COLLEGE COUNSELLOR

A New Year

With a new year comes new resolutions… eat better, exercise more, spend more time with the family… Whatever it was this year, by now you may have already given up. How do we really achieve goals? What is the best way to accomplish what you want in life?

In my newsletter articles this term I hope to cover some of the techniques that have been found to be most effective. Not all things will work for all people. Pick and choose the ones that you think will work for you and give them a try.

Attribution Theory

When looking into the frequency with which different groups have car accidents a very strong trend emerged. A significant difference was found between drivers who showed internal versus external attributions of blame. Let me explain.

External Attribution

When something goes wrong we all create a story in our heads as to why it happened. If we blame things that are external; “The road was wet” , “The other driver stopped too suddenly”,  “The kangaroo came out of nowhere”, that is called an external attribution. Many young drivers and in particular young men showed this type of attribution and these were the drivers who had the most accidents. The reason for this is simple; if you attribute blame to something outside of yourself then you are less likely to change your behaviour and therefore more likely to put yourself in the same situation again.

Internal Attribution

Internal attribution falls into two categories; Internal fixed and Internal changeable. If you have an internal attribution but it is fixed that doesn’t help you to change your behaviour. For example “I’m just not a good driver”,  “I am such an idiot”, “I’m no good at this” are not at all helpful, they’re just insulting and leave no room for improvement.

An internal changeable attribution is where you attribute blame to something you can control which then gives you something to change. “I was going too fast”,  “I was travelling too close to the other car”,  “I needed to be more aware of the surrounding environment”. These are attributions that can help you to change your behaviour and make you less likely to make the same mistakes over and over.

How does it help?

Attribution theory can help us when attempting to achieve our goals. Last time you failed to achieve your goals; why did you fail?

If your answer to that question was something outside of yourself like; life got too busy or other things got in the way or my job was too demanding etc., then that is an external attribution; not helpful.

If your answer was internal but fixed; I’m just not disciplined enough or I’m bad at achieving goals or goals just aren’t for me, or I’m not organised etc., then that will just make you feel bad but not help you change what you’re doing.

Perhaps what you need to do is come up with some internal and specific attributions that you can change.

For example:

• I didn’t articulate my goal clearly enough or write it down.
• I didn’t prioritise my goal as much as I would have liked to.
• I needed to clearly plan when I was going to fit it in.

These are more beneficial  statements with internal specific attributions that will help you to change your behaviour and get you much closer to achieving your goals.

Michael Lance | College Counsellor