Weiner's Model of Attribution
Attribution Theory: It’s Not Whether You Win or Lose, It’s How You Place the Blame
For example: Tiger Wood would attribute a tournament win to his ability, determination and mental toughness.
Attribution theory is a concept involved in sports psychology that investigates what people attribute their successes and failures to.
Classified into
two dimensions
Locus of Causality
Stability
refers to whether the cause is inside (internal) or outside (external) the person
refers to whether the cause will (unstable) or will not (stable) change over time
In contrast, a new gym member who has lead a sedentary lifestyle and has low self confidence might see any success they achieve as being lucky.
EFFORT and ABILITY represent internal factors
TASK DIFFICULTY and LUCK are external and are known as environmental variables
A stable factor is considered permanent and unchangeable
ABILITY
An Unstable factor, by contrast, is temporary and can be changed.
LUCK
Outcome
External
Internal
When a client loses 5kg and attributes it to hard work and dedication on their part they will feel proud, have more confidence in their ability to achieve their long term goals and be satisfied with their gym experience.
Lead to increased adherence to their exercise programme
Same client who lost 5kg attributed this result to luck or another external factor such as their personal trainer, they will feel thankful and show gratitude towards their trainer.
They will still lack self belief and will still be expecting to fail at some point