The Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1990, Vol. 30, No.2,133-146 Influence of interpersonal affect on causal attribution for helping and non-helping behaviors KAZUHISA TAKEMURA (Kohka Women's Junior College) OSAMU TAKAGI (Kansai University) The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of interpersonal affect on causal attribution for helping and non-helping behaviors. Each subject, 168 university students in all, was randomly assigned to one cell of a 3 (positive, neutral, and negative interpersonal affect) ~ 2 (emergent and non-emergent situations) ~ 2(sex of a potential recipient) ~ 2(sex of a potential helper) design. The subject were asked to rate the likelihood of 25 different helping motives as a cause of helping behavior and the likelihood of 26 different non-helpingmotives as a cause of non-helping behavior. Major findings obtained were as follows : (1) Subjects in the positive and neutral interpersonal affect conditions attributed their helping behavior to internal, stable and general causes. They also attributed their non-helping behavior to external, unstable, uncontrollable, and specific causes. (2) Subjects in the negative interpersonal affect conditions attributed their helping behavior to external, unstable, and specific causes. They also attributed their non-helping behavior to internal, stable, controllable, and general causes. (3) The influences of the interpersonal affect on causal attribution was generally stronger than the other factors. Interaction effects between the interpersonal affect and the other factors were observed. Key words : causal attribution, interpersonal affect, causal dimension, helping behavior, non-helping behavior, prosocial behavior.
Table 1 Mean ratings of items for helping motives on causal dimensions Note. High scores on these causal dimensions indicate that the motive is perceived as internal, stable, controllable, and global.
Table 2 Mean ratings of items for non-helping motives on causal dimensions Note. High scores on these causal dimensions indicate that the motive is perceived as internal, stable, controllable, and global.
Table 3 Mean scores of causal attribution for helping behavior Table 4 Mean scores of causal attribution for non-helping behavior Note. Mean scores within each causal dimension without a common subscript differ by at least p=.05. High scores on these causal dimensions indicate that helping motive is perceived as internal, stable, controllable and global. Note. Mean scores within each causal dimension without a common subscript differ by at least p=.05. High scores on these causal dimensions indicate that non-helping motive is perceived as internal, stable, controllable and global.
Table 5-1 ANOVA for locus of control in helping behavior
Table 5-2 ANOVA for stability in helping behavior Table 5-3 ANOVA for controllability in helping behavior
Table 5-4 ANOVA for globality in helping behavior
Table 6-1 ANOVA for locus of control in non-helping behavior Table 6-2 ANOVA for stability in non-helping behavior
Table 6-3 ANOVA for controllability in non-helping behavior
Table 6-4 ANOVA for globality in non-helping behavior
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