1. Tamara Gordeeva, Evgeny Osin, Oleg Sychev
Le bien-être dans l’éducation: Colloque international (Paris, 2-4 Octobre 2017)
Optimistic attributional style matters, after all: Linking explanations of positive events to well-being and academic achievement
Tamara Gordeeva, Evgeny Osin, Oleg Sychev

2. Research questions
Do optimistic students achieve better academic results?
Are there situations when optimism can be detrimental to success?
Are optimistic students higher in well-being?

3. Two approaches to optimism
Dispositional optimism (Scheier & Carver, 1987, 1992): generalized positive expectations of the future.
Optimistic Attributional, or Explanatory Style (Seligman et al., 1979): the way people explain causes of positive and negative events to themselves. Optimists:
explain negative events with causes that are external, unstable, and specific;
attribute positive events to internal, stable, and global causes.

4. Three parameters of attributional style
for good and bad events
Stability
Globality
Internality
Abramson, Seligman, Teasdale, 1978

5. Measuring Attributional Style
Attributional Style Questionnaire (Seligman et al., 1979): 6 positive and 6 negative situations rated on 3 parameters. Disadvantage: low reliability.
Later measures using controllability parameter instead of internality:
ASAT, Anderson & Arnoult, 1985
WASQ, Ashforth & Fugate, 2006
ASAT-III, ASAT-IY, Anderson & Riger, 1991
CDS, Russel, 1982
SFESQ: Gordeeva, Osin, Shevyakhova, 2009 – a Russian-language measure.

6. Attributional (Explanatory) Style
Structure of the SFESQ
Stability
Globality
Controllability
Attributional (Explanatory) Style
Positive Events
Negative Events
Success and Failure Explanatory Style Questionnaire
(Gordeeva, Osin, Shevyahova, 2009)

7. Versions of the SFESQ SFESQ for Adults: 24 situations, 48 items
SFESQ for Schools: 24 situations, 48 items
SFESQ-Ac[ademic]: 12 situations, 36 items
Children ASQ: 15 situations, 15 items
All include separate scores for positive and negative events, α in the range, except for CASQ (.60s)
Gordeeva, Osin, & Shevyakhova, 2009; Gordeeva, Osin, & Sychev, 2013; 2014; 2017

8. SFESQ-Ac: Sample Positive Item
The respondent is asked to imagine vividly a number of situations, as if they had really happened in his/her life, and provide and rate causes for these situations.
2. You have applied to a place/position you have been dreaming of (e.g., a good job or graduate study) and got accepted.
This happened because ________________________________
The reason why I got this place:
Will never arise again 1 2 3 4 5 6
Will always exist
Is related to this particular situation
Is related to all situations in my life
Is beyond my control
I can fully control it
Purple: PESSIMISTIC answers Green: OPTIMISTIC answers

9. SFESQ-Ac: Sample Negative Item
The respondent is asked to imagine vividly a number of situations, as if they had really happened in his/her life, and provide and rate causes for these situations.
10. You have taken an important exam and failed.
This happened because ________________________________
The reason why I have failed an important exam:
Will never arise again 1 2 3 4 5 6
Will always exist
Is related to this particular situation
Is related to all situations in my life
Is beyond my control
I can fully control it
Purple: PESSIMISTIC answers Green: OPTIMISTIC answers

10. Existing research
How are the two types of optimism related to academic achievement?

11. Dispositional optimism: very little
Dispositional optimism: very little! Attributional style: very diverse results…

12. Existing Measurement Issues
If both LOT and ASQ measure optimism, how are they different?
What explains the heterogeneity of the associations of attributional style with academic achievement?

13. Study 1 (Gordeeva, Osin, 2010) Sample: high school students (N=234)
Measures:
Optimistic attributional style (SFESQ)
Dispositional Optimism (LOT-R)
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
Spielberger Trait Depression Scale
Subjective Happiness Scale
Achievement in 4 principal subjects at school at the end of past semester

14. Correlations
Only the optimistic attribution of positive situations was associated with past GPA
Optimistic attribution of negative situations and dispositional optimism were more strongly associated with well-being and depression

15. Mediation analysis:
optimistic attribution of positive situations fully mediates the effects of past academic achievement on dispositional optimism and self-esteem
Attributional optimism might work as :
1) a motivating factor translating basic dispositions into motivation for specific activity (top-down process);
2) a feedback mechanism that translates academic success into basic dispositions (bottom-up process).

16. Study 2 (Gordeeva, Sychev, Osin, 2017)
Sample: 5th and 6th grade school students (N=185), adolescents aged 10 to 13
Measures:
Children’s optimistic attributional style (CASQ)
MSLSS Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner)
CDI: Child Depression Inventory (Beck)
Achievement in 3 principal subjects (Math, Russian language, Foreign language) 8 months later

17. Only optimistic attribution of successes is related to academic achievement
Optimistic attribution of failures is more strongly related to depression

18. Study 3: chemistry students (UNIVERSITY-lEVEL)

20. Sample Two cohorts of Chemistry students at Moscow State University:
N=166 and N=127;
Age 17 to 20;
62% Male.
Longitudinal design:
Psychological assessment during the 1st year (T1) and the 2nd year (T2);
Academic performance at the first session (T1) and during subsequent 2 years (T2).

22. Optimism and Academic Achievement
OAS Positive Sit.
OAS Negative Sit.
LOT
Fall Exams Year 1
.11
-.02
-.13
Spring Exams Year 1
.15
-.01
-.11
Fall Exams Year 2
.24 **
-.06
-.07
Spring Exams Year 2
.18 *
-.04
OAS: Positive Sit.
.02
.35 ***
OAS: Negative Sit.
.25 **
Optimistic attributional style for positive situations positively predicted achievement during the first 3 years at university
Dispositional optimism was related to attributional optimism and to well-being but not to performance

23. Optimism for Negative Situations as a Feedback Moderator
Students with lower-middle achievement at the first session who gave pessimistic explanations were more likely to improve their GPA during the next 3 semesters:
= responsibility-taking mechanism?

24. And we can ask…
Are there academic situations when some pessimism is actually helpful?

25. Study 4 (Gordeeva, Osin, 2011)
Sample: applicants to the Moscow State University Psychology department (N=108) before the exams (very hard!)
Measures:
Attributional optimism (SFESQ)
Depression, Happiness
Self-Efficacy: Generalized + Domain-specific (exam)
DV: Subsequent achievement at entrance exams

26. The super-pessimistic students did not show up for the exam!
But slightly pessimistic were more successful than optimists.

27. Our hypothesis:
Optimistic attribution of positive events motivates activity by sustaining self-efficacy
Optimistic attribution of negative events reduces anxiety and can demotivate!

28. Tentative conclusion
Two different mechanisms of optimistic attributions:
Optimistic attribution of successes motivates sustained activity
Pessimistic attribution of failures motivates preparation for difficulties ~ “defensive pessimism” (Norem & Cantor)

29. Study 5 (Gordeeva, Leontiev, Osin, 2011)
Sample: participants of an international academic contest in Chemistry (N=60, before the actual contest)
Measures:
Domain life satisfaction
Dispositional optimism
Intrinsic and extrinisic motivation, Flow
DV: Subsequent success at contest

30. Unhappy and pessimistic students are more successful overall (?!)
(Potential confound: cultural differences)
Profile analysis:
unhappy and pessimistic students with extrinsic motivation are more successful in theoretical assignments, happy and optimistic students with intrinsic motivation are more successful in creative tasks.
 Do we want to sacrifice students’ happiness as the price of success?

31. This explains the diversity of existing findings!
Conclusions
Dispositional optimism and attributional optimism, as well as optimistic attributions of positive and negative situations have different functions:
Dispositional optimism: basic attitude  support of sustained motivation and well-being
Attributional optimism: constructive thinking mechanism  processing results of activity into motivation
Optimistic attribution of successes: increases self-esteem, helps to sustain academic motivation in a longer term…
Optimistic attribution of failures: reduces anxiety, which can have a demotivating effect…
This explains the diversity of existing findings!

32. What can we do as teachers?
Recognize students’ achievements:
give realistic praise, appreciate the positive sides of their work and focus on ways to improve.
Help to cope with possible failures:
help students to take control by setting realistic goals, showing the little things they can work on;
encourage focus on doing the best they can, not necessarily the best (at school, in the world);
help to accept failures as a possibility: the key to success is to learn from them, not to avoid them.

33. Thank you for your attention!
With help from:
Dmitry Leontiev, Maria Lunkina, Nikolai Kuzmenko, Oksana Ryzhova, and others.
Thank you for your attention!