MODELS OF JUDGMENTS OF BEHAVIOR RESPONSIBILITY IN CHINESE CULTURE FROM AN ATTRIBUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

• Published in: Social behavior and personality Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 205 - 213
• Main Authors: Zhang, Aiqing, Guan, Peilan, Zhou, Fanglian, Lu, Qian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: P.O.Box 1539, Palmerston North 4440, New Zealand Scientific Journal Publishers 01.01.2003; Scientific Journal Publishers Ltd
• Subjects: Attributional thinking; China; Chinese culture; Cognition & reasoning; Culture; Decision making; Gender; Hypotheses; Responsibility; Social judgments; Structural equation modeling; Structural equation models; Sympathy; Workplaces
• ISSN: 0301-2212; 1179-6391
• DOI: 10.2224/sbp.2003.31.2.205

Participants in this study were 217 employees and managers. Two structural equation models that reflected the relationships among locus, stability, controllability, affect responses, the change of expectancy and judgments of responsibility were set up. EQS (Bentler, 2000) was used to test the models. The authors found that their models were well supported by the data. In these models, "cognition" (judgment of responsibility) and "affect" (sympathy and anger) had a two-way directional relationship. Not only were causal locus and stability important attributional dimensions that could contribute to the judgment of responsibility, but also affect response contributed to the judgment of responsibility. Causal attribution (including locus, controllability, stability), affect and expectancy change could serve as the antecedents of judgments of behavior responsibility. These findings have important significance for our understanding of people's social behavior.