The coach and the athlete: an attributional analysis

Within competitive sport the coach–performer relationship is of central importance to the performance enhancement process. Such relationships may develop over many years, with effective communication and mutual understanding core components. Despite the obvious importance of the coach–performer relationship, very little is known about coach–performer compatibility, especially from a cognitive perspective. Attribution theory has been shown to be useful in explaining behaviour, cognitions and affect, both in achievement and social settings. A key feature of this approach has been the emergence of what has been termed actor–observer differences; this has been little examined within sport psychology. Where attribution theory has been applied in sport, it has tended to focus exclusively on the performer. The aim of this research, therefore, is to explore coaches' and their performers' attributions, and specifically to examine the presence or otherwise of coach–performer attribution differences. [Continues.]