Abstract

The subjects of this study included 12 female and 33 male skiers (mean age of 15.3 years) who attended sport-study high-schools in France. Eighteen skiers obtained above average competition results (I), 15 skiers obtained average results (II), and 12 skiers obtained below average results (III). Achievement motivation and causal attribution were assessed and three research questions were formulated. Analyses were performed in order to identify how athletes who obtained high, average, or poor competition results differed with respect to achievement motivation and causal attribution. Results indicated that athletes expressed similar degrees of motivation despite their competition performances. However, a larger portion of athletes attributed succes internally and failure externally than did athletes whose performances were poor. Low achieving athletes were less consistent in their causal attributions for both succcess and failure. Verf.-Referat