Attribution (psychology)

Overview

Attribution is a concept in Social Psychology referring to how individuals explain behaviors of others.

Types of Attribution

The two main types of attributions are internal and external attributions. When an internal attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the individuals personality, attitudes, character, or disposition. When an external attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the situation in which the behavior was seen. The individual producing the behavior did so because of the surrounding environment or the social situation. These two types of attribution lead to very different perceptions of the individual engaging in a behavior. Personal is Internal and SItuational is external.

Covariation Model of Attribution

The covariation Model of Attribution looks to three main types of information from which to make an attribution decision about an individual's behavior. The first is consensus information, or information on how other people in the same situation and with the same stimulus behave. The second is distinctiveness information, or how the individual responds to different stimuli. The third is consistency information, or how frequent the individual's behavior can be observed with similar stimulus but varied situations. From these three sources of information observers make attribution decisions on the individual's behavior as either internal or external.

Perceptual Salience and Attribution

When people try to make attributions about another's behavior, their information focuses on the individual. Their perception of that individual is lacking most of the external factors which might affect the individual. The gaps tend to be skipped over and the attribution is made based on the perception information most salient. The perceptual information most salient dominates a person's perception of the situation.

For an individual making a behavioral attribution about themselves, the situation and external environment is entirely salient for them, but their body and behavior are less so. This leads to the tendency to make an external attribution in regards to one's own behavior.

Attribution Tendencies

Attribution Errors and Heuristics

• People tend to undervalue consensus information
• People make attributions with insufficient information, inferring about the rest.
• People tend to make internal attributions of others and underestimate the power of the situation. This is referred to as the Fundamental Attribution Error.
• People tend to assume their features and behaviors are more salient to others than what they generally are. This is termed the Spotlight Effect.
• Individuals tend to make external attributions for themselves and internal attributions for others. This is often referred to as the Actor/Observer bias.

Self-Serving Bias

• People tend to attribute their own actions externally.
• People make attributions to support their self esteem.
• Self-Serving Attributions place credit for individual successes internally and blame for individual failure externally. Individuals suffering from Major Depression tend to have the opposite attribution pattern.
• People tend to make attributions in line with "bad things happen to bad people" and "good things happen to good people" in order to protect their self esteem and prevent feeling vulnerable. This is often referred to the Just World Hypothesis or a Belief in a Just World

Culture and Tendencies

Different cultures have different attribution tendencies. While there are some overlap, culture has a large affect on attribution heuristics.

Causal Uncertainty

At times people are not sure why an event happened. This can threaten their ability to predict and control events.

See Also

• Attributional Bias
• Harold Kelley