Attribution Theory

Presented By:

Akifa Arooj

Presented To:

Dr. Ummara Saher

CONTENT
 Meaning  Attribution in Classroom
 Definition  Success or Failure Cause
 Process  Teacher Actions
 Dimension  Learned Helplessness
 Locus of causality  Self Worth
 Stability  Strengths
 Controllability
 Weakness
 Factors
 Guidelines
 Theory Model
 ATTRIBUTION

 Attributionis the process of inferring

the causes of events or behaviors.

 An attribute is defined as a quality or

characteristic of a person, place, or
thing.
 DEFINITION

 First proposed by Fritz Heider in 1958.

 The originator of theory for achievement; Bernard Weiner
 Attribution theory states that people try to determine why people do what they
do, that is to say, try to find out causal relationships between events and
behaviors. (Wiener, 1972)
 Attribution theories of motivation describe how the individual’s explanations,
justifications, and excuses influence motivation
(Anderman & Anderman, 2014)
 PROCESS

 A three- stage process underlies an attribution:

 Behavior must be observed/perceived.
 Behavior must be determined to be intentional
 Behavior is attributed to internal or external causes.
 Locus of Causality
DIMENSION

Stability

Controllability
 LOCUS OF
CASUALITY

 Locus of Causality Indicates whether factors are internal or external

 Internal factors includes inner strengths and weaknesses. e.g. effort.

 External Factors, which effect situation from environment. e.g. luck.

 STABILITY
 Stability (whether the cause is same across time and situations)
 A stable factor is one that is permanent and unchangeable, e.g. ability.
 An unstable factor is temporary and can be changed, e.g. luck.
 Controllability
 Controllability (whether the person can control the cause).
 Control Cause: One can control such as skills, effort.
 Non-Control Cause: One cannot control such as luck, actions of
other people.
 FACTORS
 According to Schunk and Zimmerman (2006), there are four factors related to
attribution theory that influence motivation in education:

 Ability

 Task difficulty

 Effort

 Luck
 Attribution in Classroom
Self-Efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute
behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments
(Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997).

 Strong Self-Efficacy

 Week Self-Efficacy
 Attribution in Classroom

 Internal, stable, uncontrollable

 Such students may seem resigned to failure, depressed, helpless-

unmotivated (Weiner, 2000,2001)

 The children with poor motivation my conceal difficulties poorer

(Marchland & Skinner, 2007)
 SUCCESS OR FAILURE
 Coaches often put failure down to external causes (opposition were
lucky), this helps maintain confidence, self-esteem and reassurance that
achievement is a realistic expectation in the future.

 Internal attributions more commonly used to reinforce success (ability),

this elevates confidence and higher achievement

 High achievers adopt attribution bias (internal- success, external-

failure)

 Low achievers adopt avoidance behavior (internal-failure, external-

 Teacher Actions

 Uncontrollable: Sympathy, Focus

 Controllable: Anger, Irritating

 Appreciating, Motivating: Controllable

 Non-Motivating: Uncontrollable
 LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
Cognitive Affective
Motivational
When people come to believeStudents
that who feels Students with miss Students who suf
the events and outcomes inhopeless
their to success opportunities to depression, anxi
lives are mostly uncontrollable, practice abilities and and listlessne
skills.
they have developed learned
helplessness.
(Seligman, 1975)
 SELF WORTH
Attitude toward Failure Goals Set Attributions View of Strategies
Ability
Mastery Low fear of failure Learning goals: Effort, use of Incremental; Adaptive
moderately difficult right improvable
Oriented strategy, sufficient
strategies
and challenging
knowledge is
cause
of success
Failure High fear of failure Performance goals; Lack of ability is Entity; set Self-
Avoiding very hard or very cause defeating
easy of failure
strategies
Failure Expectation of failure; Performance goals Lack of ability is Entity; set Learned
or no goals cause helplessness
Accepting depression of failure likely to
give up
 STRENGTHS
 Explains the difference in motivation between high and low doers.

 Highachievers will attempt, not evade, responsibilities related to

prospering.
 High achievers believe that failure is caused by bad luck
and is not their fault.
 WEAKNESSES

 Fundamental Error or correspondence bias- The tendency to

underestimate the influence of external factors and over estimate the
influence of internal factors.
-Blaming the people first, not the situation.

 Self-serving bias- is the tendency for the individuals to attribute their

own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures
on external factors.

-It is “our” success but “their” failure.

 Guidelines
 Emphasize that abilities are not set, but are always improvable.
 Teach directly about the difference between learning goals and performance goals.
 Make the classroom a place where failure is just diagnostic—failure tells what needs to
be improved.
 Encourage help seeking and help giving.
 Adopt Self-handicapping and self0defeating strategies if students have lack of abilities.
 Should Pay off on student hard work
 Encourage those students who do best without realizing.