| The present longitudinal study had two main objectives. First, to determine which event characteristics, or precursors, outlined in Weiner's (1985) attribution theory (unexpected, negative, and/or important events) elicit the greatest amount of causal search. Causal search levels were assessed following: (1) hypothetical scenarios, and (2) an actual university test, for 710 university students. Results indicated unexpected and negative events increase causal search, and event importance interacts with unexpectedness and negativity to influence causal search levels. The second objective was to determine if causal search impacts the efficacy of attributional retraining (AR) on students' academic performance. AR was administered to half of the participants. A significant interaction between AR and causal search indicated students high in causal search who received AR had higher grades compared to students high in causal search who did not receive AR. The importance of these results for causal search and attributional retraining research are discussed. |
