Attribution Theory and Performance: It Was Their Fault—Or Was It?
Prior to beginning this assignment, be sure to read Chapter 4 and read the article Extending Attribution Theory: Considering Students’ Perceived Control of the Attribution Process, the instructor guidance, and view the following website The Foundation for Critical Thinking.
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For this journal, you will reflect on your understanding of attribution theory, as well as apply the concept to your own past behavior(s). As you have learned, attribution theory states that individuals tend to make sense of (logically prescribe) situations by associating them to self, others, thoughts, feelings, or actions. This theory suggests that learners should consider why they do what they do, and what or who they are giving credit for both the victories and the failures. Further, this theory suggests that if a person believes that they are not good at something, they may attribute their unsuccessful outcomes to external factors, rather than to themselves. In contrast, if individuals have success, they more often may attribute their successes to internal factors.
To successfully write this journal,
Discuss your understanding, based on our required content, of attribution theory, including the origins and major premises.
Describe stability and controllability and how they affect performance attributions. Include why these matter in the context of learning.
Identify a time where you feel you have failed and blamed someone or something else when it was not actually, in hindsight, their fault (e.g., the teacher, the friend, a loved one). (Failure could be academic, relational, and/or organizational—loss of a job.)
Elaborate on how blaming the external source(s) preserved your self-image and your self-efficacy?
Based on your new understanding of how to identify your own responsibility in the learning or behavioral process, explain whether you might handle failure, in general, differently now. If so how? If not, why not?
Your journal this week should be 400 to 500 words, limit quoted material, and have an introduction and a conclusion as described in the Writing Center’s resource Introductions & Conclusions. You should exhibit obvious attention to critical thought and understanding of the content, as demonstrated in Samantha Agoos’s (2020) TED-Ed Animation 5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking.
Sample Solution
Attribution theory is based on the idea that individuals tend to make sense of situations by assigning them meaning (Weiner, 1972). This theory suggests that when people are successful or fail at tasks, they attribute the outcomes to either internal factors such as their own abilities or external factors such as luck or help from others. It also proposes that these attributions can impact a person’s motivation and self-efficacy in future endeavors.
The concept of stability is central to attribution theory. Stability refers to whether an individual believes success or failure was due to something within themselves that will last over time versus something outside of themselves which could be more easily changed (Smith & Credé, 2017). For example, if I believed my failure on an exam was due to not studying hard enough then I would likely be less motivated in continuing my studies than if I had attributed it to the test being too difficult overall.
Controllability is another aspect of attribution theory which looks at how much control an individual attributes success or failure. If someone believes they have control over their outcome then this generally leads them to attribute it internally rather than externally since it implies that with some effort they should have been able to succeed (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977). This has implications for learning contexts as well because attributing successes and failures internally encourages people to take responsibility for their actions and learn from mistakes rather than relying on external forces which may not always be available.
In summary, attribution theory states that individuals often assign causes for outcomes depending on internal versus external attributions. The concepts of stability and controllability are important components of this process as they relate directly back to motivation and self-efficacy levels in different contexts. Understanding these aspects helps learners recognize how their mindset impacts performance expectations and encourage personal accountability when assessing how well one did in comparison with others.
