Learning Experiences - Module 4

1.  4.41 Learning Experience: Causal Attribution Theory

You will probably want to print this page so that you have the assignment in front of you as you work the learning experiences and interact in the conference rooms.

4.41 Learning Experience: Causal Attribution Theory 

This assignment will need the entire two weeks to complete.  Get an early start!  It is due by Wednesday, February 28, 2007.

This learning experience differs from the others you have done in several significant ways.  First, the instructions for this learning experience are not in the Roberts et al manual.  The instructions are all right here. Secondly, there are a number of ways that you can "individualize" your study.  You may use children or adults, and you may pick the physical activity that your subjects are engaged in. Thirdly, this learning experience is done with a partner - similar to LE #5.  The partners are listed on Blackboard.

The purpose of this study is to examine the causal attributions made by your subjects for their most successful and least successful performances.  You will be able to write a more specific purpose when you select your subjects and the performances that they are to reflect upon.

The model for your learning experience is a study conducted by Hamilton and Jordan (2000).  The article is available through the TeleCampus Digital Library.  It is: Hamilton, P. R., & Jordan, J. S. (2000).  Most successful and least successful performances: Perceptions of causal attributions in high school track athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 23, 245-254.  

The first thing you should do is obtain a copy of the article.  You may also get a copy of the article by clicking here for the article and here for Table One and here for Table Two.

I'd suggest you get and read the article now.  Then, return for the rest of the instructions.

Welcome Back!  I'm sure you have followed my good advice :-) and have the article and the two tables.  Hopefully, you've read the article, too.  You will pattern your study on the Hamilton & Jordan (2000) study. The one change that I want you to make in your study is that you will use only one grade or age level (for example, adults or children ages 8-10). Age or grade level will not be an independent variable. That way you will have only one independent variable to contend with and will be able to analyze the data using t-tests rather than ANOVAs - a good thing!

Other than that change and the changes resulting from that change (fewer hypotheses, results related only to comparing attributions made to successful performance and unsuccessful performances), the rest of the study should be carried out like the Hamilton & Jordan (2000) study. 

You are to test at least 10 subjects.  If you use individuals under the age of 18, you must secure a parent or guardian's permission.  I have provided you with a Human Subjects Informed Consent Form that you should use.

You will need the questionnaires for the CDSII (adult version) or the CDSII-Child (child version), depending on the age and reading ability of your subjects.  These are the self-report inventories discussed in the Blackboard course (remember Paul and Julie?).  The scoring key for each form is on the course website, too, and you should have had some experience in scoring and interpreting them from going through the module in Blackboard.

Copies of the Causal Dimension Scales are available at: 

Adult Version -  http://courses.utpb.edu/kine6320/ancillary/CDSIIadult.pdf   

Child Version -  http://courses.utpb.edu/kine6320/ancillary/CDSIIchild.pdf   

Don't tell anyone, but this is only the fourth time I've tried this learning experience exactly this way; sooooo, I expect that you will have questions (particularly clarification questions like "do you mean...?").  Please post all of your questions in Discussion Board under Attribution LE Help!  That way others in the class can benefit from your good questions and the super answers someone gives ;-)  If you have a question that you're sure no one needs to know about, go ahead and e-mail me.  We won't tell. 

By Wednesday, February 28, 2007:
Post a complete write-up of your study.  Not sure about the format for a research study write-up?  Well then, refer back to Learning Experience 5: The Final Product and your APA Manual.  In the results section, please include a table with means and standard deviations (the descriptive statistics in this study), as well as the results from your dependent (or paired comparisons) t-tests (the appropriate inferential statistic in this case).  In the discussion section, compare your results to those of Hamilton & Jordan (2000) and the other course resources (textbook, material on the course website).

IMPORTANT NOTE about the t-tests in this study: The t-test formula in your Roberts et al. text assumes that you have two independent groups.  For example, it assumes that the ten people in Group One are different from the ten people in Group Two. In this study, however, the groups are not independent.  The 10 subjects that are in the "successful" group are the same people who are in the "unsuccessful" group.  Right?  Therefore, the formula changes a bit.  If you are using SPSS make sure that you run the paired comparisons t-test.  If you are calculating the t values by hand, do the following:

1. For each subject, subtract the "successful" score (X₁) from the "unsuccessful" score (X₂) for one dependent variable (i.e., stability).  Call that variable Y (the difference in the (stability) score from successful performance to unsuccessful performance).  

2. Compute the mean and standard deviation (S) for the Y scores just as you would for any set of scores.  

3. Plug the mean and variance (S²) computed into the formula for a dependent t-test:
   
   t = _______mean of_Y___________
        square root of (S² divided by N)     
   
   where N is the number of people (not the number of scores), and df = N-1, where N is the number of people.
   

As time allows...
Read and comment on the other studies.  Answer these questions:  Were the results similar, different, or both similar and different from your results?  How?  To what might you attribute these differences (type of physical activity?  age of participants?  gender of participations?  others?)?

Please NOTE:  For this Learning Experience, partners will be asked to evaluate the contributions each made to the final project.  This peer evaluation and the quality of the project will serve as the basis for your Learning Experience grade.