Attribution Theory Attribution theory seeks to explain how individuals and teams evaluate their levels of success and

failure. It also seeks to show how the reasons given by an individual or team for their success or failure may affect future motivation in similar situations. Attributions are seen as being what an individual or team interprets or perceives as being causes of theirs or others particular behaviour, outcomes or events. The reasons given for their success or failure can affect Immediate emotional reactions Actual behaviour The different attributions a performer gives to explain success or failure are important. If a performer taking part in a new activity eg. basketball is not getting on very well the reasons they perceive for their failure can affect their future behaviour on court. Weiners model is not sport specific in explaining attribution but is a good starting point. e placed the ! categories below of causal attributions into " dimensions. Ability #ffort Task difficulty
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%ocus of &ausality 'imension Weiners (odel )table attributions Internal Attributions ability #xternal Attributions task difficulty luck )tability 'imension

*nstable attributions effort

++&opy example on page ,-" and place the attributions in activity $$ into the various categories.++

The stability dimension is referring to whether the reasons.causes were relatively permanent /stable0 or changeable /unstable0 in relation to time. Ability and task difficulty are seen as being stable factors in relation to time. Effort and luck are changeable. If you attribute success to ability then you would expect success at similar activities in the future and vice versa. The locus of causality dimension is mainly linked to whether the attributions are internal /within performers0 or external factors eg. environmental. Ability and effort are seen as internal with task difficulty and luck seen as external to the performer.

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Weiner then added another dimension called the locus of control, this helped to explain the effective conse1uences of attributions that appear to be in a persons control or not. The locus of control dimension has been shown to relate to the intensity of a performers personal feeling of pride and satisfaction, shame and guilt. (otivation, pride etc. will increase if a performer relates their success to internal causes such as ability and effort than external uncontrollable factors. The opposite effect will generally occur if failure is also attributed to internal and controllable factors. )hame, dissatisfaction and loss of motivation are likely. 2elow is Weiners adapted model of attribution

The application of attribution theory in sport Self-serving bias A bad workman always blames his tools. The traditional Weinerian view was that winners attribute success to internal factors and losers to external factors. It has been shown that successful performers do tend to attribute their success to internal factors /ability.effort0 /a self4serving bias0 to make them or the team feel better about themselves. owever unsuccessful performers, do not always protect their self esteem by always attributing failure to external factors in order to reduce shame. The performers perception of the causes in relation to perceived success.failure are seen as being more important. igh achievers would attribute success to internal factors and attribute failure to unstable factors, therefore more motivated in achievement situations. %ow achievers tend to attribute success to external factors eg. task, luck etc. with failure attributed to stable factors eg. 5I am too small or not good enough. Therefore find achievement situations less satisfying. less motivated.

A performers attribution will also be affected by whether they view success in terms of outcome goals or task.mastery goals. If a tennis player 6udges their performance on previously set targets /mastery goals0 eg. more first serves in etc. then their feelings of pride will be greater even though they lost the match compared to the performer who based themselves on outcome goals.
(otivational 7rientation igh Achiever 4 igh motivation to achieve success 4%ow motivation to achieve failure 48ocuses on pride of success 4Ascribes success to stable.internal factors 4Ascribes failure to unstable.external factors 4*sually adopts task goals %ow Achiever 4%ow motivation to achieve success 4 igh motivation to achieve failure 48ocuses on shame.worry that may result from failure 4Ascribes success to unstable.external factors 4Ascribes failure to stable.internal factors 4*sually adopts outcome goals 4Avoids challenges: seeks out very difficult or very easy tasks.competitors 4;erforms poorly in evaluative conditions

Attributions

9oals

adopte d Task choice 4)eeks out challenges and able competitors.tasks performance 4;erforms well in evaluative conditions

Learned helplessness It was 'weck who first categori<ed performers as 5helpless or mastery orientated. elpless performers attribute failure to themselves seeing the task as insurmountable.
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It is an ac1uired state related to the performers perceptions that they have no control over the situation, with failure inevitable Characteristics of self helplessness It can be specific to one activity or general to all ;erformer is usually outcome orientated It usually results from previous bad experiences Attributions to uncontrollable stable factors ;erceptions of low ability /feels incompetent0 =arely tries new skills #xperience initial failure in new skills confirms perceptions 8eelings of embarrassment 8uture effort is limited /why bother> Im no good0 Teachers.coaches and performers often attribute success or failure to different reasons. When attributing reasons for our own behaviour we tend to relate it to external factors and when attributing reasons for others behaviour we tend to relate it to internal factors. This difference in the application of attributions between an observer and performer are known as fundamental attribution errors. Important for teachers and coaches to be aware that attribution conflict can happen.

The teacher when giving feedback must not negatively influence the performer by implying that they will never achieve the task, as this could lead to even greater levels of 5learned helplessness. To help with motivation lack of success should be attributed to things that are within their control such as inconsistent techni1ue, lack of experience, bad tactical decisions etc. 9etting performers to reali<e that failure is not inevitable and teaching them how to make appropriate attributions with regard to their performance, especially when they are possibly already experiencing 5learned helplessness is called 5attribution retraining and is a very important responsibility of the teacher.coach. Strategies for attribution re-training Individual attention #mphasise task goals (onitor performers attributions #nsure teacher.coachs attributions are not negative 'iagram of attribution re4training process

Important for teachers.coaches not to subconsciously infer gender ine1ualities when dealing with attributions. Also important for coaches.teachers to be relatively honest in their approach to performers, setting realistic goals or indeed re4defining them if need be. Self efficacy 2andura /$-@@0 put forward the concept of self4efficacy claiming it to be very important in explaining success or failure. e stated that self confidence can be viewed as a global disposition but is often specific to certain situations. #g. Team captain very confident during match but not so when asked to speak in front of TA cameras, or the child confident swimming in shallow end but not so in the deep end of the pool. 2andura suggests that a performer makes 6udgements with regard to their capabilities to perform a specific task. A

performers perceptions of the situation relate to their expected level of self efficacy will affect theirC &hoice of activity /direct0 'egree of effort /energise0 %evel of persistence /sustain0. %ater research has shown that high self efficacy alone is not enough. A performer must also want to succeed and have the capability /skills and ability0 to succeed. 'iagram showing information that affects self efficacy ;ast performance Accomplishments Aicarious experience /modeling0 Aerbal persuasion #motional and ;hysiological arousal Past performance accomplishments ;revious successful experience is a very reliable predictor of self confidence. #g. 2eckhams free kicks.corners ;ractising a specific skill successfully has more effect than being told you will be able to do it by the teacher.
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#fficacy #xpectations

)porting ;erformance

Important in teaching to built self confidence early on maybe by making the skill easier, i.e. lowering the baskets. 7bviously previous failure could result in low levels of self confidence. icarious e!perience %ess effective as previous success has been found to be a reliable source of self efficacy. When a performer observes a successful demo, particularly by someone of the same ability then they are likely to feel more confident. erbal persuasion Teachers.coaches try to persuade performers that they are capable of carrying out certain tasks. In the ma6ority of situations it can work however it depends on who is doing the persuading. 7ccasionally teachers.coaches my distort results or levels of truth in order to persuade performers that they are better than they are, however care must be taken when doing this. Emotional arousal Aery often performers perceive their 5natural physiological arousal effects as being something negative. Why am I sweating.heart beating fast.breathing 1uickly> When they are naturally occurring effects of exercise.

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They think they are not prepared and this has a negative effect on their self efficacy. =esearch has shown that psychological preparation via goal setting, relaxation.stress management techni1ues can help to change a performers perceptions of arousal effect promoting positive self efficacy.

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