ley, 1987). Conversely, greater shame will be experienced by athletes who attribute failure to internal factors ( such as lack of ability or effort) than will be experienced by athletes who attribute failure to external factors (Nicholls, 1975; Duda, 1987).
(3) Past or prior experience influences current causal attributions. An athlete's success or failure will be evaluated in terms of number of prior successes and failures. Research (Mark, Mutrie, Brooks and Harris, 1984; Roberts, 1975; Spink, 1977, 1978) reveals two findings regarding the impact of past experience: (1) if one success is preceded by many successes, or a failure is preceded by many failures, the athlete will usually attribute the outcome to stable or consistent and not easily changeable factors (e.g. the internal factor of personal ability or the external factor of a better opponent); and (2) if a loss follows many victories or a victory follows many defeats, the athlete will attribute the outcome to unstable or easily changeable factors such
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