Effects of attributional style and perceived physical competence on sport behavior : An examination of causal attribution model about sport behavior of university students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of causal attribution model about Sport behavior of university students. This model assumes the caudal process as follows: (1)attributional style influences degree of perceived physical competence each student has ; (2) the degree of perceived physical competence influences magnitude of sport behavior he/she takes. First, two questionaires designed to measure attributional style in sport situations and physical competence were developed and administered to 129 university students. By factor analysis, 7 and 2 factors were interpreted in each questionaire, and the 7 and 2 scales of these factors were set. These scales were named as follows : "positive, negative-task", "positive, negative-mood", "positive-ability", "positive, negative-1uck", "negative-ability", "positive-effort", "negative-effort", "perceived physical ability"; and "perceived control". The reliability of these scales were tested by the coefficientαand the coefficient of test-retest reliability, and credible results were obtained. Then, according to the model, a path analysis was applied to the data obtained in two questionaires and the two indexes of sport behavior. The validity of the model was mainly confirmed. It was found that the scale of positive-ability, negative-ability, and perceived physical ability play the central role in mediating sport behavior. It was also found that different causal paths were showed in two indexes of sport behavior. They were discussed in terms of the differences of achievement goal in each sport behavior.