ATTRIBUTION THEORY:
MAKING SENSE OF
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
Damon Burton
University of Idaho
WHAT IS AN
ATTRIBUTION?
Attributions – are reasons given to
explain successes and failures.
Weiner (1985) suggests that we each
act as naïve psychologists trying to
understand the reasons for why a
particular outcome occurs.
For example, a girl may try to figure
out why she lost a tennis match or did
poorly on an exam.
UNDERLYING
ASSUMPTIONS
Understanding human behavior
requires first understanding how we
perceive the social environment.
People seek a stable and predictable
environment in order to control their
surroundings and predict others’
behavior.
To understand behavior, people look
for dispositional qualities in others.
ATTRIBUTIONAL
PROPOSITIONS
Outcomes generate positive or
negative emotions and a search for the
reasons for the outcome.
Attributions are organized into key
dimensions that influence
psychological consequences such as
expectancy change or emotional
feelings.
Attributional consequences impact
behaviors such as achievement
motivation.
WEINER’S (1972)
ORIGINAL MODEL
Internal
Stable
Ability
Effort
Unstable
Strategy
Preparation
Performance
External
Task
Difficulty
Coaching
Luck
Officiating
WEINER’S (1986) REVISED MODEL
CAUSAL ANTECEDENTS
OF ATTRIBUTIONS
states versus traits
causal rules
“actor versus observer
bias”
“hedonic bias”
ASSESSING ATTRIBUTIONS
• A person’s perceptions of success
and failure are not the same as
winning and losing. Success is a
subjective concept.
• Most attributions have been
categorized by researchers rather
than participants.
• Weiner uses dimensions of locus of
causality, stability and controllability
• Globality and intentionality
dimensions have also been proposed
ATTRIBUTION INSTRUMENTS
• Causal Dimension Scale – 2 (CDS-2) –
•
measures attributions in specific
situations (state measure).
Attributional style is predisposition to
make particular attributions across
different situations (trait measure)
• Sport Attributional Style Scale (SASS)
• Wingate Sport Achievement Responsibility
Scale (WSARS)
SELF-SERVING BIAS
 “Self-serving bias” (SSB) states
that
attributions are used to enhance and
protect self-esteem.
 According to the SSB, people tend to
take credit for success but not the
blame for failure.
 People perceive themselves as more
responsible for successful or positive
than negative outcomes.
 Reasons for failure are externalized
(i.e., blamed on outside factors)
ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS
 “Actor-observer bias” –actors and
observers view the same situation
differently, thus making different
attributions
 Actors use situation-based
attributions to explain their behavior.
 Observers base attributions on traits
of the actor.
 Actors know their behavioral history,
whereas observers have only the one
situation to base their evaluation on.
SPONTANEOUS
ATTRIBUTIONS
 Do athletes normally engage in
causal thought (i.e., attributions)
following competition?
 Attributions are made naturally,
but they are more likely when (a)
a goal is not attained or (b) the
outcome was unexpected.
 For example, the Patriots probably
have been making attributions for
their unexpected Superbowl loss.
ATTRIBUTIONAL
CONSEQUENCES
 future expectancies
 emotional reactions
 learned helplessness
FUTURE EXPECTANCIES
Attributional stability is the most
important factor determining
future expectancies.
Outcomes ascribed to stable
causes increase future expectancy.
Outcomes ascribed to unstable
causes reduce future expectancy
Outcomes ascribed to stable
causes will be repeated more
frequently than those ascribed to
unstable causes
EMOTIONAL REACTIONS
“Outcome-dependent” emotions are
emotional responses to the outcome
itself, whereas “attributiondependent” emotions relate to the
causes or reasons identified for the
outcome.
“Self-esteem emotions” such as pride
are associated with internal causality.
“Expectancy emotions” such as hope
are related to stability.
“Social emotions” such as pity or guilt
are related to controllability.
The
End