Attribution Theory
- Maturational influences on confidence and importance of mastery orientation – The rate that an individual matures will impact upon their confidence and the role of mastery orientation. For example, because of their early success, early maturing boys receive a lot of recognition and attention from coaches, which fuels their confidence and motivation in sport but as others catch them up this confidence could be knocked.
- Learned helplessness – Learned helplessness happens when people become conditioned to believe that a situation is unchangeable or inescapable. Attributions affect confidence and motivation because they are the reasons young people identify as to why they succeed or fail. Learned helplessness can hamper confidence and motivation to get better because and individual does not believe they can improve.
Look at the following Padlet:
Attribution Padlet
This is from one of my previous A-level classes. Look at the reasons they wrote down, they have for the most part put them down as controllable, uncontrollable, short term or long term aspects.
Task 1:
You need to watch the two tennis videos and explain which section of the attribution theory the different reasons they state falls into.
Then find another video of your own - put a link to the video in a document and explain what sections they attribute the performance/outcome to.
Question 1 (02/06):
The diagram below can be used to explain the attribution theory. Using the diagram, aim to explain the attribution process, use examples that you have already looked at to illustrate your answer.
Question 2 (02/06):
The following is a typical statement made by a young person who has given up sport and leads an unhealthy lifestyle
'I think sport is boring. I am no good at it, I don't enjoy it and I can think of better things to do on a Saturday afternoon.'
Using attribution theories evaluate the reasons why this young person does not take part in sport.
How might you persuade this young person to once again take up sport?
