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Attribution Theory — Learner’s Responses to Failure
Causal attributions determine affective reactions to success and failure. — Weiner (1980)
Like individuals in other contexts, students seek to understand the reasons for their failures. Weiner’s (1980) dimensions of attributions argued that the designation of responsibility is an important aspect of explanations, indicating a belief in whether or not the individual is in control of the cause of failure. Weiner (1994) further outlined the standard attribution sequence and its effect upon motivation and performance when an individual attributed failure to an uncontrollable lack of ability, as follows:
Failure → Lack of Ability → Uncontrollable → Not Responsible → Shame and Embarrassment → Decline in Performance
In contrast, he depicted the sequence and resulting effect for an attribution considered controllable as follows:
Failure → Lack of Effort → Controllable → Responsible → Guilt and Resolve → Improved Performance
Clearly, the above cognitive and motivational sequences can easily become self-fulfilling prophecies whereby the individual either loses or gains confidence in his/her ability to succeed by using the events of the sequences as proof, albeit based on circular reasoning, that the cause…
