Attribution

• Learned helplessness

  The belief/feeling that failure is inevitable, often experienced through repeated failure
• Attribution retraining

  Changing the performer's perception of the causes of failure
• Attribution

  Perceived reasons athletes give for their success or failure
• Attributions can be an explanation of the cause for success or failure, and can apply to both coach and performer
• Attributions

  • They are important because of the way they affect motivation and self-confidence, which in turn affects future performance
• Coaches use attribution theory

  To understand performer's behaviour and motivation, identify reasons for performance, help performer improve, develop, maintain performance
• Weiner's Model dimensions

  • Locus of causality (internal vs external)
  • Locus of stability (stable vs unstable)
• Locus of causality

  Internal (within performer's control) vs External (beyond control)
• Locus of stability

  Stable (permanent, consistent) vs Unstable (temporary, variable)
• Internal, stable factors

  • Ability
• External, unstable factors

  • Luck, task difficulty
• Internal, unstable factors

  • Effort
• If reason for winning is stable + internal (ability)

  The individual is motivated to achieve again (NACH)
• If failure is attributed to stable factors (ability/task difficulty)

  The individual is likely to not try again (NAF)
• Winning due to unstable + external (luck)

  The individual is demotivated because the win may be due to luck
• When failure is attributed to luck

  The individual is more likely to try again, as there's a good chance the outcome will change
• Implications of attributions

  • For athlete's motivation, confidence, future performance
• Winning during task difficulty

  • Can motivate and increase confidence
• Winning due to ability

  • Would motivate and increase confidence, as ability will stay the same
• Failing due to lack of effort

  • Could motivate athlete to then succeed and not be disappointed again
• Controllable factors

  Effort - can be controlled by performer
• Uncontrollable factors

  Ability (innate), task difficulty (external, altered by coach), luck (dependent on situation)
• High achievers

  • Attribute success to internal factors, attribute failure to external factors
• Low achievers

  • Attribute success to external factors, attribute failure to internal factors
• High achievers

  Have high motivation to achieve (NACH), set challenging, competitive goals, perform well in front of evaluative audience
• Low achievers

  Have low motivation to achieve, high motivation to avoid failure (NAF), perform poorly in front of evaluative audience
• Self-serving bias

  Tendency to attribute the behaviour of others to internal causes, while attributing our own behaviour to external causes, to protect self-esteem
• Learned helplessness

  General (belief of lack of ability in all sport) or specific (belief of lack of ability in a certain sport/situation)
• Learned helplessness

  • Causes a strong reaction to failure, leading to giving up, and decreases confidence and self-esteem
• Attributional retraining

  Changing the performer's perception of the causes of failure, to reverse learned helplessness
• Attributional retraining

  • Focuses on positive attribution rather than negative, shifts focus from internal to external factors where possible, makes reasons less personal
• Attributional retraining benefits

  • Increases motivation, enhances self-confidence, increases resilience, improves performance, reduces competitive state anxiety
• Coaches' strategies for attributional retraining

  • Provide opportunities for initial success
  • Encourage athlete to take accountability
  • Use positive feedback and positive reinforcement
  • Attribute success to internal (ability), attribute failure to external (luck)
  • Explain early failure
  • Set achievable, realistic goals