Attributions Lesson Summary

Weiner's model 
2 dimensions - Locus of Causality (Internal / External) & Locus of Stability (Stable / Unstable)
4 groups - Ability (Internal / Stable); Task Difficulty (External / Stable); Effort (Internal / Unstable); Luck (External / Unstable)

High Naf performers would tend to attribute success to External-Unstable factors (Luck) & failure to Internal-Stable factors (Lack of Ability). This leads to the performer being in a state of Learned Helplessness - a feeling that failure is inevitable. This can lead to the performer giving up, even when success is possible. There are 2 types of Learned Helplessness - Global: you think you are bad at all sports & Specific: you think you are bad at a specific sport or skill.

Coaches can try to avoid Learned Helplessness through Attribution Retraining - trying to get the performer to give better attributions than those above. There are two main methods of doing this. 1. Controllable (Internal-Unstable) attributions such as effort are good in success or failure as the performer will strive to work hard in the future. 2. Self-serving Bias protects a performer's confidence by attributing failure to External-Unstable factors such as luck and success to Internal-Stable factors such as ability.