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Using attribution and attitudinal theories, evaluate critically the reasons why this young person does not participate in sport.

Decent Essays
The following is a typical statement made by a young person who has given up sport and leads an unhealthy lifestyle:
‘I think sport is boring. I am no good at it, I don’t enjoy it and I can think of better things to do on a Saturday afternoon’
Using attributional theories, evaluate critically the reasons why this young person does not participate in sport. How might you persuade this young person to once again take up sport?
It is evident from this statement that the young person concerned has developed a poor attitude towards a balanced, active, and healthy lifestyle. They may have developed this through poor previous experiences, such as failure, which have been reinforced by others. For example missing a penalty and being
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This can have a negative effect on self-confidence.
To change this, attribution retraining can be used. This is where the performer is encouraged to blame failure on internal/unstable factors as they can be controlled. For example, if they blame losing a tennis game on effort (unstable) then they can be encouraged to increase effort and achieve success. Currently, this person shows Need to Avoid Failure characteristics such as low self confidence and avoidance behaviour. This can be changed to a Need to Achieve personality using attribution retraining. This can help the performer develop mastery orientation which is self-belief and the desire to achieve. Therefore it is important to use positive reinforcement throughout so as not to lower the young person’s confidence and reduce their motivation.
The young person states that they ‘don’t enjoy’ sport in the statement. This can be linked to the affective component of the triadic model which is what the individual feels (emotion) about the activity. There are a number of reasons why someone may not enjoy sport and they are usually due to negative past experiences, for example, being on the receiving end of hostile aggression in football. A good way to combat this negativity would be to give the individual success and raise self-confidence. For example, if they have lost many games of tennis, give them a superior doubles partner or allow them to
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