what is attribution theory?

1. THE ATTRIBUTION THEORY
Eda Nur ÖZCAN
1

2. WHAT IS ATTRIBUTION
THEORY?
• First proposed by Fritz Heider in 1958.
• The originator of the 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 behaviours
(Wiener, 1972).
2

3. THIS IS
NOT THE
SITUATION,
THOUGH.
3

4. Heider (1958)
claims that "People
are naive
psychologists." 4

5. • According to Weiner (1972), A three-
stage process underlies an attribution:
• Behavior must be observed/perceived.
• Behavior must be determined to be
intentional.
• Behaviour is attributed to internal or
external causes.
5

6. Weiner’s
attribution theory
mainly concerns
achievement. 6

7. •According to Schunk and
Zimmerman (2006), the most
important factors affecting
attributions are ability, effort,
task difficulty and luck.
7

8. • Weiner (1972) concludes that attributions
are categorized under three causal
dimensions:
• Locus of control (a continuum with extreme
ends; internal vs. extenal)
• Stability (do causes change over time or not?)
• Controllability (causes one can control such
as skills vs. causes one cannot control such as
luck, actions of other people.)
8

9. To make it clear
•Ability: Internal, relatively
stable and controllable.
•Luck: External, unstable
and uncontrollable.
9

10. Summary of the Theory
10

11. The Attribution Theory of
Learning and Advising
Students on Academic
Probation
Cynthia Demetriou, University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill
11

12. What is Academic
Probation?
• Academic probation often means that a
student's grades and/or GPA are not high
enough to continue in school if their grades
or GPA doesn't improve.
12

13. The aim of the Paper
• To help advisors, working with students on
academic probation, understand student
self-perceptions and academic motivation.
13

14. The content of the Paper
• To provide an overview of the attribution
theory of learning.
• To discuss potential applications of the
theory for those working with students on
academic probation.
14

15. Literature Review on
Attribution Theory
• Interpretation of events influences movativation for learning, besides
learning behaviours likely to be performed in future (Weiner, 1972).
• People create attributions both for themselves and others (Schunk &
Zimmerman, 2006).
• Four factors affecting attributions have been regarded as culturally
determined. For example, American people make more attributions
depending on ability and effort, while people from other culture may
emphasize luck more (Graham, 1991).
• Students’ causal relations for a prior performance about achievement
affects their goal expantancy (Weiner, 1979).
• Students are likely to feel they are safe when the factors are internal,
stable and controllable (Schunk & Zimmerman, 2006).
15

16. Literature Review on
Attribution Theory
• Emotions have a great role in shaping motivation for
future behaviors. Locus and controllability have been
found to create strong emotions (Weiner, 2000).
• Interpersonal Theory of Motivation
Intrapersonal Theory of Motivation
(Weiner, 2000).
16

17. Recent Research Applying
Attribution Theory to College
Student Performance
• The studies conducted on college students’ performance
was first appeared in 70s.
• Succesful students attributed their achievements to
internal factors, while the unsuccesful attributed to
external factors.
• In different learning contexts, students attributed their
success and failure to different factors.
• Researchers concluded that changing attributions can
cause change in learning behaviours of students.
17

18. Potential Applications of
Attribution Theory
• Students on academic probation tend to attribute their
failure to external causes such as lecturers, education
policies (Demetriou, 2011).
• At this point, advisors have a role in developing a sense
of responsibility in students.
• Research has shown that when a sense of responsibility is
established in students, they are more likely to take
control of their students.
18

19. Practises that Academic
Advisors Can Use
• Encouraging reflection on prior academic performance
• Advising sessions to guide students.
• Responding to students
• Teachers’ responses and feedbacks during the lesson.
• Sustaining motivation
• Helping students to find out strategies for academic success.
• Attributional retraining
• Modeling of advisors’ own personal experience
• Emphazing positive results of the experience
• Leading students thinking success
• Helping students employ self-control techniques
(Kallenback & Zafft, 2004)
19

20. An Attributional Theory of
Achievement Motivation
and Emotion
Bernard Weiner, University of California, Los Angeles
20

21. Why this constant pursuit
of why?
• Kelley (1971) states that "The attributor is
not simply an attributor, a seeker after
knowledge; his latent goal in attaining
knowledge is that of effective management
of himself and his environment"(p.22).
21

22. Aim of the Article
• Progresses from a description of causal
perceptions to causal structure, and then from
causal structure to an examination of the
dynamics of action.
• Causal stability affects changes in goal
anticipations, while three causal dimentions
decides the emotional experiences, such as anger,
guilt, pride shame etc (Weiner, 1985).
22

23. 23

24. The Structure of
Perceived Causality
• Is why does one want to determine causal structure? What
purpose or role does this play in the goal of theory of
construction?
Within any particular activity, a myriad of of dictinc causal
explanations are possible.
Achievement-related context: ability – effort
Social Acceptance or Rejection: personality – physical
attractiveness.
This leads to empirical study so that other associations may
be discovered.
24

25. Logical Analysis of Causal
Structure
• According to Heider (1958) "In common-sense psychology the
result of an action is felt to depend on two sets of conditions,
namely, factors within the person and factors within the
environment" (p.82)
• Thus, analysis of the causal structure began with locus
dimension.
• However, later it is realized that some internal causes
fluctuate while some do not. (ability vs. effort) – stability
dimension
• Internal and Stable/Unstable causes lead to another dimension.
(mood vs. laziness)- contrability dimension
25

26. 26

27. Issues Concerning
Causal Structure
• Might there be less than three dimensions?
- Dimensions have been found to be dependent.
• Might there be more than three dimensions?
- Intentionality and Globality may be the other
dimensions.
• Is the dimensional location of a cause constant?
- Not everytime.
27

28. Expectancy Change
• Goal expectancies is a concern that keeps reappering in the study of
motivation, however, it seeems that there are various notions
regarding it.
According to Heider (1958), Goal expectancies in achievement-related
contexts are determined by perceived ability, planned effort and difficulty
of the task.
Tolman (1925) states frequency, primacy and recency of reinforcement.
Rotter (1966) states the percentage of reinforcement of a particular response
in a particular setting.
Atkinson (1964) states expentancy is influenced by the number of
individuals against whom one is competing, prior reinforcement history etc.
28

29. Investigations of
Expectancy Change
• Three psychological literatures are directly related to
changes in goal expectancy.
• Level of aspiration: Aspiration increases after goal attainment
and descreases if a prior aspiration has not been fulfilled.
• Chance tasks: Gambler’s fallacy – After winning, a loss is
expected, and after losing, a win is anticipated.
• Social learning theory integration: Expectancy change is
influenced by locus of control of the outcome (with internal or
external beliefs about causality)
29

30. 30

31. 31

32. The cognition-emotion
process 32

33. The cognition-emotion
process
• The feelings arise from how an event is construed or
evaluated.
• Causal dimensions play a key role in emotion process.
For example: Internal causes (ability) can raise or lower
self-esteem while external causes do not affect feeling
about the self.
• Each dimension is uniquely related to a set of feelings.
33

34. Outcome-Generated
Emotions
• One determinant of affect is the outcome of an action:
Success at achievement-related activities was associated
with the affect of happy regardless of the cause of that
outcome while failure seemed to be linked to sadness and
frustration.
34

35. Dimension-Related
Emotions
• The emotion of pride and feelings of self-esteem are liked
with the locus dimension of causality.
• Anger, gratitude, guilt, pity and shame all are connected
with the contrallability dimension;
• The feelings of hopelessness/hopefulness are associated
with causal stability.
35

36. 36

37. Achievement Change
Programs
• There is an icreasingly popular treatment that induces
participants to alter their attributions for success and
failure. – Attempt to make shift from internal causes to
external causes.
37

38. References
Demetriou, C. (2011). The Attribution Theory of Learning and Advising Students
on Academic Probation. NACADA Journal, 31(2), 16-21.
Graham, S. (1991). A review of attribution theory in achievement contexts.
Educational Psychology Review, 3(1), 5-39.
Heider, F. (1958). The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley.
Kallenbach, S.,& Zafft, C. (2004). Attributional retraining: Rethinking academic
failure to promote success. National College Transition Network:
Research to Practice, 1, 1-3.
38

39. References
Schunk D.H., & Zimmerman, B.J. (2006) Competence and control beliefs:
Distinguishing the means and ends. In P.A. Alexamder & P. H. Winnie
(Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Weiner, B. (1972). Attribution theory, achievement motivation, and the educational
process. Review of educational research, 42(2), 203-215.
Weiner, B. (1979). A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(1), 3-25.
Weiner, B. (2000). Intrapersonal and Interpersonal theories of motivation from an
attributional perspective. Educational Psychology Review; 12(1), 1-14.
39

40. Teacher Trainers as
action researchers:
Scrutinizng the reasons
for student failure
Esim Gürsoy, Şule Çelik Korkmaz
40

41. The aim of the research
• To identify the student-teachers’ attributions for their
failure, their locus of control and their achievement goals
as a result of high failure rate in Teaching English to
Young Leaners course at a large state university in
Turkey.
41

42. Introduction
• Although the university admissions select students
depending on their academic ability, there is a great
number of students who fail, which means that failure
does not neccessarily come from academic ability.
42

43. Perceived Control
• Perceived control is a person’s subjective estimate of his
or her capacity to manipulate, influence, or predict some
aspect of the environment.
• It has been found that having higher perceptions of
control produces better outcomes than lower perceptions
of control.
• Perceived control is considered to be an individual
difference that has an impact on motivation and
performance.
• To be able to change the unsuccesful outcome, one must
be aware.
43

44. The rationale of the study
• The learners’ locus of control, their attributions, or goal
arientations play an important role for teachers and
researchers to understand the learning outcomes and
determine classroom strategies.
44

45. The Context
• Students have both theory and practice lessons.
• In theory lessons, they come ready for discussion.
• In practice lessons, they are to make a presentation
(micro-teaching sessions).
• The presenters are selected randomly in order to support
group dynamics.
• After presentations, students receive both peer and
teacher feedback.
45

46. The Exam
• The final exam of the course consists of 12 open-ended
questions from each topic discussed in the classroom.
• Students are asked to use their theoratical knowledge to
solve problematic situations, evaluate etc.
• The majority of the questions (10) were designed to
invoke students’ critical thinking and analytical abilities.
46

47. Method
• In the fall term of 2014-2015, 45% of the participants
failed from the course.
• Observations of the other faculty members also shows
that there had been a decrease in students performance
over the last four years.
• To find an answer to the problem above …
47

48. Research Questions
• What are the teacher trainees’ attributions for their
failure?
• Do teacher trainees have internal (ability + effort) or
external (task difficulty + luck) attributions for their
failture?
• Do teacher trainees have internal or external locus of
control?
• Do teacher trainees carry learning or performance
achievement goals?
48

49. Participants and
Instruments
• 110 third year teacher trainees.
• 89 of them failed from the TEYL course.
• 65 of them completed a locus of control questionnarie.
• For a deeper understading, 42 participants were taken to
the interview. (21 successful/21 unsuccesful students)
• Both Quan. And Qual. data were collected.
• An attribution questionnarie
• Locus of control scale
• Semi-structured interviews
49

50. •Data were examined by taking
Attribution theory, locus of
control theory, and
achievement goals theory into
consideration.
50

51. Results
Attributions for failure 51

52. Results
Student related factors (Internal
Factors)
• S: “Throughout my education, learning was based on
memorization. When I was asked to apply what I learned
into practice, particularly in this course, I started
experiencing difficulty…”.
52

53. Practice vs. Theory
• 2s: “Our theoretical knowledge is assessed via the final
exam which is given at the end of the term. In addition, a
performance-based assessment is conducted every week.
Sometimes we ignore the fact that we will have a final
exam. Thus, we mostly focus on short-term assessment”.
• Is: “Practice is fun but theory is boring. Especially
when you attend the theoretical course without getting
prepared for the target unit, it becomes more boring…”
53

54. Students were asked to give their
suggestions to develop CTS.
• Getting more detailed feedback from the instructors about their
performances (11)
• considering previous knowledge and current information to
build relations (8)
• making cause-effect relations (6)
• doing reflections (4)
• putting theoretical knowledge into practice (3)
• getting prepared for the lesson from different sources (4)
• being exposed to creative samples to analyze (3)
• and working in groups (2).
54

55. Results regarding study
skills
• More than half of the participants (60.2 %) agreed that they
studied more to the practical part of the course than the
theoretical part and some of them (37.5 %) agreed and
some of them somewhat agreed (35.2 %) that each week
they attended the theory lessons without being prepared.
Half of the participants (51.1 %) agreed that they did not
study for the exam regularly and they stated that they
studied just before the final exam (53.4 %). Moreover,
nearly half of them (25 % agreed and 20.5 % somewhat
agreed) stated that they failed because they thought that
they could pass the course by memorizing the content.
55

56. • The findings have suggested that
the participants of the study have
inadequate study skills. To find
out the reasons why students are
experiencing this, an interview
was conducted.
56

57. 57

58. Results
Exam related factors
(External Factors)
• Ss stated that they could not understand instructions.
• Instructions were not clear
• The exam did not have construct validity.
• The exam was built on memorization.
• It was built upon questions requiring the transfer of
theoretical knowledge into practice.
• Too many questions but limited time.
58

59. Results
Course related factors
(External Factors)
• Most of the students stated that they loved the course, it
attracted their interest.
• Almost the half stated that the course content was
difficult, though.
• Some stated to have some prejudices.
59

60. Results
Course related factors (External
Factors)
• The open ended part supported the findings that some of
them stated that the course content was detailed and
heavy (12). They also noted that the course was difficult
(9), tiring (7), and time-consuming (2) because it
required too many practices (4) and group work studies
with group evaluation (6) besides the classes were
crowded (5).
60

61. Results
Teacher related factors
(External Factors)
• The participants informed that they were pleased with
their teachers (18) by stating that the teachers were good
(2), excellent (3), successful in their field (2), positive
and cheerful (1), and were teaching very well (10),
whereas some of them stated that they asked too many
questions (1), produced complex sentences (1), and
taught the lesson fast (1).
61

62. Locus of control of the
teacher trainees 62

63. Locus of control of the
teacher trainees
• The findings of the ALOC scale indicated that TTs have
internal locus of control (M= 4.16) more than external
locus of control (M= 2.18). Regarding internal locus of
control, they mostly thought that they must study well to
be able get high marks from the exam (M= 4.60). On the
other hand, related to external locus of control some of
them thought that if they get on well with their teachers
they can be successful in their courses (M= 2.59).
63

64. Locus of control of the
teacher trainees 64

65. Locus of control of the
teacher trainees 65

66. Locus of control of the
teacher trainees 66

67. Conclusions
• The detailed analysis of the open-ended questions and the
interviews revealed that although they were aware and
had the control of the reasons for their failure they
didn’t act upon them, which indicates a low desire to
control. It can be interpreted that low motivation to
become a teacher might have an effect on their actions.
Moreover, limited or lack of CTS as well as their
former educational experiences and incorrect
strategies have an impact on their academic achievement.
67

68. Implications
• As in many western countries teaching should be the priority
of students who select these departments.
• Before enrollment an interview by the department faculty can
be organized to identify the commitment, motivation,
willingness and the desire to be a teacher in order to prevent
future dissatisfaction of the TTs, trainers, institutions and the
government.
• In terms of the development of CTS, strategies to enhance such
skills will be embedded within the course syllabus.
• Effective study strategies can explicitly be given and
demonstrated
68

69. Reference
Gürsoy, E., & Çelik Korkmaz, Ş. (2015). Teacher trainers as action
researchers: Scrutinizing the reasons for student failure.
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 11(2), 83-98.
69

70. Achievement Goals and
Academic Locus of
Control: Structural
Equation Modeling
Ahmet Akın
70