Attribution

Question 1

What is attribution?

Answer 1

The reason a performer gives for the cause of their success or failure

Question 2

What is the process of attribution?

Answer 2

Outcome of event ~> available information ~> causal attribution = expectancy & affective response = decision on subsequent participation

Question 3

Name the locus of casualties and the stability of Weiner’s model of attribution

Answer 3

Locus of casualty: internal/external
Stability: stable/unstable

Question 4

Name the 4 section of Weiner’s model of attribution

Answer 4

Ability
Task difficulty
Internal
Luck

Question 5

What is ability?

Answer 5

Internal
Stable
Uncontrollable attribution
E.g. too strong for opponent

Question 6

What is task difficulty?

Answer 6

External
Stable
Controllable/uncontrollable
E.g. team at bottom of league

Question 7

What is effort?

Answer 7

Internal
Unstable
Controllable attribution
E.g. we prepared well

Question 8

What is luck?

Answer 8

External
Unstable
Uncontrollable attribution
E.g. a lot of decisions went our way

Question 9

What is self serving bias?

Answer 9

A persons tendency to attribute their failure to external causes and their success to internal causes. This will protect their self esteem

Question 10

What is controlability?

Answer 10

Whether attributions are under the control of the performer or under the control of others, or whether they are uncontrollable

Question 11

What is learned helplessness?

Answer 11

The belief that failure is inevitable and that no control can be had over the causes of failure

Question 12

What happens to a performer with learned helplessness?

Answer 12

A performer attributes failures to stable, uncontrollable factors that offer no hope for change. They attribute success to externa factors, giving away credit. This leads to low self confidence and causes the performer to give up quickly. Learned helplessness is a barrier to improved sport performance

Question 13

What is mastery orientation?

Answer 13

When a high achiever has a strong desire to succeed and expect to succeed

Question 14

What does mastery orientation involve?

Answer 14

Linked with high self confidence.
These performers take on challenged and show persistence.
Allows performance to be optimised.
Attributing success internally encourages mastery orientation.

Question 15

What should attributions be encouraged to be?

Answer 15

Controllable and unstable factors

Question 16

What is attribution retraining?

Answer 16

Retraining athletes to attribute success controllable, unstable factors.
Not to attribute failure to stable factors.
Not to attribute success or failure to external, uncontrollable factors