An attributional analysis of college students' resistance decisions

This investigation examined college students’ resistance decisions in the classroom. Initial validational tests of the resistance typology developed by Burroughs, Kearney, and Plax (1989) confirmed the existence of all 19 categories. Further analyses indicated that the categories could be meaningfully reduced to two dimensions of techniques: Teacher‐Owned (teacher is at fault) and Student‐Owned (student assumes responsibility). Relying on attribution theory and problem ownership, we tested the centrality of teacher immediacy as the primary attribute for students’ resistance decisions. Results from analyses of quantitative and qualitative data indicated that students reported a greater likelihood of using teacher‐owned techniques with nonimmediate teachers and student‐owned strategies with immediate teachers. Neither teachers’ compliance‐gaining strategy type (prosocial/ antisocial) nor students’ gender contributed to students’ resistance decisions. Implications for the classroom are discussed.

[1]  A Mehrabian.  Attitudes inferred from neutral verbal communications. , 1967, Journal of consulting psychology.

[2]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  Power in the Classroom V: Behavior Alteration Techniques, Communication Training, and Learning. , 1985 .

[3]  P. Kearney,et al.  Locus of Control as a Mediator: A Study of College Students’ Reactions to Teachers’ Attempts to Gain Compliance , 1986 .

[4]  P. Kearney,et al.  The strategy selection‐construction controversy II: Comparing pre‐and experienced teachers' compliance‐gaining message constructions , 1990 .

[5]  Dale H. Schunk,et al.  Introduction to the special section on motivation and efficacy. , 1990 .

[6]  Thomas Gordon,et al.  Teacher Effectiveness Training , 1975 .

[7]  P. Kearney,et al.  Teacher immediacy for affective learning in divergent college classes , 1985 .

[8]  R. Rummel.  Applied Factor Analysis , 1970 .

[9]  Thomas M. Steinfatt.  THE ALPHA PERCENTAGE AND EXPERIMENTWISE ERROR RATES IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH , 1979 .

[10]  E. E. Jones,et al.  From Acts To Dispositions The Attribution Process In Person Perception1 , 1965 .

[11]  H. Kelley.  The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons. , 1950, Journal of personality.

[12]  J. F. Andersen.  Teacher Immediacy as a Predictor of Teaching Effectiveness , 1979 .

[13]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[14]  Van Horn,et al.  Locus of control , 1973 .

[15]  H. Kelley.  The processes of causal attribution. , 1973 .

[16]  Patricia Kearney,et al.  Compliance‐resistance in the college classroom , 1989 .

[17]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  Power in the Classroom IV: Alternatives to Discipline , 1984 .

[18]  H. Lefcourt,et al.  Locus of control. , 1991 .

[19]  Jacob Cohen.  A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales , 1960 .

[20]  Colloquy on Item Desirability A Response to “Item Desirability in Compliance‐Gaining Research” , 1988 .

[21]  Failure of the Social Desirability Response Set Hypothesis , 1988 .

[22]  James P. Stevens,et al.  Power of the multivariate analysis of variance tests. , 1980 .

[23]  L. Ross,et al.  Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: biased attributional processes in the debriefing paradigm. , 1975, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[24]  Virginia P. Richmond,et al.  Power in the classroom VI: Verbal control strategies, nonverbal immediacy and affective learning , 1986 .

[25]  Jerome S. Bruner,et al.  Going Beyond the Information Given , 2006 .

[26]  H. Kelley,et al.  Attribution theory and research. , 1980, Annual review of psychology.

[27]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Point of view and perceptions of causality. , 1975 .

[28]  P. Kearney,et al.  The Strategy Selection-Construction Controversy: A Coding Scheme for Analyzing Teacher Compliance-Gaining Message Constructions. , 1989 .

[29]  Elizabeth M. Goering,et al.  Item Desirability Effects in Compliance‐Gaining Research Seven Studies Documenting Artifacts in the Strategy Selection Procedure , 1988 .

[30]  Patricia Kearney,et al.  Effects of Teacher Immediacy and Strategy Type on College Student Resistance. , 1986 .

[31]  F. Heider.  The psychology of interpersonal relations , 1958 .

[32]  Kelly G. Shaver,et al.  An introduction to attribution processes , 1975 .

[33]  B. Weiner.  An attributional theory of motivation and emotion , 1986 .

[34]  H. Kelley.  Attribution theory in social psychology , 1967 .

[35]  J. Brophy,et al.  The Influence of Problem Ownership on Teachers' Perceptions of and Strategies for Coping with Problem Students. Research Series No. 84. , 1980 .

[36]  Lawrence R. Wheeless,et al.  Locus of control and personal constructs in students’ reactions to teacher compliance attempts: A reassessment , 1987 .

[37]  J. Mccroskey,et al.  Power in the Classroom III: Teacher Communication Techniques and Messages. , 1985 .

[38]  Diane M. Christophel,et al.  The Relationship of Teachers' Use of Humor in the Classroom to Immediacy and Student Learning. , 1990 .

[39]  R W Ohlson,et al.  Parent effectiveness training. , 1972, Alaska medicine.