Attributions for Promotion and Demotion in the United States and India.

Weiner et al. have proposed a model of attributions for task performance that categorizes achievement attributions in terms of an internal/external dimension and a stable/unstable dimension. The present study proposes a modification of the model to include external power factors relevant to an individual or an environment. It was hypothesized that promotions would elicit attributions of external power relevant to an individual (e.g., social class) and demotions would elicit attributions of external power relevant to the environment (e.g., corruption). It was also hypothesized that Americans would make attributions to internal factors (ability and effort) more than would Indians and that Indians would make attributions to external power factors more than would Americans. To this end, 87 American and 131 Indian college students read about a worker who was promoted or demoted in a job and attributed the promotion or demotion to internal, external, and external power factors. The results supported the hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]