An Attributional Theory of Motivation and Emotion

1. Principles for a Theory of Motivation.- Principles for Theory Construction.- Summary.- Theoretical Overview and Plan of the Book.- I. The Components of the Theory.- 2. A Description of Perceived Causality.- A Working Definition.- Causal Search in Everyday Life.- Coding of Written Material.- Coding of Verbalizations.- Indirect Attributional Indexes.- Summary and Conclusions.- The Content of Causal Thinking.- Conclusions About Perceived Causality.- 3. The Structure of Perceived Causality.- The Logical Analysis of Causal Structure.- The Empirical Approach.- Some Challenges.- Research Topics.- Conclusion.- 4. Perceived Causality and Goal Expectations.- Expectancy of Goal Attainment.- Theories of Expectancy Change.- An Attributional Approach to Expectancy Change.- Implications of the Stability-Expectancy Relation.- Reinforcement Schedules and Experimental Extinction.- Theoretical and Empirical Issues.- A General Law.- Summary.- 5. Perceived Causality and Emotional Reactions.- Approach to Emotions.- The Cognition-Emotion Process.- Outcome-Dependent Affects.- Attribution-Linked Affects.- Causal Locus and Self-Esteem (Pride).- Causal Controllability and Social Emotions.- Causal Stability and Time-related Emotions.- Summary and Conclusion.- II. The Structure of the Theory.- 6. An Attributional Theory of Achievement Motivation and Emotion.- The Mind-Body Problem.- The Complete Theory.- Theoretical Comparisons.- Experimental Tests of the Theory Within Achievement Contexts.- Attributional Therapy.- General Conclusion.- 7. Beyond Achievement Motivation: The Generality of Attribution Theory.- Helping Behavior.- Exploring Other Domains for Attributional Paths.- Extension Into Clinical Psychology.- Summary and Conclusion.- 8. Elaborating the Theory: Transactional Associations and Added Relations.- The Influence of Affective States on Cognitive Processes.- The Influence of Expectancy on Attributions.- The Influence Communicated Affects on Causal Ascriptions.- The Influence of Attributional Dimensions on Causal Selection.- Summary and Conclusion.- 9. Replicating the Theoretical Associations.- A Laboratory Course in Attribution Theory.- Summing Up.- Appendix: Experiments.- References.- Author Index.