Attribution Theory

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Attribution theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2 Attribution Theory in Education. 3 See also. 4 References. 5 External links ... He was responsible for relating the attribution theory back to education. ...
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An important assumption of attribution theory is that people will interpret ... of expectancy and valence interacts with attribution theory in complex ways. ...
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Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how ... Attribution theory assumes that people try to determine why people do what they ...
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Attribution theory: Definition from Answers.com
attribution theory The theory that consumer assumptions about a product or situation are derived from the consumer's experience, personality, or
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Attribution Theory
ATTRIBUTION THEORY. There is a theory about how people explain things. ... ( When you see the term, "attribution," you should think of the term, "explanation, ...
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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.

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 (trait) or other variables that make the individual responsible for the event.

Self-serving bias or Fundamental Attribution Error People often make self-serving bias. 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. United States 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. Daniel Gilbert (psychologist) 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 motivation 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).

Attribution theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 ...

Attribution Theory
ATTRIBUTION THEORY One of the most amazing features of human beings is this: They can explain anything. Maybe it comes from the fact that we are parents and our children keep ...

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Heider (1958) The Layperson as a Naive Psychologist. How do we attach meaning to other's behaviour, or our own? This is called attribution theory.

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Attribution Theory . Attribution theory (Weiner, 1980, 1992) is probably the most influential contemporary theory with implications for academic motivation.

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Attribution Theory (B. Weiner) Overview: Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behavior. Heider (1958 ...

Attribution (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... Social Psychology 106-108 ^ Kelley, Attribution theory in social psychology. Levine, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (Vol. 15, 192-238) ^ Aronson. Social Psychology 113-114 ^ Huffman, ...

Motivation in Education Part 2
Notes to accompany chapter 10 of Lefrançois' Psychology for Teaching . Motivation in Education Part 2 Attribution theory (Weiner 1986) Locus of control

Attribution Theory
We all have a need to explain the world, both to ourselves and to other people, attributing cause to the events around us.

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Summary, forum, tips and full explanation of Attribution Theory (Heider). How people make causal explanations. - 12manage

cmm
Attribution Theory Summary: Attribution Theory assumes that people try to determine why people do what they do. This search for a reason behind behavior allows people to attribute ...