Attributional styles and cognitive necessity in university students of academis merit and risk

Abstract

This study aims to compare university students of academic merit to those at academic risk, according to the attributional styles and cognitive necessity. The ASQ-CIDE-PERU of Vicuña was applied, along with the ENC of Cacciopo and Petty, as adapted by Delgado. The results show that students of academic merit and at risk do not differ significantly in attributional styles nor in their dimensions, with optimistic styles predominating in both. In general, those students with academic merit present significantly greater cognitive necessity, greater motivational cognitive anticipation and necessity to resolve abstract problems than those students at academic risk, not showing significant differences in general or simplified cognitive activation.