Novice triathletes' perceptions of performance outcomes

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a) individuals enrolled in a triathlon class would have significantly higher internal attribution scores regardless of perceived satisfaction with performance outcomes following their first triathlon race than would control participants and b) a self-serving bias tendency would emerge for those individuals who did not take part in the triathlon class and who expressed dissatisfaction with performance outcomes. The participants were 31 individuals who participated in the Nelson Bay Triathlon as first time triathletes.Following the event, all participants were asked to complete a survey containingWeiner’s (1972) Causal Attribution Scale. Based on participants’ responses,intemality scores were calculated by summing the ability and effort ratings. The Results revealed no significant differences in internality scores between the class(N=13) and non-class (N=21) conditions. Furthermore, a self-serving bias tendency was not found for the non-class condition following unsatisfactory performance outcomes. Implications of the results for sport practitioners and sport psychology researchers are discussed.