Achievement Motivation and Attribution Theory.

1. Achievement Motivation and Attribution Theory. Mr. P. Leighton St Mary’s 6th Form College.

2. After today’s session… • You will have a deep understanding of Achievement Motivation which includes… • NAF and NAch. • Competitiveness. • Learned Helplessness. • You should also understand Attribution theory which includes… • Weiner’s Attribution Model. • Attribution retraining.

3. Achievement Motivation. • Links Personality with the degree of competitiveness shown by an individual. • How motivated are you to succeed? • Is achievement motivation linked with nature or nurture? • Murray (1938) indicated that it is only natural for one to want to surpass another (Nature). • Bandura (1977) however, believed competitiveness is a product of learning (Nurture).

4. Interactionists and Achievement Motivation. • Atkinson and McClelland (1976) predicted that motivation is generated through a combination of personality and situational factors, These are… • Probability of success: The likelihood of success- when a task is easy or done before. • Incentive value of success: The intrinsic value experienced after success. If the task is harder the greater incentive value…Why?

5. Need to Avoid Failure. (Low Nach/High Naf) The fear of failure far outweighs the desire to succeed. Referred to as low achievers. Need to Achieve. (Low Naf/High Nach) The desire of success far outweighs the fear of failure. Referred to as high achievers. NAch and NaF …

6. Task (5mins) • Turn to page 209 and copy down the Diagram and table noting some of the characteristics of NAF and NAch performers. • Turn over and copy down the key terms.

7. Atkinson and McClelland Continued… • The theory best predicted behavioural responses in situations where there is a 50/50 chance of success. • This situation is most likely to trigger the motivation to achieve in performers with high achievement traits. • They display approach behaviours and mastery orientation characteristics. • The incentive value will be high when the chance of success is evenly balanced. • Q: What about those with low achievement traits? Write a statement to describe this…

8. What are the problems with Achievement Motivation Theory? • What is success to you? • Success can be interpreted in several different ways… • Success over other people: Ego Goal Orientation- Beating someone in a race. • Personal Improvement: Task Orientation- performance and process goals i.e. Achieving a personal best. • Achievement Motivation within sport should be referred to as Competitiveness.

9. Competitiveness. • The motivation to achieve in sport. • Gill and Deeter (1988) confirmed that Athletes are far more competitive than non athletes. • However, Athletes favoured performance goals (Task Orientation) whereas the non-athletes preferred the importance of winning (Ego Orientation).

10. Attribution Theory. • What do you attribute your success to? • Weiner (1971) saw that there were two areas which affect our attribution levels. • The Locus of Causality- internal or external factors. • Stability- Stable and un-changeable/ Unstable is temporary i.e. Luck. • Control is also mentioned and is a key factor in attribution retraining.

11. Coaches should attribute failure to external factors- why? External factors are changeable and not under control of the performer: its not their fault! This helps maintain self-esteem and motivation i.e. “he was lucky to beat you”. Coaches should attribute success to internal factors- why? Internal factors mean that the performer is able to succeed because of their talents. This endorses future expectations of high achievement. Weiner’s attribution model: Reasons for Failure and Success.

12. Work for you… • Copy down notes from pages 213-215 paying attention to… • Attribution bias • Attribution retraining • Mastery orientation • Learned helplessness