Origin and solution attributions of responsibility for wife abuse: effects of outcome severity, prior history, and sex of subject.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of sex differences and seriousness of the abuse situation on observers' attributions of responsibility for origin and solution to both partners in a couple. Male and female undergraduate students (N = 354) read a vignette about a wife abuse incident. The results supported the victim activation hypothesis, with wives being held more responsible for the solution than for the origin of the problem. In contrast, husbands were held more responsible for the origin than for the solution to the problem. Overall, there were sex differences for attributions of responsibility to the husband but not for those to the wife. Women were more likely than men to attribute origin and solution responsibility to the husband. There was no clear support for the effects of the seriousness of the abuse situation. Husbands were attributed more control over the problem's solution than were wives.