Attribution-emotion relationships in sporting contests

Abstract

Attribution theory has been a popular area for research in
sports psychology since the middle of the 1970s. However^
much of this research has focused on the antecedents of
attributions with relatively little research on the
consequences of making attributions. It has been proposed
in educational psychology that there are emotional
consequences of making attributions for achievement. The
present research investigated attribution-emotion
relationships in the context of sporting achievements
using one versus one sporting contests. Four studies were
conducted« two in laboratory settings and two in field
settings. Using self-report measures of attributions and
emotions results suggested that attributions and emotions
in sporting contests are related. Winners tended to make
internal attributions while losers tended to make internal
and external attributions for outcome. But attributions
that correlated with emotions were primarily internal for
both winners and losers. A similar pattern emerged when a
comparison was made between players satisfied with their
performance and those players dissatisfied with their
performance. The importance subjects attached to winning
the contests was found to be a significant moderating
variable in relationships between attributions and
emotions. Some emotions were only correlated with
attributions when it was important to win. These emotions were primarily esteem-related. Similarly, there was some
evidence for losers using defences against certain
emotions when they made particular attributions and when
it was important to win. Outcome importance was also
correlated mainly with negative rather than positive
emotions. Finally, in predicting emotion it was found that
the strongest predictor was performance satisfaction.
Attributions for performance were relatively weak
predictors of emotion and attributions for outcome weaker
still. It was concluded that attributions can be related
to emotions, that the importance of the event can moderate
these relationships, and that attributions for outcome and
performance both need assessment in sport attribution
studies as they are likely to differ in their relationship
with emotion. Implications for further research are
discussed.