ATTRIBUTION THEORY WHAT IS ATTRIBUTION THEORY Attribution theory

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

WHAT IS ATTRIBUTION THEORY? • Attribution theory is a theory that attempts to explain the interpretive process by which people make judgements about the causes of their own behavior and the behavior of others. • Its is a motivational theory looking at how the average person constructs the meaning of an event based on his/her motives to fins a cause and his/her knowledge of the environment. • It examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a casual judgement (Fiske and Taylor, 1991).

BACKGROUND • Attribution theory is rooted in the work of Kurt Lewin, Julian Rotter, John Atkinson, Fritz Heider, Harold Kelly and Bernard Weiner. • Gestalt Psychologist Fritz Heider is often described as the “father of attribution theory”, during the early years of 20 th century. • Heider first wrote about Attribution Theory in his book “The Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships(1958)- played a major role in origin of attribution theory. • According to Heider, people were like amateur scientists, trying to understand other people’s behavior by piecing together information until they arrived at a reasonable explanation cause. • It was further developed by Weiner and colleagues like Jones et al. they developed a theoretical framework that has become a major research paradigm of Social Psychology. They developed the three dimensional model of attribution theory.

HEIDER’S ATTRIBUTION THEORY Heider says that all behaviour is considered to be determined by either internal or external factors: 1. EXTERNAL ATTRIBUTION/ SITUATIONAL ATTRIBUTION- causality is assigned to on outside factor, agent or force. Your behavior is influenced, limited or even completely determined by influences outside your control. 2. INTERNAL ATTRIBUTION-causality is assigned to an internal force. You can choose to bahve in a particular way or not. Inside factors fall inside your own control.

WEINER’S ATTRIBUTION THEORY • Weiner focused his attribution theory on achievement. According to him, the most important factors affecting attributions are ability, effort, task difficulty and luck. • He developed three dimensional model of attribution theory. • His theory has been widely applied in education, law, clinical psychology and mental health domain.

• locus dimension refers to the perception of the cause any event as internal or external. This dimension is related to feeling of pride and self-esteem. • Stability dimension refers to whether the cause of the event is stable or unstable across time and situations. Incase of unstable attributions, this dimension is related to feelings of hopelessness. In stable causes, the person believes there can be different outcomes in the future. • Controllability dimension refers to whether or not the cause of any event is the control of the learner. Guilt and shame are the kind of emotions experienced in this dimension.

HAROLD KELLY’S COVARIATION MODEL • Kelly’s covariation model is an attribution theory in which people make causal inference to explain why other people and ourselves behave in a certain way. • The covariation principle states that “an effect is attributed to the one of its possible causes with which overtime, it covaries. • Attributions are made based on three criteria: 1. Consensus- co-variation of behavior across different people. High consensus is attributed to stimulus while low consensus is attributed to person. 2. Distinctiveness- refers to how unique the behavior is to the particular situation. Low distinctiveness- individual behaves similarly in all situations. High distinctiveness- person only shows the behavior in particular situations. 3. Consistency- covariation of behavior across time. High consistency is attributed to the person while low consistency is attributed to circumstance.

ATTRIBUTION BIASES • Fundamental attribution Bias • Actor-observer Bias • Cultural Bias • Self-serving Bias

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