A Study of the Attributional Style and Performance of Elite NCAA Divers

Abstract

In the sport of springboard and platform diving, subjective scoring is used. Based on a ten point scale, judges give immediate scores which reflect the diver's performance. Each diver performs a proscribed number of dives and the total of all dives is tallied to decide final placement. While final placement in a competition is determined by physical skill, a diver's mental state often determines how successful the athlete will in the competition. While there is a plethora of literature that has examined attributions of physical education classes and other sports, there is a dearth of studies addressing the attributional style of elite NCAA male and female divers. Diving requires extreme athleticism, fearlessness and a heightened kinesthetic awareness in becoming both skill-proficient and competitive. This in turn requires intrinsic motivation to meet those challenges as well as being able to make causal attributions from one competition to the next. The purpose of this study is to determine the attributional style of elite NCAA male and female divers as well as to determine if there is a difference in attributional style between male and female divers. Further, this study will determine if the attributive style is related to performance and whether there is a difference between elite NCAA male and female divers. The study will take place at the 2005 NCAA Men's and Women's Diving Championships. At each event and at the completion of his/her final diving event, each athlete will be asked to complete a self-report questionnaire - the Attributional Style Questionnaire. An objective rating of each diver's performance will be paired with his or her attibutional style, as measured by the questionnaire. These data will be analyzed statistically to determine if gender has an effect on the attributional style of elite NCAA male and female divers.