Effects of Achieving Tendency,Gender, and Outcome on Causal Attributions following Motor Performance

A test of Weiner's propositions of the effects of achieving tendency on causal attributions was conducted using a stabilometer performance as the criterion task. The Achieving Tendency Scale and the Internal-External Control Scale were administered to 930 college students. From these, 120 subjects who had extreme scores on the ATS and moderate scores on the I-E Scale were selected for the experiment. Subjects performed one 30-second trial on either a spring-assisted or a non-spring-assisted stabilometer. The importance of the causal factors of ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as influences on performance were then rated. A 2 × 2 × 2 MANOVA was performed across the ratings of the four factors, with achieving tendency, gender, and outcome considered as independent variables. The only significant effect was a main effect for outcome (p < .001). Subsequent univariate analyses indicated that only effort attributions differed as a function of outcome (p < .001). Those who succeeded perceived effort to be more important than those who failed. Also, a significant univariate effect (p < .02) was found for gender on the luck factor; females perceived luck to be more important than did males. These results are discussed in terms of methodological and theoretical considerations.