Information about Attribution Theory
Attribution theory is a social psychology theory developed by Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward E. Jones, and Lee Ross.
The theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behavior of others, or themselves (self-attribution), with something else. It explores how individuals "attribute" causes to events and how this cognitive perception affects their motivation.
An example of this, in politics, could be the collapse of the Soviet Union. U.S. leaders attributed it to something dispositional about themselves (we were strong and steadfast, democracy persevered). Also, failing Third World economies are often attributed to corrupt leaders and other dispositional attributions rather than a situation attribution, such as the international system.
There seem to be features that people look for when making attributions, such as universality ("does everyone do this, or just the person I'm watching?") and uniqueness ("do they do it this way every time, or was this just an aberration?").
There is evidence from people like Srull and Wyer and John Bargh that when people see an act, they automatically make personality attributions, and start mentally cataloging that person by that label. Dan Gilbert has a theory of attribution which says that, when you see people do something, you make an automatic fast attribution to their personality, and that, if circumstances warrant, you can then slowly "discount" the attribution to a feature of the environment ("whoa, he's not a coward, even I would run away if a bear started gnawing on my arm like that").
Attributions for events can change a person's behavior, and many theories such as cognitive dissonance rely on it. So, for example, in a classic dissonance paradigm, if a person believes that they did something counterattitudinal (say, a student writing an essay in favour of raising tuition prices), because they chose to do it (i.e. they make an internal attribution), then they tend to change their mind and believe that they really do support higher tuition. If, however, they write that same counterattitudinal essay but they believe they were forced to write it (i.e. they make an external attribution for their behaviour), then they are unlikely to change their attitude. Similarly, if someone is paid for a job, they attribute the fact they are doing the job to the fact they are making money for it, rather than to intrinsic factors, such as enjoyment, and subsequently they will actually think that they enjoy the task less, and will be less likely to spontaneously choose to do it again in the future. Studies have shown that adding an external reward to a task previously rewarded only internally makes people less intrinsically motivated to perform that task.
However, in some circumstances, extrinsic factors can cause positive changes in behaviour. If an individual believes that they have earned the reward or punishment for intrinsic reasons, then that might effect a positive change in behaviour. It is when the reason for the reward is attributed to external factors that the behaviour change might not be in the desired direction.
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The theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behavior of others, or themselves (self-attribution), with something else. It explores how individuals "attribute" causes to events and how this cognitive perception affects their motivation.
Internal vs. External
The theory divides the way people attribute causes to events into two types.- "External" or "situational" attribution assigns causality to an outside factor, such as the weather,
- whereas "internal" or "dispositional" attribution assigns causality to factors within the person, such as their own level of intelligence or other variables that make the individual responsible for the event.
Self-serving bias or Fundamental Attribution Error
People often make self serving attributions. So, if something good happens to themselves or someone they like, they tend to see it as a result of their own, stable dispositions (i.e. "I managed the test because I'm so intelligent") and when bad things happen to themselves or people they like, they are more likely to make external unstable attributions ("I did badly on the test because it was so hard, and I had a headache"). Similarly, they will attribute good things happening to a person that they do not like to a situational factor (they got lucky) and something bad happening to a dispositional factor (they are stupid). This is also known as fundamental attribution error.An example of this, in politics, could be the collapse of the Soviet Union. U.S. leaders attributed it to something dispositional about themselves (we were strong and steadfast, democracy persevered). Also, failing Third World economies are often attributed to corrupt leaders and other dispositional attributions rather than a situation attribution, such as the international system.
There seem to be features that people look for when making attributions, such as universality ("does everyone do this, or just the person I'm watching?") and uniqueness ("do they do it this way every time, or was this just an aberration?").
There is evidence from people like Srull and Wyer and John Bargh that when people see an act, they automatically make personality attributions, and start mentally cataloging that person by that label. Dan Gilbert has a theory of attribution which says that, when you see people do something, you make an automatic fast attribution to their personality, and that, if circumstances warrant, you can then slowly "discount" the attribution to a feature of the environment ("whoa, he's not a coward, even I would run away if a bear started gnawing on my arm like that").
Attributions for events can change a person's behavior, and many theories such as cognitive dissonance rely on it. So, for example, in a classic dissonance paradigm, if a person believes that they did something counterattitudinal (say, a student writing an essay in favour of raising tuition prices), because they chose to do it (i.e. they make an internal attribution), then they tend to change their mind and believe that they really do support higher tuition. If, however, they write that same counterattitudinal essay but they believe they were forced to write it (i.e. they make an external attribution for their behaviour), then they are unlikely to change their attitude. Similarly, if someone is paid for a job, they attribute the fact they are doing the job to the fact they are making money for it, rather than to intrinsic factors, such as enjoyment, and subsequently they will actually think that they enjoy the task less, and will be less likely to spontaneously choose to do it again in the future. Studies have shown that adding an external reward to a task previously rewarded only internally makes people less intrinsically motivated to perform that task.
However, in some circumstances, extrinsic factors can cause positive changes in behaviour. If an individual believes that they have earned the reward or punishment for intrinsic reasons, then that might effect a positive change in behaviour. It is when the reason for the reward is attributed to external factors that the behaviour change might not be in the desired direction.
See also
References
- Heider, Fritz. (1958). The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-36833-4
External links
- Essay on Attribution by Steve Booth-Butterfield of West Virginia University (1996)
- "From Attributions to Folk Explanations: An Argument in 10 (or so) Steps" (Bertram Malle, University of Oregon, 2002).
Social psychology is the study of how social conditions affect human beings. Scholars in this field are generally either psychologists or sociologists, though all social psychologists employ both the individual and the group as their units of analysis.
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Fritz Heider (1896-1988) was a German psychologist of the Gestalt school, responsible for developing balance theory and attribution theory in 1958. Born in Austria, he immigrated to the U.S. in the 1930s, teaching at Smith College and eventually University of EACAR.
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Harold Kelley (February 16, 1921, Boise, Idaho – January 29, 2003, Malibu, California) was an American social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Edward Ellsworth Jones (1927–1993) was an influential social psychologist who worked at Duke University for most of his career, then moving to Princeton University in 1977. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Harvard University.
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For the actor, see .
Lee D. Ross is a professor of social psychology at Stanford University, who has studied attribution theory, attributional biases, decision making and conflict resolution. Studying with Stanley Schachter, he earned his Ph.D...... Click the link for more information.
Motivation is a reason or set of reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may include basic needs (e.g.
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Attribution can mean:
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- Attribution (copyright), a concept in copyright law requiring an author to be credited
- Journalism sourcing (or attribution), a journalistic practice of attributing information to its source
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weather is the set of all extant phenomena in a given atmosphere at a given time. The term usually refers to the activity of these phenomena over short periods (hours or days), as opposed to the term climate, which refers to the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods of
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Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn. There are several ways to define intelligence.
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A self-serving bias occurs when people are more likely to claim responsibility for successes than failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests.
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In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or overattribution effect) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional, or personality-based, explanations for behaviors observed in others while
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Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (abbreviated USSR, Russian: (help info ) ; tr.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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John A. Bargh is a professor of social psychology at Yale University. He built his reputation in the 1980s as one of the leading researchers and theorists on the topic of automaticity.
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Daniel Todd Gilbert (born November 5, 1957) is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is a social psychologist who is known for his research (with Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia) on affective forecasting, with a special emphasis on
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Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term describing the uncomfortable tension that may result from having two conflicting thoughts at the same time, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with one's beliefs, or from experiencing apparently conflicting phenomena.
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42 (1), 43-55. doi: 10.1111/1468-5906.t01-1-00160
18. ^ Moreira-Almeida Alexander, Lotufo Neto Francisco, Koenig Harold G. "Religiousness and mental health: a review" . Rev. Bras. Psiquiatr. [serial on the Internet]. 2006 September, cited 2007 June 21, 2007 ; 28(3): 242-250.
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18. ^ Moreira-Almeida Alexander, Lotufo Neto Francisco, Koenig Harold G. "Religiousness and mental health: a review" . Rev. Bras. Psiquiatr. [serial on the Internet]. 2006 September, cited 2007 June 21, 2007 ; 28(3): 242-250.
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Motivation is a reason or set of reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may include basic needs (e.g.
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In psychology, an attributional bias is a cognitive bias that affects the way we determine who or what was responsible for an event or action (attribution).
Attributional biases typically take the form of actor/observer differences
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Attributional biases typically take the form of actor/observer differences
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Causality or causation denotes the relationship between one event (called cause) and another event (called effect) which is the consequence (result) of the first. [1]
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Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations.
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Correspondent inference theory is a psychological theory proposed by Edward E. Jones and Keith Davis that argues we use the consequences of a person's behaviour as a basis for inferring the person's intentions.
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Locus of control theory is a concept in between psychology and sociology, related to where individuals conceptually place responsibility, choice, and control for events in their lives.
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