Causal Attributions for Basketball Outcomes by Players and Coaches

Weiner’s attribution model dealing with internal-external and stable-unstable causes was applied to basketball achievements Players and coaches were assumed to ascribe the success of players to mainly internal causes (i.e. ability and effort) (hyp. Ia and IIa), and the failure of players to mainly unstable causes (i.e. effort and luck) (hyp. Ib and IIb). It was also predicted that players, who received this attribution pattern from their coach, would increase their internal attributions for success over the season (hyp. III). - The subjects were seven varsity players of each of the twelve basketball learns of the Belgian First National League (N = 84) together with the head coach of the teams. The players completed at the beginning and at the end of the 1974-1975 season a questionnaire, dealing with the possible causes of their good and bad achievements. Near the end of that season, their coach described the degree to which he considered his players’ achievements as due to the distinctive causes The data strongly supported the hypotheses Ia and IIa, dealing with successful achievements and only confirmed hypotheses Ib and IIb regarding the effort attribution Hypothesis III was also confirmed. Implications of the attribution model are discussed with regard to fundamental and functional aspects of sport psychology.