puts it:
Sport is a highly charged, achievement-laden situation, one in which the outcome is largely in doubt until the final moments of the contest. Because of the uncertain, capricious nature of sports, the athlete often finds him/her self in the position of analyzing the reasons for victory or defeat. These attributions (regardless of whether they are correct or incorrect) will largely determine the quantity and quality of subsequent motivation. (p. 216).
In other words, causal attribution theory is a significant explanatory model which can and has been used in sport to attain a complete understanding of how athletes' ascription of causes relates to their motivation and performance. It is its explanatory power that justifies this paper's extensive review of the literature on causal attribution in sport.
General Findings of Attribution Research in Sport
Originally developed in the early 1970s, attribution theory has been applied to the field of sport almost since its development. The past twenty-five years of research have produced some well documented findings. These findings can be summarized as follows:
(1) Causal attributions can involve external or internal agents. Athletes tend to ascribe victory to personal or internal characteristics and agents and failure to external or environmental agents (Carron, 1980, 1984; Carron & Spink, 1980; McAuley, 1985)--this tendency has often been referred to as the "egocentricity" of athletes' causal attributions.
(2) Causal attributions produce emotions. Whether athletes take pride or feel shame regarding their performance is a direct function of their causal attributions; specifically, those athletes who attribute success to internal factors (personal ability or effort) rather than external factors (good luck or easy opponent), will feel greater pride and more satisfaction than will the athlete who attributes success to external factors (Carron, 1984; Duncan & McAu...