PERFORMANCE ATTRIBUTIONS - EFFECTS OF MOOD AND INVOLVEMENT

A 2 (good vs. bad mood) X 2 (important vs. unimportant) X 2 (success v s. failure) experimental design was used to investigate whether import ance could moderate mood effects on students' performance attributions . Attributions were analyzed in terms of their underlying dimensions ( locus, stability, controllability) as specified by Weiner (1985). Unde rgraduate business students (31 men, 49 women) were randomly assigned to 1 of the 8 experimental conditions. Analysis revealed a significant 3-way interaction of mood, importance, and performance outcome (p < . 01). Outcome importance significantly reduced mood biases only in perc eptions of the primary dimension of locus. Perceptions of causal stabi lity reflected a mood bias: Students in a good mood viewed success as more stable than failure regardless of outcome importance. Perceptions of causal controllability were unaffected by students' mood state or outcome importance, perhaps reflecting a basic need to view events as controllable.