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70 CHAPTER 3Let’s return to the example at the beginning of this section. Sup-
pose the instructor was not biased in his or her grading of the first
student’s paper, but that the C grade was really because of the stu-
dent’s poor effort and planning. By attributing failure to teacher bias,
an external and uncontrollable cause, the student is likely to be angry
and unlikely to improve his behavior on future written assignments.
In contrast, the student who attributed the cause of his grade to lack
of effort, an internal and controllable cause, is more likely to be moti-
vated to improve his performance in future assignments.
Now that you know that attributions can have a powerful impact
on your success and failure, I will discuss how you can use this infor-
mation. One implication of this theory is to understand the role of
attributions in your own learning. Remember that the fact that you
attribute a cause to some factor does not mean that your attribution
reflects reality. Think about a friend who has the tendency to attrib-
ute a low test grade on “tricky” questions or an unfair instructor
when the grade was really because of poor preparation.
It is important to consider how you interpret your own behavior.
Educational research indicates that self-directed learners tend to
attribute failure to corrective causes and attribute successes to their
own personal abilities (Zimmerman, 1998b). Ask yourself the fol-
lowing questions:- “What role do attributions play in my understanding of my
achievement and motivation?” - “When I perform poorly, do I attribute my performance to
uncontrollable factors? Are there alternative explanations for
the causes of my academic performances?” - “Could I benefit from attributing a poor performance to lack
of effort or failure to use appropriate learning strategies rather
than to lack of ability?”
Many students have difficulty in courses because they lack prior
knowledge, use inappropriate learning strategies, or fail to monitor
their comprehension—all factors that are controllable or changeable.
When students recognize that their behavior is modifiable, instead of
thinking they lack ability and feeling poorly about themselves, they
will more likely feel motivated to achieve.
As the semester progresses, it is not uncommon for students to feel
“up and down” at different times. Attribution theory can help stu-
dents to better understand their own feelings. Attributions are related
to different emotional responses. For example, whether individuals
attribute failure to ability or effort influences how they will feel about
themselves. Attributing failure to lack of ability elicits feelings of
shame and humiliation; attributing failure to lack of effort leads to