Attribution theory

ATTRIBUTION THEORY Attribution is a cognitive process that entails linking an event to its causes. Attribution is one of a variety of cognitive inferences that are included within social cognition, which is one of several theoretical models within social psychology. Social cognition has been the most dominant social psychological perspective within psychology since the 1960s, and this is evident in the popularity of research on attribution. In the mid-1970s, as much as 50 percent of the articles in major social psychology journals concerned attributional processes, in part because attribution theory is relevant to the study of person perception, event perception, attitude change, the acquisition of self-knowledge, and a host of applied topics including therapeutic interventions, close relationships, legal and medical decision making, and so forth. Although the proportion of published research that focused on this topic declined during the 1980s, attribution remains one of the more popular fields of social psychological research. DEFINITION An attribution is an inference about why an event occurred. More generally, "attribution is a process that begins with social perception, progresses through a causal judgment and social inference, and ends with behavioral consequences" (Crittenden 1983, p. 426). Although most theories of and research on attribution focus on causal inference, empirical research has dealt with attributions not only of cause but also of blame and responsibi...

Motivation Attribution Theory Attributions are perceptions about the causes of success and failure. Suppose that you get a low mark on a test and are wondering what caused the low mark. You can construct various explanations for—make various attributions about—this failure. Maybe you did not study very hard; maybe the test itself was difficult; maybe you were unlucky; maybe you just are not smart enough. Each explanation attributes the failure to a different factor. The explanations that you settle upon may reflect the truth accurately—or then again, they may not. What is important about attributions is that they reflect personal beliefs about the sources or causes of success and failure. As such, they tend to affect motivation in various ways, depending on the nature of the attribution (Weiner, 2005). Locus, Stability, and Controllability Attributions vary in three underlying ways: locus, stability, and controllability. The locus of attribution is the location (figuratively speaking) of the source of success or failure. If you attribute a top mark on a test to your ability, then the locus is internal; if you attribute the mark to the test’s having easy questions, then the locus is external. The stability of attribution is its relative permanence. If you attribute the mark to your ability, then the source of success is relatively stable—by definition, the ability is a relatively lasting quality. If you attribute a top mark to the effort you put into studying, then the sour...

Originally, attribution theory was an area of social psychology introduced by Heider ( attribute causes to events and how this cognitive perception affects their motivation. Another important contribution from social psychology is the stability vs. instability and later that of responsibility (or controllability), which indicates whether a causal factor of success or failure could be perceived as internal or external to a person. • Atkinson, J. W. (1964). An introduction to motivation. Princeton: Van Nostrand. • Eccles, J. S. (1983). Expectancies, values, and academic behavior. In J. T. Spence (Ed.), Achievement and achievement motives: Psychological and sociological approaches (pp. 77–146). San Francisco: Freeman. • Graham, S., & Folkes, V. (Eds.). (1990). Attribution theory: Applications to achievement, mental health, and interpersonal conflict. Hillsdale: Erlbaum. • Heckhausen, H. (1963). Hoffnung und Furcht in der Leistungsmotivation. Meisenheim am Glan: Verlag Anton Hain. • Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley. • Weiner, B. (1972). Theories of motivation: From mechanisms to cognition. Chicago: Rand McNally. • Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer. • Weiner, B. (1992). Human motivation: Metaphors, theories, and research. Newbury Park: Sage. Cite this entry Seel, N.M. (2012). Attribution Theory of Motivation. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer...

2 Individual and Cultural Differences • Introduction • 2.1 Individual and Cultural Factors in Employee Performance • 2.2 Employee Abilities and Skills • 2.3 Personality: An Introduction • 2.4 Personality and Work Behavior • 2.5 Personality and Organization: A Basic Conflict? • 2.6 Personal Values and Ethics • 2.7 Cultural Differences • Key Terms • Summary of Learning Outcomes • Chapter Review Questions • Management Skills Application Exercises • Managerial Decision Exercises • Critical Thinking Case • 3 Perception and Job Attitudes • Introduction • 3.1 The Perceptual Process • 3.2 Barriers to Accurate Social Perception • 3.3 Attributions: Interpreting the Causes of Behavior • 3.4 Attitudes and Behavior • 3.5 Work-Related Attitudes • Key Terms • Summary of Learning Outcomes • Chapter Review Questions • Management Skills Application Exercises • Managerial Decision Exercises • Critical Thinking Case • 4 Learning and Reinforcement • Introduction • 4.1 Basic Models of Learning • 4.2 Reinforcement and Behavioral Change • 4.3 Behavior Modification in Organizations • 4.4 Behavioral Self-Management • Key Terms • Summary of Learning Outcomes • Chapter Review Questions • Management Skills Application Exercises • Managerial Decision Exercises • Critical Thinking Case • 5 Diversity in Organizations • Introduction • 5.1 An Introduction to Workplace Diversity • 5.2 Diversity and the Workforce • 5.3 Diversity and Its Impact on Companies • 5.4 Challenges of Diversity • 5.5 Key Diversity Th...

To understand the concept of attribution, imagine that a new friend cancels plans to meet up for coffee. Do you assume that something unavoidable came up, or that the friend is a flaky person? In other words, do you assume that the behavior was situational (related to external circumstances) or dispositional (related to inherent internal characteristics)? How you answer questions like these is the central focus for psychologists who study attribution. • Attribution theories attempt to explain how human beings evaluate and determine the cause of other people's behavior. • Well-known attribution theories include the correspondent inference theory, Kelley's covariation model, and Weiner's three-dimensional model. • Attribution theories typically focus on the process of determining whether a behavior is situationally-caused (caused by external factors) or dispositionally-caused (caused by internal characteristics). Common Sense Psychology The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Heider wasinterested in examining how individuals determine whether another person's behavior is internally caused or externally caused. According to Heider, behavior is a product of capacity and motivation. Capacity refers to whether we are able to enact a particular behavior—that is, whether our innate characteristics and our present environment make that behavior possible. Motivation refers to our intentions as well as how much effort we apply. Heider contended that both capacity and motivation ar...

Attribution Theory of Motivation Activity 1: You read about attribution theory in this lesson, and how a belief about your chance of success influences how hard you will try to accomplish the task. Can you think of a time that you wanted to do something but felt quite certain that you would not succeed? What did you decide to do? Now think of a time that you wanted to do something and were confident that you would succeed. How did you approach that task? Write two to three paragraphs describing these instances and the effort you put into them. For example, you may have wanted to join a dance team but believed that you were not very good at dancing, and as a result, you did not practice the audition routine very much. Alternatively, you may have felt that you were very good at math and worked extra hard to join an advanced math club at your school. In your writing, examine how your beliefs about your success influenced your effort and motivation in this way. Activity 2: Think about an item on the news wherein Weiner's attribution theory is exemplified. In two to three paragraphs, describe the news event, and explain how the theory of attribution is applicable. For example, in the Varsity Blues case of wealthy parents buying their children?s way into college, you may have heard Felicity Huffman state that she felt she was just "leveling the playing field" and giving her daughter a "fair shot" by paying for a proctor to correct her SAT answers since her daughter had a learnin...