I guess I'm an internal.

but poorly written to the point of being leading.

Examples:

Choice: The idea that teachers are unfair to students is nonsense.
Most students don't realize the extent to which their grades are influenced by accidental happenings.

Choice: Without the right breaks, one cannot be an effective leader.
Capable people who fail to became leaders have not taken advantage of their opportunities.


"Nonsense" is a leading word for the "internal" choice, while the "external" choice goes the opposite direction with a vengence. The issue not just external, but unconscious and completely beyond the control (accidental happenings) of the student. The first is making a judgement that a thoughtful person would reject; the second is actually trying to lead the individual to make that choice by making giving them not one, but two "outs".

A similar problem with the next set. The first sentence suggests that effective leadership relies on the "breaks" an individual has had, while the second suggests that people who don't take advantage of opportunity (note that "break" turns into opportunity in this choice) have failed. There is a false dichotomy is the choice between "effective leaders" and "fail to become leaders" . . . as if, somehow, anyone who takes advantage (gets the breaks) will be effective, which has nothing to do with how they achieved a leadership position.

Life is not either/or (much to the disgust of quiz-makers everywhere, I expect). It's never a bad idea to sit down occasionally and figure out what's going on inside your own head, but relying on a crude instrument like this isn't a very good way to start.

but information gained can be a starting point. Volumes have been written about tests of this type and attribution theory in general. Thank you for your reply and for taking the time to analyze what's wrong with the test.

I'm not trying to criticize the theory of internal/external attribution - just this particular application. I despise devising tests (only history tests, not psychology - which has many more pitfalls); it is certainly not an easy process and I appreciate the difficulty.

1. the sputnik really woke up people's eyes to the need for science, there were all sorts of specials on TV with little comparable today, I remember an hour long prime time cartoon show explaining the theory of relativity to the masses. My parents did not understand but they had it on because they felt they should and it did affect my sister and myself. A lot of money was being put into schools.
2. By the time I got to college age, almost everyone who wanted it, got a scholarship to state school. You could go to a campus meeting and look around and realize that almost everyone there got there on a state scholarship. My parents did not believe in girls needing an education, but they never put a road block in our way either. They told me if I wanted to live at college, I had to pay for it myself because they were saving to put my younger brothers through college, but expenses at college were so cheap (subsidized), that I did with with a summer job and a part time job at college and, being as it was the 60's and clothes were not important, I did not need anything much in property to compete with others,
3. it was a bit more of an innocent time, Drugs were just making it into the middle class, I had no interest in drugs, by the time my brothers were growing up, they were deep into drugs to the point of not wanting to go to college, just get fancy clothes, drugs and fast cars. I fell in a very small happy time period. Boy,my brothers have lived the hard life they chose without a degree, trying to get factory work which is not easy now.
4. the world was changing quickly, I took a job in a female ghetto called Programming, I could have made twice the salary being a secretary and my parents had no idea why I took the job I did. But boy did it blossom into a well paying career.
5. bad choices in work caused my first 7 jobs to go bankrupt or severely cut down work, In less that 10 years I had 7 jobs and never quit a single one, 4 bankruptcies. I was forced to work for myself and consider my survival above he companies. ha ha so I became an independent consultant. Because so many companies went under, I had a lot of women friends in management to help me set up my own business and to go to when I needed advice.

or in other words lots of good luck and threading the needle in luck. That and I worked very hard and tried to be good at my job.

Thanks for your story. I grew up at the same time.

It was one sliver of time where a person like me could succeed - My sister started her own accounting firm because she got tired of dealing with the crap working in an office - where women were insulted and underpaid for their work and had to meet impossible goals, where men did not. Maybe we also fed on each other. Maybe it was railing against the system. All I can say is that my brothers worked in a factory and still work in factories, they don't do drugs anymore though. One got into management and looks for excuses to be a republican and anti union (this from a family that had a picture of Walter Reuther on the wall where many families has Jesus or JFK ha ha .) , the other stayed a low level worker bee until an industrial barrel fell on him and he has been on disability ever since, can't walk anymore.

"a picture of Walter Reuther on the wall"... says it all.

but plenty of role models on TV We were working along with Mary Tyler Moore and then there was Maude. A lot of that influenced men and made them accept woman more than a lot of shows today.

But I had my share of meetings were guys would call me debbie like in debbie does Dallas until I got a cup with my name on an and basically hit any guy who called me Debbie with my cup - read it and call me by that name!!! And meetings in rooms where men had porno up on their walls and when I complained was told to lighten up - one great thing about being a consultant is I didn't have to complain, I could just laugh because I knew I earned twice as much as those guys with their porno and when I went home, he stayed behind working unpaid over time. There were many times when I found another consultant, make made more than me, and all I had to do was call up my agent and tell them I would come back when I earned at least as much. pfft.

If it is not as golden now, I sort of blame the girls that claim they are not feminists as a large part of the problem. I marched and I complained and acted - why are these young woman accepting of this crap?

I guess I'm kind of in the middle! I believe I am a product of my own and my parents' hard work and some lucky breaks along the way.

"In the middle" is a good place to be.

or self-serving attributions. They generally attribute any successes to themselves (internal) and failures to others or unlucky circumstances (external). They also tend to see OTHER people's successes as external and THEIR failures as internally attributed.

I rate fairly highly as an external on your quiz but not on the quiz related to the article (that one I'm 'balanced'). Actually, since taking my social psychology course, I realize how much more society matters as an influence on one's behaviors than is ever attributed to it. We are actually 'victim' of our circumstances much more often than people want to believe. We often think we have total control over our destiny but luck really has more of a say than we realize. I think the whole 'personal responsibility' thing has become a farce and is now used as a tool to shame those less fortunate.