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Attribution theory is a field of social psychology, which was born
out of the theoritical models of Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward
E. Jones, and Lee Ross. Attribution theory is concerned with the
ways in which people explain (or attribute) the behavior of others.
It explores how individuals "attribute" causes to events
and how this cognitive perception affects their motivation. Think
of "explanation" as a synonym and "why" as the
question to be answered.
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.
The following quote explains the
attribution theory:
"The foolish deer feels that God saved him from the injured
lion, forgetting the swift legs that God gave." Srijit Prabhakaran
People often make self serving attributions. So, if something good
happens to themselves or someone they like, they tend to see it
as having an internal, stable cause ("I aced the test because
I'm so smart), 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).
An example of this, in politics, could be the collapse of the Soviet
Union. US leaders attributed it to something dispositional about
themselves (we were strong and steadfast, democracy persevered).
Also, oftentimes, failing Third-World economies - Read more...
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