Refers to our efforts to understand the causes behind others

behavior and on some occasions, the causes behind our

behavior too . (Baron,2005)

For gaining knowledge of others stable traits and dispositions

Framework for understanding how we make sense of our
social world

Fritz Heider (1958) : Nave Psychology

People observe, analyze and explain
behaviors with explanations

Two kinds of explanation:
a) Internal Attribution: the cause of the given
behavior is given to individuals
characteristics (ability, mood, disposition)
b) External Attribution: cause of the behavior is
given to external causes (task, other people,
luck)

Your classmate gets late for an important class.

Internal attribution: She is sloppy and cannot keep time. She is
just lazy.

External attribution: Her alarm clock did not ring.
There was no water to take shower with.
She was not informed about the class.
From Heiders standpoint, the perception of
personal causality plays an important role in
social life.
Not only does blame depend on the
perception of causality but reward does as
well .
How we use information about others behaviors as basis for
inferring their stable dispositions

By focusing on certain types of information:

a) Freely chosen behaviors
b) Non-common effects:- effects that can be caused by one
specific factors but not by others
c) Actions that are low on social desirability.
Principle of Co-variation: An effect is attributed to that condition
which is present when the effect is present and absent when
the effect is absent (1967)
Rule of Consensus: the extent to which other person reacts to a
situation the same manner that the person we are
considering.
Rule of Consistency: the extent to which the person reacts to the
stimulus in the same way on other occasions
Rule of Distinctiveness: the extent to which the person reacts to
in the same manner to other different occasions.
Internal causes/External causes

Stable/Unstable

Controllable/Uncontrollable

These strongly influence out conclusions regarding important
matters, such as whether others are responsible for their own
actions.
Discounting : the tendency to attach less importance to one
potential cause of some behavior when other potential
causes are also present.



Augmenting: the tendency to attach greater importance to
potential causes of behavior if the behavior occurs despite
the presence of other, inhibitory causes
Individuals, regulate their own behavior in order to attain
desired goals, adopt one of the two mechanisms:

a) Promotion focus: emphasize the presence or absence of
positive outcomes
b) Prevention focus: emphasize negative outcomes
Correspondence Bias: the tendency to explain others
actions as stemming from dispositions even in the presence of
clear situational causes (Jones, 1979)
Also known as Fundamental Attribution Error

Actor-Observer Effect : the tendency to attribute our own
behavior to situational causes but the behaviors of others to
dispositional causes (Jones & Nisbett, 1971)

The Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to attribute our own
positive outcomes to internal causes but negative ones to
external factors .

Common in Individualistic societies than in Collectivist societies


Unrealistic Optimism : form of defensive attribution in which
people think that positive events are more likely to happen to
them than to their peers and that negative events are less
likely to happen to them than to their peers.




Spotlight Effect : the belief that ones features and behaviors
are more salient to others than they generally are and that
others are paying closer attention to ones appearance and
behaviors than they really are (Example, Bodily Dysmorphic
Disorder)

Attribution and Depression:

Self-defeating patterns of attribution.

They attribute negative outcomes to lasting, internal causes
such as their traits or lack of abilities.

Attribute positive outcomes to temporary, external causes
such as good luck or special favors from others.

Perceive that they have little or no control over what
happens to them Learned Helplessness

Therapy focuses on changing these forms of attribution.

Rape/ CSA and Attribution:

Victims hold themselves responsible for the event
and blame is focused on self rather than the
perpetrator. (Fisher, 1986)

Rape/Date rapes, are attributed to the victims
than to the perpetrators, e.g., the girl was wearing
skimpy clothes, she was acting too friendly, she
should have known not to walk alone at that time
of the night.

Schizophrenia and Attribution:

Abnormal perceptions are attributed to external sources.
e.g. : hearing voices, God made me do this.


Delusions are excessively external, stable and global
attributions for negative events and excessively internal,
stable and global attributions for positive events.

Also an element of expressed emotion

OCD and Attribution:

Thought-Action-Fusion: likelihood of an event to happen to
others or self arises from global attribution of bad event
Extreme personal responsibility of the event
Isolated occurrence of negative events are also attributed to
be results of ones thoughts.


Somatization and Attribution:

Unexplained bodily symptoms and complaints are attributed
to organic causes (Chaturvedi, 2001)
Conduct Disorder and Attribution:

Negative outcomes are attributed to the fault of others and
so aggression is directed towards perceived cause of
outcome.

Marital Discord and Attribution:

Spouses usually view negative behavior of their partners as
enduring and global and positive behaviors as situational
and temporary. (Finchman et al., 1988)

Prejudice and Attribution:

Social costs
Implications in jobs settings, community
Negative impressions
Attribution theory gives a framework for explaining the
relationship between stigmatizing attitudes and discriminating
behavior.
These inferences lead to emotional reactions such as anger
and pity that effect the likelihood of helping/punishing
behaviors.
Attribution as Folk Theory of Mind:

Considers behavior explanations an integral part of peoples
folk ToM and assigns the concept of intentionality a central
role as people reliably distinguish between intentional and
unintentional human behaviors & use distinct modes of
explanation for each type of behavior (Buss, 1978, Malle,
1999)
Unintentional behaviors are explained by causes:
Example :
She cried because she was sad.
He fell because the floor was slippery.
Intentional behaviors are caused by reasons:
Example :
she quit her job because the pay was too low.
Attribution as communication:

Innovative work by Hilton (1990) and Antaki (1994)
suggests that attributions are not just cognitive processes
but rather communicative acts that obey the rules of
conversation; that is, behavior explanations are altered for
impression-management purposes (e.g., to appear rational
or fend off blame).

Explanations have an immediate impact on others'
perceptions and evaluations of the explainer and the agent
whose behavior is being explained
Gergen, J. K., Gergen, M. M. (1986): Social Psychology (2
nd

Edition), Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Baron, R.A., Byrne, D. (2004) :Social Psychology (10
th
Edition),
Pearson Education Inc. London



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