Abstract
Causal attributions as determinants of expectancies. Weiner's attributional theory bases the achievement motivation on the cognitive and emotional consequences of causal attribution made about the previous outcomes. The theory relates the future expectancies with the stability of the elicited attributions, in such a way that the stable attributions hold up the expectancies to obtain the same future outcome, while the unstable attributions produce changes in expectancies on the future outcome (expectancy principle). Ibis study verifies the validity of the principle in a real (non laboratory) setting of academic achievement, and with Spanish students, contributing to a cross-cultural validation of the principle. Results support the principle and show that the change of expectancy is the most relevant dependent variable and confirm the Stability dimension as the main independent variable, better than Locus or Controllability dimensions. However, if a five-dimension causal system (adding Intencionality and Globality) is considered, both new dimensions appears as good and competing independent variables, also predicting the changes in expectancy as ruled in the expectancy principle for Stability.
