Androgyny and Attribution: Effects of Sex Role Adoption, Sex-Linkage of Task, and Outcome on Causal Attributions for Success and Failure

Thirty androgynous females, 30 androgynous males, 30 feminine females, and 30 masculine males participated at either a masculine-linked task (wiring a telephone), a feminine-linked task (doing needlepoint), or a neutral task (doing anagrams). Half of the subjects were given success feedback; half were given failure feedback. Each subject, after receiving feedback, completed a post-task questionnaire from which causal attribution ratings for four factors: ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck, were obtained. Scores were analyzed by means of 4x3x2 multivariate analyses of variance. Success subjects attributed success to ability (F=18.007, df=1/96,