The Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties

Abstract

It has been suggested that people's cognitive and attributional strategies influence the extent to which they are successful in various situations. A 60-item self-report scale for measuring these strategies was developed. This Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire (SAQ) comprised ten subscales: (1) Success expectations, (2) Task-irrelevant behaviour, (3) Seeking social support, (4) Reflective thinking and (5) Master-orientation in an achievement situation, and (6) Success expectations, (7) Task-irrelevant behaviour, (8) Avoidance, (9) Master-orientation and (10) Pessimism in an affiliative context. An attempt to validate these subscales was made by correlating them with Rosenberg's Self-esteem and Self-stability Scales, a revised Beck's Depression Inventory, the Peer Relationship Measure, and the levels of task-irrelevant behaviour, test-anxiety, and grades in a university examination. This was done with a sample of 488 undergraduates at the University of Helsinki. The results showed that the SAQ subscales were moderately or highly, and in theoretically expected ways, associated with various validity criteria. Moreover, internal consistency and retest reliabilities were good. The results suggest that the SAQ provides a valid and reliable measure for identifying different types of cognitive and attributional strategy.

Notes

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The preparation of this article was supported by a grant from the Social Science Research Council of Finland. We are grateful to Michael Berzonsky for his helpful comments on an earlier draft.