Causes of Success and Failure and Their Dimensions as a Function of Ses and Gender: A Phenomenological Analysis

S ummary . The present study utilises a phenomenological approach to investigating individuals' attribution of success or failure. On the basis of the assumption that individuals use various causes to explain their successes or failures and attach to them different meaning, the present study collected a list of causes used by males and females of low and middle‐upper socio‐economic class. Subjects from these four demographic groups were later asked to rate the identified causes on the dimensions of locus of casuality, stability and controllability. In addition, the subjects were asked to use the same causes while making attributions to their grade achieved at the end of a trimester. The comparisons among the four groups showed that the two SES groups were similar with regard to their rating of the causes on the three dimensions. The meaning of the results for further research of casual perception of success and failure is discussed.