Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between success in sport and explanations of performance. The study examined explanations (attributions) of performance in hockey. One field experiment, a personality inventory study, and three lab experiments comprise the empirical work. A total of 592 subjects participated (102 in the field, 248 in the personality inventory and 242 in the lab experiments). Subject’s ages ranged from 17 to 46 with males and females of varying levels of hockey experience participating. First, it was demonstrated in the field that a self-serving, motivational approach to information-processing was employed, as negative self attributions were unrelated to success. Experienced club hockey players completed a Likert-type questionnaire pre-game, at half-time, and post-game. Attributions remained unchanged throughout, supporting a schema-based approach as well as a self-serving and team-serving bias approach. Next a sports personality inventory was developed which predicts attributional responses. Two types of personality were identified: self-doubting and self-trusting. A scenario was presented as the subjects imagined that they had played a hockey game. Sports personality predicted attributional responses. A subsidiary purpose was to examine the effects of outcome information on attributions. Groups given no outcome information used schema similar to those given winning information to make attributions. Finally, three experiments studied attributions following participation in perceptual tasks (interpreting videotaped segments of hockey matches, matching and recognizing players’ positions in slides, and recalling positions in slides). Results confirmed a motivational, self-serving approach. An information-processing model was developed, based on results, which included various social-psychological dimensions in sport.