Attribution Theory

1. Attribution Theory

2. At the end of this lesson you will be able to : • Identify reasons for success and failure in sport. • demonstrate knowledge of Weiner’s attribution model. • Explain and justify the use of attribution retraining in the promotion of mastery orientation and avoidance of learned helplessness. Think of your last competitive sporting performance. Give reasons why you think you won or lost.

3. Attribution Theory looks at the common reasons given by coaches and players to account for their success and failures in sport. This topic focus’ on Weiner’s attribution model below Locus of causality Internal External Stable Stability Unstable

4. Locus of causality– this is the vertical dimension. This is the ‘place’ in relation to the individual. • Internal relates to those within the individual (effort and ability). • External relate to those outside of the individual (luck and task difficulty.) • Stability – This is the horizontal dimension. • Stable suggests that the element is permanent • Unstable suggests that the element is temporary and can be changed.

5. The Coach’s Aim • To attribute defeat to external attribution. This will ensure that confidence is sustained and to establish winning expectations. • Example: “Don’t worry about that loss, the opposition were much better than us anyway. On top of that the umpire had a shocker and gave some really dodgy decisions that went against us”. We can win against them next time though if we get a bit more luck. • This takes away the responsibility from the players. This way they will maintain their self esteem, motivation and this will restore pride and confidence. • The coach should also attribute victory’s internally to elevate confidence and endorse a ‘win’ expectation. • Example: “Great win today. We were by far the better team and we also worked harder to get this result.

6. Attribution theory links closely with achievement motivation. TAF types tend to attribute failure to internal factors. “I lost because I’m rubbish so I couldn’t be bothered to play properly. And attribute success to external factors. “I won because I got lucky and my opponent played really badly” This reduces confidence and reduces expectations for future success. This causes learned helplessness and avoidance behaviour occurs as a result.

7. The opposite is true for TAS types. They attribute success to internal factors and therefore seek more difficult challenges, while failures are put down to external variables. TAS types are more persistent in the face of failure and develop mastery orientation. Mastery orientation is the strong motive to succeed found in high achievers.

8. Attribution retraining • Controllability is a third dimension to the attribution model. • You have little control over: • ability • luck • difficulty of the task • But you can control: • effort • Effort can be changed by the performer and good coaches will try and convince performers that by controlling and increasing effort, then performance will improve. • Example:“With sustained effort you can succeed” or “if you work harder in the next match you can beat your opponent”.

9. Other internal, unstable factors which may affect performance include. • Concentration • Commitment • Emotional Control • Confidence • Attitude • Attention • Mental preparation • Physical preparation • Convincing the performer that they are in control of all of these factors will help to prevent learned helplessness.