Attributional Retraining Alters Novice Golfers’ Free Practice Behavior

Abstract

This experiment examined the effects of a single attributional feedback on causal attributions, expectations, and free-practice with novice participants in a golf putting task during perceived failure. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment groups: (1) internal, controllable, unstable attributional feedback; (2) external, uncontrollable, stable attributional feedback; (3) nonattributional feedback. Participants completed four test trials consisting of six putts each. Each trial was followed by a free-time period of 2 minutes, a measure of expectations and free-practice. The results showed that it is possible to modify in a functional or dysfunctional way, (a) novice participants' attributions about perceived failure, (b) expectations, and (c) free-practice behaviors.Attributions are specific causes such as effort, task difficulty, ability, or luck that are generated to explain an outcome, event, or behavior (Weiner, 1985). Causal attributions vary along a number of dimensions that are "intrinsic properties" of the cause, and it is the dimensions of attributions that play a key role in the motivation of behavior (e.g., Försterling, 1985;Weiner, 1985). Three empirically substantiated attributional dimensions are: (1) "Locus of causality" which refers to whether a cause is perceived to reside within (internal) or is external to the (target) person; (2) "Personal controllability" which refers to whether a cause is perceived to be within (controllable) or beyond (uncontrollable) the target person's control; and (3) "Stability" which refers to whether a cause is considered to be temporary (unstable) or longlasting (stable) (Weiner, 1985).In achievement contexts, attributional research has focused on understanding the links between attributional dimensions and the improvement or deterioration of future performance (see Perry, Hall, & Ruthig, 2005, for a review). According to Weiner (1992), "if causal attributions do influence achievement strivings, then a change in attributions should produce a change in behaviour" (p. 264). "Attributional retraining" research has triggered numerous applications in sport and academic contexts aimed at modifying individuals' problem behaviors by modifying their causal attributions about successes and failures, with promising results (e.g.,

Durability and generalization of attribution-based feedback following failure: Effects on expectations and behavioral persistence

“…Participants indicated, on a scale from 0% to 100%, how well they expected to perform in their subsequent trial. The measure of success expectations is similar DURABILITY AND GENERALIZATION OF ATTRIBUTIONAL FEEDBACK 9 to previous studies developed in motor behavior research (e.g., Le Foll et al, 2008;Orbach et al, 1999;Rascle et al, 2008;Rudisill, 1989;Rudisill & Singer, 1988).…”

“…Thus, to enhance the internal validity of the experiment, it was important that participants' task performance did not significantly improve across trials, so that potential post-intervention changes in expectations and persistence could be attributed to the experimental manipulation and not changes in performance. Based on previous research (Le Foll DURABILITY AND GENERALIZATION OF ATTRIBUTIONAL FEEDBACK 10 et al, 2008;Rascle et al, 2008), the tasks were designed in such a way that performance would not be expected to improve, and that participants would effectively experience failure.…”

“…In other words, persistence is the refusal to give up, especially when faced with adversity (Bandura, 1986). Based on previous attributional research (e.g., Le Foll et al, 2006, 2008Rascle et al, 2008), persistence was assessed by calculating the number of attempts that participants engaged in the putting or dart-throw tasks during a given free-time period of two minutes.…”

“…After the task was explained, all participants completed three familiarization throws (e.g., Le Foll et al, 2008;Rascle et al, 2008), followed by an assessed trial consisting of six throws (Trial 1). Following this trial, participants indicated whether they perceived their performance to be "rather like a success" or "rather like a failure", and they then completed a measure of their attributions and their expectations of success on a subsequent trial, before being provided with a "free-practice" period of two minutes (in reality, an assessment of persistence-see below under Measures).…”

“…There were three key hypotheses: First, it was hypothesized that, following failure, functional (controllable and unstable) attributional feedback would lead to immediate (short-term) increases in expectations and persistence, and dysfunctional (uncontrollable and stable) attributional feedback would lead to decreases in expectations and persistence. Rascle et al (2008) showed that it is possible to modify, in a functional or dysfunctional way, novice participants' attributions about perceived failure, expectations, and free-practice behaviors. The functional attributional feedback produced improvements in causal attributions about failure, as well as in success expectations, and lower persistence after failure.…”