Learning Disabled And Normal Achieving Students’ Causal Attributes For Their Performance Outcomes
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Learning Disabled And Normal Achieving Students’ Causal Attributes For Their Performance Outcomes
Abstract
Students with learning disabilities (LD) represent a significant demographic in China, with prevalence rates among individuals up to 18 years old ranging from 4.86% to 31.62%, depending on the criteria and definitions used (He, 2005; Liu, 2000; Wang, 2003; Yao, 2009).
The wide variation in these figures stems from the lack of a universally accepted definition or diagnostic standard within the country. Simplified criteria tend to identify a higher number of students with LD.
Regardless of the specific rate used, the population of students with LD in China remains substantial. This paper adopts the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of LD, which refers to significant learning difficulties that cannot be solely attributed to mental retardation, visual impairments, or insufficient education (WHO, 2010, p. 196).
Over the past two decades, LD has increasingly become a focus of research in various fields in China, including education, psychology, and medicine. Research in LD generally follows two main directions: one focuses on understanding cognitive development and information processing in students with LD
along with designing interventions to address these challenges; the other, more recent, track explores the social development of these students, including their emotional growth, social competence, and social cognition (Yu, 2005).
The study of attribution and motivation in students with LD has emerged as a key area of interest within this second track (Chen, 2007; Li, Liu & Dong, 2006; Zhao, 2010).
Among various attribution theories, Weiner’s Attribution Theory (1979, 1985, 1986) is particularly prominent and widely applied by Chinese researchers studying LD across different populations (e.g., Luo, 2000; Zhao, Zhang, Geng & Shen, 2005) and subjects (e.g., Chang, 2010; Hu, 2009).
Attribution theorists suggest that individuals are motivated to understand the reasons behind events (Schuster, Forsterlung, & Weiner, 1989, p. 192).
Initially, Weiner and his colleagues focused on identifying the causes of success and failure, drawing on Heider’s causal structure (1958). They highlighted ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as key determinants of success and failure, with ability and effort being the most influential (Weiner, 1985).
Later, they expanded their theory to include factors such as mood, fatigue, illness, others’ biases, and situation-specific unique factors (Weiner, Russell, & Lerman, 1978). Central to Weiner’s Attribution Theory are two models that categorize perceived causes along three dimensions: locus of causality, stability, and controllability (Weiner, 1979, 1986).
Locus of causality is a retrospective belief focused on whether the cause is internal or external to the individual (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002).
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