** Students will be better learners if they believe success depends on effort more than on luck or ability**

Attribution theory is concerned with our constant search for the causes. Our perceptions of causality are critical because they influence factors in our daily lives; they are an important stimulant for motivation. In our society, our successes and failures are caused by four different factors: native ability, effort, task difficulty and luck. All four of these factors exist in the continuums of causality, which are: locus, stability, and controllability.

Locus: internal/external; feelings are based on one's perception of the location of the cause. Examples: Internal – native ability, effort; External – task difficulty, luck.

Stability: future expectations that are based on whether or not the cause will stay the same or change; when students attribute success or failure to stable cause – expect the same in past/future, but when paired with unstable causes - expectations change. Examples: Stable – native ability, task difficulty; Unstable – effort, luck.

Controllability: individual's feeling of potency to affect the outcome by controlling the cause. Example: Controllable – effort; Uncontrollable – ability, task difficulty, and luck.

Whether or not a student is destined to succeed or fail can be associated with the three continuums of causality. The following are implications for students:

Locus: determines academic self-esteem; you can achieve something if you believe it.

Stability: leads the student to believe that the future maybe predetermined and or that it can be changed by effort.

Controllability: creates a feeling of being in control of your own fate and emotional health.

The following is how teachers can respond with the three continuums of causality:

Locus: essential for teachers to determine where students learning stops and where to start back up again at. With an effective diagnosis and proper teaching, those students may have success.

Stability: students need to believe that their ability to be successful is stable and they control the outcomes; this can be reinforced by phrases such as: you can do this if you try (and having them achieve this task)

Controllability: a teacher's response to the students' successes/failures can determine if the teacher feels that the student is in control of their own outcome.