attribution in sport

who came up with the 4 attributions in sport?

Weiner

what are the 4 attributions in sport?

• Ability

• Effort

• Task difficulty

• Luck

what is locus of causality?

• where the attributions have come form:

• performer (internal)

• environment (external)

• affects the performers motivation and sense of pride

what locus of causality, dimension of stability and controllability is the attribution ‘ability’?

• Locus of causality: internal

• Dimension of stability: stable

• controllability: uncontrollable

what locus of causality, dimension and controllability of stability is the attribution ‘task difficulty’?

• Locus of causality: external

• Dimension of stability: stable

• controllability: controllable/uncontrollable

what locus of causality, dimension of stability and controllability is the attribution ‘effort’?

• Locus of causality: internal

• Dimension of stability: unstable

• controllability: controllable

what locus of causality and dimension of stability is the attribution ‘luck’?

• Locus of causality: external

• Dimension of stability: unstable

• controllability: uncontrollable

what is dimension of stabilty?

• whether the attribution can be changed (unstable) or not (stable) and affect a performer's expectations and beliefs for future performances

• stable or unstable

what are the 3 dimensions in attribution in sport?

• locus of causality

• dimension of stability

• locus of control (controllability)

what is locus of control?

• considers the extent to which the outcome is controllable or uncontrollable for the performer

• can affect a performer's motivation and experience for the future

what was the 3rd dimension that was added to the model?

locus of control (controllability)

what is self serving bias?

• sports performers who tend to attribute their failure to external causes while those who succeed usually attribute their success to internal cause

• protects their self-esteem

what is learned helplessness?

the belief that failure is inevitable and a feeling of hopelessness

what is specific learned helplessness?

• belief that failure is inevitable and a feeling of hopelessness when faced with a particular situation

• e.g. I am a hopeless football player

what is global learned helplessness?

• the belief that failure is inevitable and a feeling of hopelessness when faced with a particular group of situations

• e.g. I am hopeless at all sport

what are low achievers in terms of learned helplessness?

• Often attribute their failure to uncontrollable factors

• This can lead to learned helplessness

what are high achievers in terms of learned helplessness?

• Athletes who are oriented towards mastery

• See failure as a learning experience

• Will attribute failure to controllable unstable factors

what are 'The need to achieve' (Nach) performers in terms of learned helplessness?

• Are not afraid of failing

• Will persist with a task until they succeed

what are the 3 types of performers in terms of learned helplessness?

• low achievers

• high achievers

• ‘The need to achieve’ (Nach) performers

what is mastery orientation?

the view that an individual will be motivated by becoming an expert in skill development or sports performance

what are some other key points surrounding mastery orientation?

• Will often attribute failure to internal, controllable and unstable factors (e.g. effort)

• Will continue to strive to become better at the activity

• Seek to develop competence by acquiring new skills and mastering new situations

• Not concerned about their performance relative to others

• More concerned with furthering their understanding of the sport, fitness and performance

• It is at the opposite end of the scale to learned helplessness

what is attribution retraining?

• can optimise sports performance

• seeking often to change learned helplessness into mastery orientation

what is some key info on attribution retraining and examples?

• Many attributions that are given are subjective and therefore not desirable for future progression

• E.g. a hockey player used to play for a team that constantly blamed the officials for their poor results

• Attributions often need to be reassessed in order to succeed in the future

• E.g. a team of 17 year old girls who have just narrowly lost a hockey match should be encouraged to give attributions such as 'must try harder next week' (internal, unstable and controllable)

• This is more likely to result in mastery orientation