How does attribution affect motivation

Third, teachers need to remember that ability—usually considered a relatively stable factor—often actually changes incrementally over the long term. A middleyears student might play the trumpet in the school band at a high level of ability, but this ability actually reflects a lot of previous effort and a gradual increase in ability.

A second grade student who reads fluently, in this sense may have high current ability to read; but at some point in the distant past that same student could not read as well, and even further back he may not have been able to read at all.

The increases in ability have happened at least in part because of effort. While these ideas may seem obvious, they can easily be forgotten in the classroom because effort and ability evolve according to very different time frames. Effort and its results appear relatively immediately; a student expends effort this week, this day, or even at this very moment, and the effort if not the results are visible right away.

But ability may take longer to show itself; a student often develops it only over many weeks, months, or years.

Blackwell, L. Implicit theories predict achievement across an adolescent transition: a longitudinal study. Child Development, 78 , — Dweck, C. Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia: Psychology Press. Mindset: The new psychology of success.

Maybe you did not study very hard; maybe the test itself was difficult; maybe you were unlucky; maybe you just are not smart enough. Each explanation attributes the failure to a different factor. The explanations that you settle upon may reflect the truth accurately—or then again, they may not.

What is important about attributions is that they reflect personal beliefs about the sources or causes of success and failure. As such, they tend to affect motivation in various ways, depending on the nature of the attribution Weiner, Attributions vary in three underlying ways: locus, stability, and controllability.

Locus of attribution is the location figuratively speaking of the source of success or failure. The stability of an attribution is its relative permanence. If you attribute the mark to your ability, then the source of success is relatively stable —by definition, ability is a relatively lasting quality.

If you attribute a top mark to the effort you put into studying, then the source of success is unstable —effort can vary and has to be renewed on each occasion or else it disappears. Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction? Psychological Bulletin, 82 2 , Stewart, T. Attributional retraining: Reducing the likelihood of failure. Social Psychology of Education, 14 1 , Tice, D.

Esteem protection or enhancement? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60 5 , Tollefson, N. Classroom applications of cognitive theories of motivation. Educational Psychology Review, 12 1 , Weiner, B. Achievement motivation and attribution theory. Morristown: General Learning Press. An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion.

Psychological Review, 92 4 , Human Motivation: Metaphors, theories and research. Motivation from an attribution perspective and the social psychology of perceived competence. Handbook of competence and motivation , Social motivation, justice, and the moral emotions: An attributional approach. Wigfield, A.

Expectancy—Value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25 1 , Expectancy-value theory. Handbook of motivation at school , Attributions and motivation: How do attributions affect motivation? Multimedia presentation 5 min. Heider, F. The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley. Namespaces Resource Discuss. Views Read Edit Edit source View history. Add links. Expectancy is based upon past experience, self-efficacy , perceived control and the difficulty of the goal Lee, These factors affect an individual's decisions as they will choose tasks that are likely to result in attaining their desired goals Lee, The perceived relationship between the effort required to perform the task and the expected reward Lee, The cause is unstable; therefore, losing player will remain hopeful and maintain expectancy for future success.

The outcome was controllable therefore losing player experiences guilt. Seeking extra training and support from coach as well as increasing training sessions in preparation for next game. The cause is stable; therefore, player will likely expect future failure, resulting in helplessness.

The cause is uncontrollable therefore the player feels shame and humiliation. New York: Wiley. Jones, E. Kannouse, H. Kelley, R. Nisbett, S. Valins, and B. Weiner, Eds. Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior.

Harvey, J. Lewis, F.