Attribution

• Attributions are reasons that people give to explain the outcome of an event or behaviour.
• Attributions in sport are reasons that people give to explain the outcome of an event or behaviour in sport.
• Attributions can influence: motivation; feelings of pride/shame, confidence and satisfaction/dis-satisfaction; and future performance expectations.
• Attributing success to effort or ability increases pride and confidence because this attribution is controlled by the individual and the individual caused the success.
• Weiners came up with a model he used to explain attribution, his research was done on explaining outcomes in examinations.
• The 4 main attributions in Weiners model of attribution are: Luck; Ability; Task Difficulty; and Effort.
• Locus of Causality is concerned with the location the individual perceives the cause of the outcome to be.
• In the Locus of Causality attributions are either internal or external.
• Internal attributions means the cause of outcome is within the performer.
• Examples of internal attributions are ability and effort.
• External attributions means the cause of outcome is outside the performer.
• Examples of external attributions are luck and task difficulty.
• The Locus of Causality influences feelings of pride, shame, and. confidence
• If we attribute success to internal factors we feel great pride, and promote confidence and motivation.
• If we attribute success to external factors we will feel pride but less and there is no affect on confidence and motivation.
• If we attribute failure to internal factors we will feel great shame and destroy confidence and motivation.
• If we attribute failure to external factors we will feel less shame and retain confidence and motivation.
• Stability is concerned with whether the reason for the outcome is fixed and unchanging or can it vary over time.
• Stability influences future expectations of what the outcome is going to be.
• In Stability attributions are either stable or unstable.
• Stable attributions mean the cause of the outcome is fixed, therefore outcomes are predictable each time.
• Unstable attributions mean the cause can vary over time, therefore outcome could change next competition.
• Examples of stable attributions are ability and task difficulty.
• Examples of unstable attributions are luck and effort.
• Stability influences predictions about future outcomes.
• If we attribute success of failure to stable factors, next time we compete we will expect the same result.
• If we attribute success or failure to unstable factors, next time we compete we will expect that the result could change.
• Ability is an internal and stable attributions.
• Task difficulty is a stable and external attributions.
• Effort is an unstable and internal attribution.
• Luck is an unstable and external attributions.
• Weiner later added a 3rd dimenstion to the Attribution theory concerned with controllability.
• The Locus of Control is concerned with the extent to which an outcome of a situation is under control.
• The Locus of Control influences motivation.
• Controllable attributions means they are under someones control and something can be done to change the outcome.
• Uncontrollable attributions are under no ones control and nothing can be done to change the outcome.
• Examples of controllable attributions are effort and tactics.
• Examples of uncontrollable attributions are weather and luck.
• Tactics is a controllable and external attribution.
• Effort is a controllable and internal attribution.