Causal Attribution Habits and Cultural Orientation as Contributing Factors to Students’ Self-Efficacy: A Comparison Between Female Students in the United States and Saudi Arabia

Abstract

[EN] In the present research, we examined the extent to which explanations of desirable or undesirable outcomes (grades) can account for the self-efficacy of female college students from two societies with dissimilar cultural traditions: The United States of America, which is characterized by a dominant individualistic culture, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has a dominant collectivist culture. A matched-pairs design (N=560; 280 matched pairs) was used to ensure that students’ self-efficacy levels were equated between cultural groups. We found cultural differences in the choice of explanations and in the extent to which explanations contribute to self-efficacy values. These findings are relevant to the development of curricula and instructional methods that are intended to prepare students from different cultures for academic success.