WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE CONCEPT BLAME FOR STUDENTS - TESTING PSYCHOLINGUISTIC SPEECH-ACT-THEORETICAL HYPOTHESES CONCERNING THE SEEMINGLYPARADOXICAL EFFECTS OF BLAME
G. Blickle, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE CONCEPT BLAME FOR STUDENTS - TESTING PSYCHOLINGUISTIC SPEECH-ACT-THEORETICAL HYPOTHESES CONCERNING THE SEEMINGLYPARADOXICAL EFFECTS OF BLAME, Zeitschrift fur Padagogische Psychologie, 9(3-4), 1995, pp. 129-138
According to psycholinguistic speech act theory blame has the followin
g meaning in ordinary language: attribution of insufficient effort, at
tribution of ability equivalent to task difficulty, and normative disa
ppointment, i.e., the blaming person is disappointed and believes to b
e entitled to demand better performance. Three categorization experime
nts were conducted with 301 high-school students aging between 14 and
20 years. Forced choice and free choice categorization methods were us
ed. Results indicate that ordinary language meaning of blame implies o
nly attribution of insufficient effort. In contrast to theoretical exp
ectations the technical term <<negative feedback>> was used most frequ
ently by subjects. Its use varies depending on the attribution of insu
fficient effort. Results can be interpreted as supporting the attribut
ional explanation of the seemingly paradoxical effects of praise and b
lame.