future indicated that the students in the SAS group were more likely than the students in the SAF group to choose a strategy that was directly connected with the process of learning.