Attribution theory by

Think of a time that you remember failing at something (a driving test, a school exam, a work task, even a social interaction). What did you attribute the causes to?

nicoledickinson — 2024-02-22 14:45:28 UTC

How do you think this affected your future attitudes towards/success at similar tasks?

nicoledickinson — 2024-02-22 14:46:48 UTC

Was there anyone else involved in the task (eg a teacher, a friend, an instructor)? How did their reaction affect your future attitudes and efforts?

nicoledickinson — 2024-02-22 14:47:45 UTC

Driving test failure

sarahhamilton11 — 2024-03-14 20:31:15 UTC

Failure was down to coming across something unexpected and unanticipated, not thinking clearly or calmly because I was nervous and reacting instead of thinking. I basically panicked.

Driving test failure

sarahhamilton11 — 2024-03-14 20:33:09 UTC

I've always considered myself quite poor at handling unforseen or unexpected situations where it requires some sort of immediate response.

Driving test failure

sarahhamilton11 — 2024-03-14 20:35:06 UTC

The examiner was grumpy which didn't make me feel good, but my instructor was very sympathetic and basically had the attitude of 'if you fall off the horse you've got to get back on it' I mostly have the same attitude myself wanting to go back and improve and be better at things I got wrong.

Uni essay

nicoledickinson — 2024-03-15 11:36:38 UTC

I remember going from getting good grades throughout school to getting much lower than I expected/was used to getting in my first essay for uni (which I was embarrassed about because I felt like I put a lot of effort into it). I worried that I wasn't cut out for uni and was doomed to underachieving from that point on.

Uni essay

nicoledickinson — 2024-03-15 11:39:09 UTC

My seminar tutor for that class was actually super helpful in reprogramming my response - he reassured us that it was very typical to get lower than expected in the first assessments, and that adjusting from school essays to academic ones is hard. I think this really helped prevent me from getting into a destructive cycle of self-doubt (although I did still struggle a bit later on when receiving disappointing feedback). Looking back on this, it was actually a very valuable experience that ultimately pushed me to do better, although it was a bit hit-or-miss at the time as to whether it would just lend itself to a self-defeatist attitude.

Uni essay

nicoledickinson — 2024-03-15 11:42:57 UTC

I remember going through a cycle of thinking it wasn't worth trying, but when the next assessment came around I decided that I needed to just put even more effort in

Driving test failure (2nd person)

2024-03-15 15:34:01 UTC

I failed my first driving test due to a major fault. I was frustrated at myself, but also relieved that the instructor had been there to step in. I hadn't really expected to pass first time around and didn't feel totally ready to drive on my own. However, I knew that the error was largely due to nerves as I had been driving well with my instructor.

Driving test failure (2nd person)

2024-03-15 15:39:40 UTC

I knew that I wasn't really a bad driver and I was determined to practise so that I wouldn't repeat my mistake, even under stressful conditions. Now that I knew what the test was like, I felt confident I could pass it the second time around (I did 🎉).

Driving test failure (2nd person)

2024-03-15 15:45:18 UTC

The examiner asked me at the end whether I thought I had passed and I said I wasn't sure (my driving fault wasn't obvious to me in the moment). She then informed me that I had failed and told me why. I thought this was an unnecessarily drawn-out way of doing things, but it made me more determined to pass the next time around. I suppose she was trying to get me to evaluate my own performance, but as a very nervous 17-year-old I didn't find it particularly helpful. My instructor and my parents were very supportive.

English exam

2024-03-18 09:24:25 UTC

At school, I received a low grade in my final English exam, and this impacted my overall grade. Generally, my classmates also did worse in the exam than expected, so we all took comfort in blaming our teacher for not preparing us correctly. :')

English exam

2024-03-18 09:27:08 UTC

It knocked my confidence going into exams and probably made me take more measures to prepare. I did genuinely think the teacher was in part to blame and I therefore tried to make sure that I always did my own independent research of the exam and learning. I didn't enjoy the surprise of the poor result and wanted to avoid feeling that again!

English exam

2024-03-18 09:28:54 UTC

Yeah, my classmates and I co-created this feeling of blame towards our English teacher...

Job interview

marcelroe1 — 2024-03-18 10:04:53 UTC

I had felt that I had nailed the interview in question so I felt that it was mainly down to unforeseen problems on their end rather than my own. Initially decided that it was external factors that had led to that failure rather than internal.

Job interview

marcelroe1 — 2024-03-18 10:06:00 UTC

By attributing it to external factors, it made me not question myself, and also think about trying to minimise the amount of external uncontrollables in the future.

Job

2024-03-18 15:11:45 UTC

I made a decision to quit my job after struggling with it for so long. I think at the time I tried not to blame myself, but I did think I wasn't built to do this, it's too much to carry for me. So probably equal measure my own shortcomings despite the effort, and the lack of support from the school.

Job

2024-03-18 15:12:43 UTC

Not really sure. I bounced from it, but definitely wouldn't consider doing that again.

Job interview

2024-03-20 17:47:22 UTC

I felt like I was acing an interview, but ended up not getting the job. When I asked for feedback, the organisers provided me with a copy of the notes made during the interview. I could see how I got a '100%' from a question I had actually no idea about and not a high percentage from a question I had quite a lot of experience because 'I did not provide enough evidence'. The only difference was that I had seen a video about the other question and basically could answer based on the video, and because I had so much experience of the other subject, I couldn't choose which ones to present and I ended up presenting the skill in a meta level. -> I felt like if had known better the criteria for assessment, I could have answered as they would have wanted me to answer. I partially blamed the system and partially my way of answering.

Job interview

2024-03-20 17:48:55 UTC

This made me aware of this possible system of evaluation and I changed the way I looked at interview questions in the future recruitment situations.

Job interview

2024-03-20 17:51:52 UTC

My partner supported me after the interview. I felt like after knowing the fact that there was a system I should follow, I was better equipped to face the next interviews.

Language exam

2024-03-21 10:25:56 UTC

I think it made me realise that I can't do everything at the same time (eg work and study full time). I realised I needed to scaffold my learning and be better at evaluating what I could achieve. If you aim too high, you have a much higher change of failing. It has not stopped me from trying again.

Language exam

2024-03-21 10:27:58 UTC

I failed a Japanese exam for 3 reasons:

the level was too high. I should have chosen the level below
I hadn't prepared enough.
I was working too many hours and realistically did not have enough time to prepare.

Language exam

2024-03-21 10:31:41 UTC

Should have listen to the teacher who told me that the level was too high. I waited for a few years to take the exam again and passed that time. Now I'm trying to really think on what I can realistically achieve. I have always struggled estimating what I can achieve within a limited amount of time. I am getting better at this and this is a much more satisfying experience.

Grade 1 Science Exam

k2150147 — 2024-03-21 11:05:15 UTC

In Primary 1 science exam, one of the questions was 'What colour is tomato?'. I answered, "Red, yellow and green".

The teacher marked it wrong.

I asked the teacher why and she said that the answer should be red. (The only type of tomatoes we had at that time was Roma and Hydroponic).

She asked me why I gave 3 answers when the question is only worth 1 point. I said it's because when the fruit changes colour from green to yellow to red as it mature.

She told me although I was correct she's not going to remark all the papers, particularly because a point fewer wasn't going to affect my grade. (There were 40 students in a class and she had more than one.)

I may have failed to notice there was a connection between number of points to the length of an answer. But it was also a matter of practicality on the teacher's part.

Grade 1 Science Exam

k2150147 — 2024-03-21 11:05:46 UTC

Never took grades too seriously after that.

Grade 1 Science Exam

k2150147 — 2024-03-21 11:06:33 UTC

Practicality sometimes gets in the way of facts. Do what you think is right and don't worry too much about what others say/do/think.