After relating goal complexes to Ted Lasso's and Roy Kent's motivation and behavior, in this blog post, I will try to provide examples of how the attributions Ted and company have about certain outcomes or phenomena impact their perceptions and behaviors. As we learned in our readings and in class, our attributions, or what are understood as our interpretations of what caused certain events to occur in the fashion that they do, can have a significant impact on our sense of motivation and experience of certain emotions. Generally, attribution theory explains that individuals attribute the cause of all events through three dimensions: locus of control (internal vs. external), controllability (uncontrollable vs. controllable), and stability (stable vs. variant). When individuals attribute success (e.g., attributing to one's ability rather than luck) or failure (e.g., attributing to someone else's mistake rather than their own) as something that inherently involves them, can be controlled by them, and will be fairly predictable, it can understandably lead to different outcomes related to their perceived motivations and emotions.
In relation to the Ted Lasso series, the dynamics of attribution theory and the resulting impact on the characters' motivations and emotions can practically be seen across all of the characters to some extent. Ted not only displays how his own attributions influence his behavior and perceptions, but as the head coach of his Premiere League Team, he does his best to facilitate helpful attributions for his team. In analyzing Ted's own attributions and subsequent behavior, a theme started to develop in my head. I noticed that Ted really does not react too well with negative or failing situations in which his locus of control is external and there is generally a lack of control. For example, when Ted's wife, Michelle, finally decides that it would be best to divorce Ted and tries to get Ted to sign the divorce papers against his will, Ted's sense of locus of control was quite external and his own controllability of the situation was low. After begrudgingly agreeing to the divorce, all Ted could do was avoid the inevitable by not signing the divorce papers. Eventually, when the stability and inevitability of the situation caught up with Ted, he started to experience debilitating anxiety and he seemed to withdraw. On the other hand, I found it interesting that when situations/outcomes were less stable, such as live gameplay or dynamics between teammates, it appeared that Ted would try to reclaim some kind of control, and this would help both his and his team's motivation and emotions. In fact, Ted's change in character from Ted Lasso to his antithetical alter-ego, Led Tasso, could be interpreted as an attempt to completely disrupt the stability of the poor team dynamics that were occurring between teammates at the time (with the purpose of showing the team could band together, even if it was banding together against Led Tasso).
As mentioned, not only did attributions influence Ted's motivations and emotions, but Ted also attempts to facilitate his team to use healthy or helpful attributions to positively affect their motivations and emotions. Specifically, during times in which the team struggled with doubt or low confidence (perceiving low ability as internal, uncontrollable, and stable), Ted would attempt to instill a positive or growth mindset that put the controllability and stability of the bad situation/poor dynamics in doubt. Just considering Ted's quintessential notion of achievement, which is that it is not important to win, but to personally become better, it can be seen that Ted is trying to take an uncontrollable and stable bad situation (poor play, lack of communication, lack of confidence) and facilitate a growth mindset that makes these bad situations/outcomes more manageable and controllable. This is exemplified when Ted takes his best player out of the game in favor of allowing his team to play more cohesively (although, with less talent on the field). In line with attribution theory, this strategy worked, as the players were given more agency and control over their achievement. Thus, winning was no longer the focus and players could focus on things they could control. In turn, this resulted in less stress, strong persistence, and they even won the game.
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