Sport’s Psychology

First:

Understanding Attributions:

In discussing attribution theory, your readings point out that the thousands of possible explanations for success and failure can be classified into a few categories. The most basic categories are stability (a factor is either fairly permanent or unstable), locus of causality (a factor is either external or internal to the person), and locus of control (a factor is or is not under our control). In this activity, you'll explore your understanding of these attribution categories.

Instructions:

Provide a sport example that illustrates and defines the attribution categories listed.

a. Stability: stable

b. Stability: unstable

c. Locus of causality: internal

d. Locus of causality: external

e. Locus of control: in one's control

f. Locus of control: out of one's control

Next:

Helping Lucille Regain Her Soccer Success

Read the following case study and submit a 2-page program for helping Lucille regain her motivation by overcoming her outcome goal orientation.

After several years of training, Lucille has finally received a scholarship offer to play division one soccer. Outcome goals have always been her driving force:be the fastest, toughest, score more goals, and get more assists. Unfortunately, after an All-American high school career, Lucille is having a rough beginning at college. Her shooting and passing accuracy is struggling. To make matters worse, she is struggling a bit with minor injuries, which makes it difficult to maintain consistent playing time.

As Lucille's frustrations continue to increase, she begins to no longer enjoy practice and even competition. She blames her poor performance on injuries, playing time, field conditions and teammates unwilling to pass the ball. The outcome-goal orientation now seems to produce a lower self-confidence, self-doubt, and less motivation.