specifically examine the impact of abstract processing on generalization from a failure performance in an athlete sample using a paradigm adopted from Van Lier, Moulds, et al. ( 2015 ). Attributions It has been noted in Van Lier, Moulds, et al. ( 2015 ) that causal attributions (e.g., Biddle, Hanrahan
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Generalization in Sports: The Impact of How Athletes Process Their Failures and Successes
Jens Van Lier and Filip Raes
Modeling the Relation of Goal Orientations to Achievement-Related Affect in Physical Education: Does Perceived Ability Matter?
Symeon Vlachopoulos and Stuart J.H. Biddle
This study investigated likely determinants of achievement-related affect in physical education. In particular, interrelationships were examined between achievement goal orientations, success perceptions, personally controllable attributions, and achievement-related affect based on data collected from 1,070 British students aged 11-16 years. A positive association emerged between task orientation and success perception, but not between ego orientation and success perception. In addition, perceived success positively influenced personally controllable attributions and positive affect, but had no effect on negative emotion. Furthermore, personally controllable attributions augmented positive emotion and minimized negative affect. Perceived ability moderated the relation between ego orientation and personally controllable attributions. Hence, under the low perceived ability condition, ego orientation was associated with personally uncontrollable attributions, but the opposite was true for the high perceived ability group. An enhancement of both task orientation and perceived athletic competence is needed for adolescents to derive positive affective experiences from physical education.
High School Student Fitness Test Attributions: Does BMI or Performance Matter?
Summer Davis, Xihe Zhu, and Justin Haegele
& Meredith, 2010 ). To better teach fitness education and to motivate students for fitness tests and related activities, physical educators need to understand students’ explanations for their performance and behavioral choices. The attribution model proposed by Weiner (e.g., 1985 ) theorizes that a person
A Social-Cognitive Investigation into the Mechanisms of Affect Generation in Children’s Physical Activity
Symeon Vlachopoulos, Stuart Biddle, and Kenneth Fox
This study examined how achievement goal orientations, perceived sport competence, perceptions of success, and perceived outcome attributions affect children’s exercise-induced feeling states following physical exercise. The construct validity of the Exercise-Induced Feeling Inventory and a modification of the Causal Dimension Scale II for children was also investigated. Children (N = 304) responded to measures on the above scales. Task orientation, perceived success, and an ego orientation, combined with high perceptions of sport competence, were positive predictors of states of positive engagement, revitalization, and tranquillity; only task orientation was a negative predictor of physical exhaustion. The locus of causality dimension appeared to mediate the impact of perceptions of success on positive engagement, but with a negligible effect. The results were consistent with previous findings highlighting the motivational advantage of adopting a task orientation in physical achievement situations and demonstrated the role of task orientation as a determinant of affect in exercise testing in children.
Student Athletes’ Causal Attributions for Sport and School Achievement in Relation to Sport Dropout and Grade Point Average
Milla Saarinen, Raymond Bertram, Kaisa Aunola, Julia Pankkonen, and Tatiana V. Ryba
some student athletes experience such problems, whereas others manage to maintain high levels of motivation, and to assist student athletes in maintaining their motivation in both domains. Causal attributions are the causes that individuals assign to justify their performance outcomes. Attributions
Motivation and Perceptions of Control: Tracing Its Development and Plotting Its Future in Exercise and Sport Psychology
Stuart J.H. Biddle
An analysis of control-related motivation constructs that have been studied in sport and exercise psychology is attempted using Skinner’s (1995, 1996) agent-means-ends framework and her “competence system” model. I review and analyze six constructs or approaches that have received a great deal of attention in our field in the past (locus of control and attributions), the present (self-efficacy, achievement goal orientations, and perceived behavioral control), and. I predict, the future (self-determination theory). For each construct or approach. I provide an overview and research summary followed by an analysis of its control-related properties using Skinner’s frameworks.
Shifting Attributions, Shaping Behavior: A Brief Intervention With Youth Tennis Players
Zoe Louise Moffat, Paul Joseph McCarthy, and Bryan McCann
opinion. Figure 1 —Examples of athlete momentum chart. I attended a supervision session intending to discuss an emotion regulation or labeling intervention. Supervisory discussions suggested exploring causal attributions (“good” or “bad” because) may be more appropriate. Independent reading suggested that
Unintentional Egocentric Biases in Attributions
L.R. Brawley
Psychological research concerning sport attributions has devoted much attention to motivational explanations of egocentric bias phenomena. Some theoretical explanations suggest bias is intentional in order to fulfill certain self-oriented needs. However, there is also evidence that cognitive processes such as memory can contribute to unintended egocentric biases. Two studies were conducted to investigate biases (a) in the available information used to make attributions, and (b) in the attributions of responsibility for actions or events. The subject samples examined were 12 men's doubles tennis teams and 32 coach-athlete pairs. Subjects responded to questions requiring recall of either important events and turning points during tennis matches (Study 1) or examples of joint interaction inputs (Study 2). Estimates of perceived responsibility for both dyad members were gathered from each subject. The data provided evidence for egocentric biases in available information and in responsibility attributions. A subject's own inputs to team efforts or to a two-person interaction were more easily and frequently remembered. Subjects consistently remembered more of their personal contributions than those of others, and accepted more responsibility for joint efforts than granted them by others regardless of event outcomes. Failure to include others' inputs in the recall of joint endeavors is explained by processes affecting memory. Implications for future research are discussed as well as the problems these unintended biases create for participant interaction.
Open-Ended Attributions in Team Competition
Diane L. Gill, M. Karen Ruder, and John B. Gross
A total of 352 open-ended attributions were obtained in two field studies with volleyball teams and in two lab experiments, all involving team competition. All attributions were classified along the three causal dimensions of locus of causality, stability, and controllability. Attributions were also classified as referring to the self, to teammates, to the team as a whole, or to other factors and sorted into specific categories. A loglinear analysis revealed that attributions were predominantly internal, unstable, and controllable. A significant win/loss effect reflected the tendency for members of winning teams to use controllable, and particularly unstable, controllable, attributions more than members of losing teams. Overwhelmingly, attributions referred to the team as a whole rather than to individuals or other factors, and teamwork was an especially popular causal explanation. The findings suggest that research on attributions in team competition should focus on causal dimensions rather than the four traditional attributions of effort, ability, luck, and task difficulty, and that further attention should be given to team-referent causal explanations.
Changing Attributions with an Attribution Training Technique Related to Basketball Dribbling
Iris Orbach, Robert N. Singer, and Milledge Murphey
There is a shortage of research in which the effect of attribution training interventions on sport performance has been investigated. Therefore, the primary goal of this study was to determine the influence of an attribution training program on individuals who attribute their sport performance to dysfunctional attributions. Sixty college recreational basketball players were oriented to perceive their performance in a basketball skill task as due to (a) controllable, unstable factors, (b) uncontrollable, stable factors, or (c) no specific factors. Dependent variables included attributions and performance time. Using MANOVA and repeated measures factorial ANOVAs, results revealed that it is possible to modify attributions and performance in regard to a basketball performance task. The data are supportive of the potential influence of attribution training in a sport setting and the use of a controllable, unstable dimensional orientation as a means to improve performance.
