Attribution Theory

Attribution Theoryis a motivational theory looking at how the average person constructs the meaning of an event based on his /her motives to find a cause and his/her knowledge of the environment.

 Att. Theory basically looks at how people make sense of their world; what cause and effect inferences they make about the behaviors of others and of themselves. Heider states that there is a strong need in individuals to understand transient events by attributing them to the actor's disposition or to stable characteristics of the environment.

 

The purpose behind making attributions is to achieve COGNITIVE CONTROL over one's environment by explaining and understanding the causes behind behaviors and environmental occurrences.

     Making attributions gives order and predictability to our lives; helps us to cope. Imagine what it would be like if you felt that you had no control over the world. (talk about later)

    When you make attributions you analyze the situation by making inferences (going beyond the information given) about the dispositions of others and yourself as well as inferences about the environment and how it may be causing a person to behave.

   Two basic kinds of attributions made: INTERNAL and EXTERNAL

            INTERNAL - dispositional

            EXTERNAL - situational

                

 Consequences of making inferences:

         1) gives order and predictability;

         2) inferences lead to behavior - you will or will not behave in certain ways toward the actor based on your inferences and you will form expectations as to how the actor will behave.

    The meaning of a behavior depends on the cause to which it is attributed (e.g. bystander studies - if we don't perceive the situation is caused by an emergency then we don't act like it is an emergency).

                

 INACCURACIES in attribution: 1) misplaced blame (trials, eyewitness studies, whites vs. blacks); 2) blinds people to other causes

            Three dimensions:

                stability (stable and unstable),

                locus of causality  (internal and external)

                control (controllable or uncontrollable)

            Stability attributions affect our predictions about the future ; controllability affects our persistence on task; causality attributions affect our affective(emptional) reactions to success and failure (the more the individual feels that his/her behavior is under h/h conscious control, the greater the affective response)

          FOUR ATTRIBUTIONAL FACTORS: Effort, Task Difficulty, Luck, Ability - depending where you place the attribution in the matrix will determine expectations of future performance, shame, pride, etc.

                               

        STABILITY

          STABLE

    UNSTABLE

        CONTROL

   INTERNAL

        EXTERNAL

               

 Dweck - induce kids with a repeat failure history to make effort rather than ability attributions

Lepper and Green (1973) child's performance can be enhanced by inducing him to make internal attributions for success (look at high self-esteem people - usually see themselves as responsible for their successes and blame failures on external factors)

ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE:

    Optimistic  - negative events are explained in terms of external, unstable and specific causes ; and positive events to internal, stable, global causes.

    Pessimistic - negative events explained in terms of internal, stable, and global terms (I’m a bad person); positive events in terms of external, unstable, and specific causes

    Individual differences in attributional style may lead to depression; health factors (immune system and stress - 99 veterans of W.W.II responses on a questionnaire about their wartime experiences (1946); explanatory style predicted health after age 45; more health problems with those who had a more pessimistic explanatory style. Baseball players with a pessimistic style died earlier than optimistic players.

    Seligman - learned helplessness and attribution