2.4 Attribution: The reasons, justifications and excuses we give for the outcome of a sporting contest.

Internal attributions

The process of attribution

Stable attributions

Event Outcome --> Available Information --> Causal Attribution --> Expectancy of Future Results and Effective Response (Pride/Shame) --> Future Decisions on Participation

External attributions

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Weather

Luck

Task Difficulty

Opponents

Referee Mistakes

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Effort

Determination

Ability

Skill

Decision Making

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Task Difficulty

Opposition

Ability

Unstable attributions

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Effort

Tactics

Luck

Controllability dimension

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Whether individuals perceive themselves as able to

influence events.

Success attributed to factors within your control increases

motivation and reinforces a mastery orientation.

A lack of control can lead to learned helplessness.

Effort is always controllable

Effect of External and Stable Attributions

Avoids personal responsibility for failures which may protect self esteem (self-serving bias), team morale and cohesion but may hide the real reasons for failure and prevent improvement.


Protects self-esteem (self-serving bias)

Effect of Internal and Stable Attributions

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Internal reasoning means performers accept blame and responsibility.

Encourages players to work harder / adopt better tactics so

that they perform better next time.

Stable reasons linked to ability can be demotivating as in the short term

this may be difficult to change.

Effect of Internal and Unstable Attributions

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Lead to improved effort, motivation and a mastery orientation due to:

Accepting blame and responsibility.

Being able to change unstable reasonings such as effort and hard-work.

Protecting against learned helplessness.

Details

Attributions that are subjective will not aid future progression.

Attributions should be re-assessed regularly.

Attributions to internal, controllable and stable factors should be encouraged.

Mastery orientation

Performers...

want to become experts at a skill and need to achieve (Nach Performers)

attribute failure to internal, controllable and unstable factors to maintain effort and motivation.

have no concern with comparing to others.

believe they are in total control of success and failure.