ATTRIBUTION THEORY

“The importance of giving appropriate reasons for success or failure in Sport”

• Why did you win/loose recent games?• What reasons did you give?• What did your coach say it occured?

• If we can feel good about reasons for success OR if we can blame something else for losing – we should continue to try in the future.

• Attributions are important:

• Because they affect motivation, which in turn affects future performances, future effort and whether the individual will continue to participate

• Young person told they failed because they do not have enough ability to suceed = unlikely to try again

• If they are told they “need to try harder” = more likely to continue

Attribution Training

• Attribution theory is important in sport because it affects future effort

• If we think that reasons for success are stable and we are accountable for them, we will have the confidence and continue to improve.

• If you believe that reasons for failure are changeable, you can change the future results and influence the performance

ATTRIBUTION – THE THEORY

ATTRIBUTION (“REASONS”) THEORY Attribution theory is concerned with the reasons (attributions) performers give to their success or failure

Weiner suggested that high achievers and low achievers attribute success and failure to different reasons

To become a high achiever the performer must think like a high achiever – they must make attributions like a high achiever

Weiners 4 Attributions:AbilityEffortLuckTask Difficulty

• The 4 attributions can be placed along 2 dimensions

• Locus of Causality• Stability

Locus of Causality:Whether the performance outcome could be caused by factors under the control of the performer (internal factors of effort and ability)

OR

Caused by factors beyond the control of the performer (external factors of task difficulty and luck)

Copy diagram p.174

The Locus of Stability

• Stability:

• Whether the performance outcome is fixed and unchanging OR can vary over time.

• Ability and Task difficulty are STABLE and FIXED during the period of performance.

• Effort and luck may change (UNSTABLE) from performance to performance OR within a performance

• High Achievers: attribute success to INTERNAL factors

failure to EXTERNAL factors

• Low Achievers: attribute success to EXTERNAL factors

failure to STABLE factors

SELF –SERVING BIAS

“The tendency of performers to attribute success to themselves”

Therefore these will be INTERNAL reasons

ALSO:

Reasons for failure might be attributed to external/changeable reasons

EG:

“It was the referee’s fault we lost”

This demonstrates a tendency to protect one’s ‘self esteem’

Learned Helplessness

• Redefine success where ability is the reason for failure

• Acknowledge the need to change attributions (attribution retraining) to those appropriate to high achievers

• If the performer is a low achiever, learn how to attribute success and failure to the same reasons given by high achievers

• Be aware that low achievers often suffer from Learned Helplessness

• L.H is the problem caused by continually attributing failure to INTERNAL reasons that can not be changed (Dweck 1978)

• Failure is blamed on lack of ability and is out of your own control because you will never be able to change the situation

Learned Helplessness …Cont

• Performers with LH think that:- Failure is inevitable- What they do makes little difference to the outcome- Success might be due to luck and not repeatable

• LH can be ‘global’ or ‘specific’

• LH can be based on:- Lack of success- Low confidence- A bad experience

• In order to control LH, a change in the attribution process must take place – this is known as “Attribution retraining”

“Mastery Orientation” is the opposite to LH. An athlete has confidence, they feel in control, have a history of success

Attribution Retraining – A reassessment of the reasons for failure

• We must promote the changeable and external reasons:• The coach might:

change in tactics or blame equipment

adopt a positive approach

make the reasons for losing less personal

avoid citing lack of ability as a reason for failure

use positive feedback and positive reinforcement

encourage a change of technique

attribute success internally (effort/ability) and failure externally (luck/task difficulty)

• ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION• – What can it be used for?

• A coach should try to make the performer:

• Attribute success to internal factors in order to maximize confidence and satisfaction

• Attribute success to stable factors in order to maximize the expectation of future success

• Attribute failure to external factors in order to minimize negative feelings

• Attribute failure to unstable factors in order to minimize the expectations of future losses. Be careful when attributing failure to lack of effort if the performer has tried their hardest.

Attribution Theory and Achievement Motivation

• ATTRIBUTION – The Main Points:

• Individuals often make INTERNAL attributions for success and EXTERNAL attributions for failure

• As performers we like to feel “responsible for success” but that “failure was due to factors beyond our control”

• Stability is usually related to future expectations. If we attribute success or failure to stable factors – next time we compete we will expect the same result.

• High and low achievers attribute success and failure to different factors

January 2008

Jan 08