Attributions

To attribute something is to explain the cause
The Attribution Process
Correct use of attribution is crucial for maintaining a performers: level of performance, satisfaction of performance, task persistance, future expectations
Weiner's Attribution Theory
1. 1st Dimension -Locus of Causality. 4 areas; ability, Luck, Effort and Task Difficulty
  1. And that this can be sub-divided into two broad categories. Internal Causes: factors within our control such as ability and effort. External Causes: factors that are outside our control such as task difficulty and luck.
    1. Internal/Stable: 'We were too good for the opposition on the day', 'Our skills were better'.
    2. External/Stable: 'They were not a very good team, from a lower league'.
    3. Internal/Unstable: 'We had prepared well for the game and all the team worked extremely hard'.
    4. External/Unstable: 'We were lucky on the day. The umpire gave us a questionable penalty kick'.
2. 2nd Dimension - Locus of Stability. This relates to the changeable nature of the factor. e.g. the ability of the performer would not change from one week to the next, whereas their level of effort may. The stability is divided into 2 further sub-divisions.
  1. Stable Factors: Such as the level of individual ability, skill, coaching experience and the nature of the opposition.
  2. Unstable Factors: Such as the individual level of motivation and effort, arousal levels, refereeing decisions, quality of teamwork, Imposed Tactics, Injury, Form and Pure Luck.
3. 3rd Dimension - Locus of Control.
  1. Personal Control - Areas of performance which an individual can take control. e.g. effort, concentration, commitment to training. Effort is the only factor which can be classed as controllable from his original model.
  2. External Control - Areas of performance which an individual has little control e.g. the referee, tactics used by the coach, quality of the opposition.
4. Attribution was seen to have an influential effect on the performers level of pride or shame after the event. If they feel that success was due to internal factors such as ability or effort rather than external factors, the performers level of pride increased along with their motivation. If failure was attributed to internal factors, it would result in a sense of shame and a corresponding decrease in motivation.
5. Controllability - affects moral judgement and reaction to other people. A coach will often base their judgement on controllable factors. e.g. praise is given to someone who tried hard, even if the result wasn't good. However the coach will be more critical of a performance which is poor due to poor concentration.
Effective Use of Attributions & Self Serving Bias
1. Self-Serving Bias: The tendency of a performer to attribute their success to internal factors such as effort or ability, while failure is attributed to external influences such as luck and task difficulty.
2. To use attribution correctly the coach must know how the performer is going to react. this may depend on personality, level of experience, current level of motivation. Success should be attributed to internal factors. This allows the performer to gain feelings of satisfaction, increasing their motivation and task persistence. Failure should never be attributed to internal factors. The coach should use external or unstable factors. This allows the athlete to believe changes can be made to improve their performance and it protects their self-esteem. The use of attributions in this way is known as Self Serving Bias.
  1. Self Serving Bias allows the individual to maintain their levels of motivation and increase task persistence. The correct use of attributions is important to develop self esteem, maintain motivation, and avoid Learned Helplessness.
Attribution Retraining
1. The process by which a performer Is taught to attribute failure to changeable, unstable factors, rather than internal, stable factors.
2. This involves the coach developing and changing an individuals perception of failure, allowing them to deal with it effectively and improve future performances.
3. By altering the performers perception of their apparent lack of ability, their emotional response changes, from 'I wont be able to develop and be successful' to 'Maybe I can improve if I do this differently or set realistic goals.
Learned Helplessness
1. If the confidence levels of a performer lowers this can lead to self-doubt and the performer may question their ability to complete the task, which in turn could lead to anxiety.
2. Dweck (1975) Proposed this concept. Consequently performers feel that when faced with particular situations they are unlikely to ne successful and that failure is inevitable.
3. 'Feelings experienced by an individual when they face believes that failure is inevitable because of negative because of negative past experiences.
4. Other reasons may contribute to this, such as; negative feedback, criticism, lack of success. Also factors contributing to self efficacy.
5. General Learned Helplessness
  1. Suggests that the performer will think failure is inevitable in all types of sport. e.g. an individual may feel that they are unable to be successful in all water based sports because they have a previous negative experience whilst swimming.
6. Specific Learned Helplessness
  1. Suggests that the performer may not necessarily be concerned about all water sport based activities but certain sports. e.g. when canoeing they may have capsized several times and been unable to control their movement. As a result they lack the confidence and feel unable to attempt canoeing again for fear of failure.
Strategies to Avoid Learned Helplessness
1. All Strategies used to improve self-efficacy
2. One-to-one attention
3. Mental Rehearsal
4. Setting performance goals rather than outcome goals
5. Avoid social comparison with other performers
6. Attribution Retraining
7. Highlight Performance goals
8. Use correct Attributions

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Attributions

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	Created by Hannah96 over 10 years ago