This study was conducted to examine how high school students' attributional style, self-efficacy, and psychological well-being vary by gender and how much the attributional style can explain self-efficacy and psychological well-being. The following qu...
This study was conducted to examine how high school students' attributional style, self-efficacy, and psychological well-being vary by gender and how much the attributional style can explain self-efficacy and psychological well-being. The following questions were asked to achieve the purpose of this study:
First, how do high school students' attributional style, self-efficacy, and psychological wellbeing vary by their gender distinction?
Second, how much does high school students' attributional style explain self-efficacy, and how do the control of attributional style and the controllability of attributional style relate to self-efficacy?
Third, how much does high school students' attributional style explain psychological wellbeing, and how do the control of attributional style and the controllability of attributional style relate to psychological wellbeing?
The subjects of this study were 303 1st-year and 2nd-year high school students from three high schools in Gangwon-do (155 male students and 148 female students) and data were gathered by using questionnaires. In order to measure their attributional style, the tool developed by Gi Seop Yoo (1990) based on the attributional style test developed by Levenson (1981) was used. To measure their self-efficacy, the scale of academic self-efficacy of Ah Yeong Kim and In Yeong Park (2001) was used. For psychological well-being, the scale of psychological well-being in the adolescence of Jeong Hee Park and Hye Sook Shim (2007) was used.
The data were analyzed using the SPSS 12.0 Program's technical statistics, t-test, product moment correlation, and multiple regression analysis.
The following summarizes the results of this study:
First, there were significant differences in attributional style, self-efficacy, and psychological well-being by gender. Among the sub-variables of attributional style, effort showed a significant difference. Self-efficacy did not show significant differences in sub-variables, but did show a significant difference overall. Psychological well-being also showed a significant difference and its sub-variables with differences were positive self-recognition, family relations, friend relations, and self-assertion. By gender, the average of each variable was higher for female students than that of male students.
Second, the effect of attributional style on the explanation of self-efficacy was 15.3%. Among the attributional factors of self-efficacy, capability had a significantly positive relationship with self-efficacy and other had a significantly negative relationship with self-efficacy. Other factors of effort and luck showed no correlation. As for the control and controllability of the attributional style, capability, which is an introverted and non-controllable attributional style, had a significantly positive relationship with self-efficacy, whereas other, which is an extroverted and non-controllable attributional style, had a significantly negative relationship with self-efficacy.
Third, the effect of attributional style on the explanation of psychological well-being was 23.9%. Among the attributional factors of psychological well-being, capability and effort had a significantly positive relationship with psychological well-being. On the other hand, other and luck showed no correlation. As for the control and controllability of the attributional style, effort, which is an introverted and controllable attributional style, and capability, which is an introverted and non-controllable attributional style, had a significantly positive relationship with psychological well-being.
In conclusion, it was found that high school students' attributional style is an important factor that decides their self-efficacy and psychological well-being. Attributional style is not innate, but it is learnt. Since it is a perception that can be adjusted by retraining, it would be very important to establish an effective attributional style in learners through constant feedback and retraining to enhance their self-efficacy and psychological well-being.