Relationships between Team-Referent Attributions and Sport Outcomes: Moderating Effects of Team Contextual Factors

Abstract

People’s explanations for why team events occur (i.e., team-referent attributions) are instrumental in subsequent cognitive, affective, and behavioural responses. The nature of these relationships is likely dependent on the contexts in which they occur. The purpose of this PhD was to examine the extent to which contextual factors structure the relationships between attributions and sport outcomes. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an introduction and detail three team contextual factors that could structure the relationships between team-referent attributions and sport outcomes. The subsequent three chapters detail empirical investigations examining if these contextual factors moderate team-referent attribution-sport outcome relationships. In Chapter 3 the moderating roles of dispositional team- referent attributions on the relationships between situational team-referent attributions and collective efficacy were examined. Results indicated that adaptive dispositional attributions might buffer against the negative effects of maladaptive situational attributions. In Chapter 4, two studies were used to examine the moderating role of social identity on the relationships between team-referent attributions and sport outcomes. Results indicated that relationships between attributions and collective efficacy vary at different levels of social identity. In Chapter 5, the effect of team-referent attributions and attributional consensus on interpersonal outcomes and performance were examined. Two experiments in which participants were led to believe their teammate agreed or disagreed with their personal team-referent attribution revealed that high attributional consensus led to more positive interpersonal and performance outcomes. Chapter 6 provides a summary and theoretical explanation for the findings, as well as strengths, limitations, and future directions relevant to the research conducted. At a specific attribution level, the results of this thesis indicate that athletes’ teams might help structure the way they think about their attributions. At a broad level, the results of this thesis highlight the importance of considering contextual factors when exploring group level constructs within sport.