Attribution

Home learning

• Annotate the two articles using green pen to highlight aspects of attribution theory

Home learning

Football Challenge

MOTD

ATTRIBUTION

• “The perceived reasons for success or failure of an event or pattern of behaviour” (James et al 2009:186)

By the end of the lesson you will be able to answer the following questions:

ST

AB

ILIT

YLOCUS OF CAUSALITY

Internal External

Stable

Unstable

AbilityTask

difficulty

Effort Luck

Connector

Watch the following videos and note the reasons for the issues they raised: Fergie:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmvBWsmdeCU Arsene:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTWBUNT-SY4

Key words

• Attribution theory• Locus of causality• Locus of stability• Locus of control• Self-serving bias• Controllability• Learned helplessness

Attribution

• Individuals actively attach personal meaning to behaviour outcomes.– For example, if I win a game of table tennis, I

might attribute the victory to my ability or the poor table or equipment

• There are 4 main categories of attribution (Weiner, 1972)

ST

AB

ILIT

YLOCUS OF CAUSALITY

Internal External

Stable

Unstable

AbilityTask

difficulty

Effort Luck

Locus of causality

• This dimension classifies the outcome as internal or external.

• Internal attributions come from within the participant.– Examples include effort, concentration, fitness, ability,

motivation.• External attributions are anything external from the

individual.– Examples include the weather, officials, opponents, luck.

Stability

• This dimension relates to whether the cause of the outcome is consistent or will fluctuate.

• Stable factors might be equipment, timing, ability, opponents’ ability (depending on competition).

• Unstable factors might be effort, luck, officials, etc.

Weiner’s model with examples

Revised attribution theory (Weiner, 1985)

• Controllability – added dimension

– This dimension assesses whether the outcome was under the personal control of the individual or under the control of other people.

– For example, an athlete might run a personal best time, but still lose. Roger Black in the 1996 Olympics is an example – he new he couldn’t beat Michael Johnson and aimed to win silver

ST

AB

ILIT

Y

LOCUS OF CAUSALITY

Internal External

Stable

Unstable

Task – How many attributions can you enter into the grid?

Attribution, emotion, and performance (Biddle & Hill, 1992)

• Winners attributed success to their effort, motivation, personality, and good form

• Losers attributed their outcome to their lack of experience, opponent’s effort, and opponent’s ability

• Winners were more satisfied, pleased, and contented than losers

• Losers who rated winning as important reported higher ratings of negative feelings than losers where importance was lower

What did they attribute their reasons towards?

Fergie:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmvBWsmdeCU

Arsene:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTWBUNT-SY4

Exam tips

• Be able to draw and interpret Weiner’s model and make sure it is labeled correctly

• Describe practical examples to explain the attributions following a variety of results.

• To maintain a performer’s motivation you can attribute loss or failure to any other factors other than internal stable factors

In groups of 2 or 3,consider the following issue...

You were victorious in one game and experienced defeat in another game1.List the reasons for the outcome2.Draw Weiner’s two dimensional model and place each of the named reasons into the different categories3.Discuss your findings

Attribution retraining

• Make notes from page 189

Learned helplessness

• This term describes when a person expects to fail.

• This expectation is based on previous experiences of failure.

• They attribute failure to lack of ability (internal and stable).

Expecting to fail

• Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.

(Henry Ford)

• The self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when someone expects to fail, and consequently does.

How can we overcome learned-helplessness?

• Guarantee some success.– Set short-term goals, that are somewhat challenging but

that will be achieved relatively quickly.

• Give positive reinforcement. • Give lots of encouragement. • While rewards can be used, the coach should focus

on enhancing intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.

• What are the 3 most effective strategies? Pg 191

Summary

• Attribution is the process of identifying what caused an outcome.

• How we attribute outcomes will influence our self-efficacy and motivation.

• Sustained negative attribution could lead to low self-esteem and learned helplessness.

• Failure should be attributed to external, unstable, or uncontrollable factors.

• Success should be attributed to internal, stable, or controllable factors.

Exam questions 2006

Exam answers - 2006