Attribution Theory and Achievement

                                  ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND ACHIEVEMENT


          Another related theory to help us understand behavior and motivation, like John's procrastination, is attribution theory. In the 18th century, Hume (1739) argued that assuming there are causes for everything that happens is an inherent part of observing the world, because it makes the world more meaningful. Humans want to know. For instance, if someone bumps into you, you wonder why. You may assume he/she is aggressive, clumsy, flirting, that you are in the way, etc. Obviously, what you assume is the cause of the bumping makes a big difference. Likewise, John might ask himself, "Why do I put off studying?" And answer, "because I am dumb" or "because it is boring." He attributes his procrastination to his slowness or to the dullness of the reading. These kinds of assumptions about causes (we seldom know for sure the real causes) will certainly influence how we behave and how we feel.
 
          Heider (1958) was one of the first modern psychologists to write about how the ordinary person thinks about causality--what causes what, or what is attributed to what. Since 1960, hundreds of studies have contributed to understanding why some are highly motivated to achieve and others are not. According to attribution theory (Weiner, 1980), a high achiever will:

          1. Approach rather than avoid tasks related to succeeding because he/she believes success is due to high ability and effort which he/she is confident of. Failure is thought to be caused by bad luck or a poor exam, i.e. not his/her fault. Thus, failure doesn't hurt his/her self-esteem but success builds pride and confidence.

          2. Persist when the work gets hard rather than giving up because failure is assumed to be caused by a lack of effort which he/she can change by trying harder.

          3. Select challenges of moderate difficulty (50% success rate) because the feedback from those tasks tells you more about how well you are doing, rather than very difficult or very easy tasks which tell you little about your ability or effectiveness.

         4. Work with a lot of energy because the results are believed to be determined by how hard you try.

The unmotivated person will:

          1. Avoid success-related chores because he/she tends to (a) doubt his/her ability and/or (b) assume success is related to luck or to "who you know" or to other factors out of his/her control. Thus, even when successful, it isn't as rewarding to the unmotivated person because he/she doesn't feel responsible, it doesn't increase his/her pride and confidence.
         
          2. Quit when having difficulty because he/she believes failure is caused by a lack of ability which he/she can't do anything about.
         
          3. Choose easy or very hard tasks to work on because the results will tell him/her very little about how poorly (presumably) he/she is doing.

          4. Work with little drive or enthusiasm because the outcome isn't thought to be related to effort.
          Obviously, our beliefs about what causes and influences our behavior have a marked impact on our expectations and, thus, our motivation. In chapter 6, we will read about "learned helplessness" which, of course, is associated with little motivation. In chapter 14, we will also learn much more about many cognitive factors that affect our behavior and emotions. Therefore, one way to change our motivation is to change our beliefs--our attributions. For example, we could teach (and prove to) unmotivated, underachieving, and depressed people that they can control life-events by exerting more effort. There have been demonstrations that intentionally "trying harder," say on every other day, actually results in more behavioral changes, but it is hard for some people to exert extra effort. The next section is a case in point.