Read the scenario below and answer the question that follows.Matthew is a finalist in the spelling bee. He receives his final word: “punctilious.” He does not spell it correctly and he is eliminated from the spelling bee.If Matthew explains his failure using an stable external attribution, how might he express it?

An external attribution places the cause outside Matthew, while a stable attribution describes something unlikely to change. Saying the word was really tough points to the difficulty of the task, which is external to him and relatively stable. Being unlucky is external but usually temporary; not trying hard and not being a good speller focus on Matthew himself.

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