Casual Attributes in Sport: A Study of the Differences Between Perceptions of Success and Failure

Taking as reference Weiner’s (1979, 1986) attribution theory of motivation and emotion, we evaluate causal attributions in situations involving success and failure in sports. The sample includes 338 athletes between 16 and 38 years old (M = 23,73; DS = 5,86), who participate in federated Portuguese sports competitions, in the Olympic modalities of Soccer (n = 192), Athletics (n = 100) and Fencing (n = 46). In the study of causal attributions, the Causal Dimension Scale II (CDSII: McAuley, Duncan & Russell, 1992) was used in a translated version, adapted for a Portuguese population by Fonseca (1993b). The data showed that generally, athletes consider that their successes are due to internal causes, less unstable and subject to personal control, while they distinctly disassociate themselves from bad personal sports results by attributing the causes to less internal, more unstable factors, subject to control by others.