This ppt covers information about what attribution is and what are the major theories of attribution

1. TOPIC- ATTRIBUTION
By VINSHI KAUSHIK
vinshikaushik2@gmail.com
BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY

2. CONTENTS
• Attribution
• Why do we study attribution
• Theories of attribution
• Heider’s model
• Theory of correspondent interference
• Kelley’s theory of causal attribution
• Errors or biases in attribution

3. ATTRIBUTION: Why did s/he act that
way?
1. Attribution can be defined as the ‘process by which
people explain both their own behavior and that of
other individuals.’
2. Attribution refers to our efforts to understand the
causes behind others’ behavior and on, some
occasions, the causes behind our behavior, too
(Graham,1990).
3. Attribution deals with how the social perceiver uses
information at arrive at causal explanations for events
(Fiske, and Taylor, 1991).

4. Why do we study attribution?
• Social psychologists believe that the interest in
in studying other people’s behavior stems
from the desire to understand cause-and-
effect relationship in the social world
(Pittman, 1993; Van Overwalle,1998).
• Also the fact that it can help us to better
predict their future actions.

5. THEORIES OF ATTRIBUTION
since attribution is a complex phenomenon, it has been
studied by various different theorists.

6. Heider’s Model
• Analyses how people interpret the cause of
other’s behavior.
• According to Heider people are naïve
psychologists trying to make sense of the social
world. People rely on intuitive causal principles
and a ‘commonsense psychology.’
• In Heider’s (1958) model, a person’s behavior is
seen as caused by both environmental forces and
personal factors such as dispositions.
E.g: A person continuously honking aggressively
behind your car.

7. Heider’s model
Behavior (aggressively honking)
Environmental Personal dispositions/
forces/external internal attribution
attribution (e.g., person is moody,
(e.g., frustrated from job, aggressive)
Had a fight, etc.)

8. Theory of correspondent inference
• Proposed by Jones and Davis (1965) and extended by Jones and
McGillis (1976).
• This theory asks how we use information about other’s behavior as
a base for inferring about their traits, i.e., using their overt actions
or behaviors on the basis of which we decide their particular traits.
• But the behaviors of people are very complex to be understood and
interpreted, for example, when you visit a restaurant and a young
woman greets you in a friendly manner, it does not really mean that
she is actually friendly and polite (she might be though). There can
be external factors and reasons of her being polite such as, it is her
duty to greet the customers this way because her boss has said so.
• Therefore, according to this theory (Jones and Davis, 1965; Jones
and McGillis, 1976), we accomplish such complications by focusing
our attention on certain types of actions which are informative.
Various types of actions are:

9. Different actions to be focused upon:
• Chosen freely: not forced by anyone.
• Unique or non-common effects: produced by a
particular cause that could not be produced by
any other apparent cause. E.g., I have to buy a
house and I shortlist two places which are noida
and malviya nagar. What do you think can be the
effects of taking a house in noida? Shopping
complex, cleaner city, etc.
And if I take a house in malviya nagar? Main will be
that it is closer to college.

10. • Low in social desirability: behaviors that are
not encouraged by the society.
• Social role
• Personalism: behaviors that benefit or harm
us

11. Kelley’s theory of causal attribution
HOW WE ANSWER THE QUESTION “WHY”?
• We always want to know ‘why’ has the particular
event happened or why did s/he behave in such a
way!
• The behaviors may stem from internal cause (traits,
motives, intentions) or external cause (social or
physical world) or a combination of the two.
Therefore to answer the questions ‘why’ Kelley
(1972) focused on three major types of information:

12. Three major types of information
1. Consensus: extent to which other people
react to some stimulus or even in the same
manner as the person we are considering.
2. Consistency: extent to which the person in
question reacts to the stimulus or event in
the same way on other occasions, over time.
3. Distinctiveness: extent to which an individual
responds in the same manner to different
stimuli or events.

13. Other dimensions of causal attribution
Apart from the internal-external causes there are other
dimensions too:
• Are the causal factors that influenced behavior stable
or unstable over time?
• Are these factors controllable or out of control
(Weiner,1993)?
Some internal causes are stable (temperament,
personality) and controllable (holding tempers back),
while some are unstable (motives, health) and not in
control (disabilities)
Some external causes are stable (laws telling us to behave
in a particular way) whereas other not (bad luck).

14. Errors or biases in attribution
• Types: cognitive biases and motivational biases
COGNITIVE BIASES
1. Correspondence: tendency to ignore or misperceive the relevant
situation (situational factors). For e.g., a girl comes to the class 30
minutes late and then drops all her notes. While picking up the notes
she drops her bottle, then we tend to blame her for being disorganized
and not seeing the situational factors that have had led to the behavior.
2. Actor-observer effect: given by Jones and Disbett in 1971. It is the
tendency to attribute other’s behavior to internal causes and that of
ours to external causes.
3. Person-positivity bias: the tendency to rate others predominantly in a
positive way i.e., attributing bad outcomes to external causes and good
outcomes to internal causes.
4. Saliency biases: the tendency to make an error in the attribution process
relying on the most available stimulus and behavior.

15. MOTIVATIONAL BIAS
1. Self-serving bias: introduced by Miller and Ross (1975). It is the tendency
that ‘I can do no wrong but you can do no right.’ it defend the self-
esteem. E.g., our success to internal causes (I worked hard) and failures
to external causes (bad luck, test was out of syllabus).
Why does this bias come into play? Mainly due to 2 reasons:
--- To protect our self esteem, by taking credits for positive outcomes and
blaming external sources for negative outcomes.
---Role of self-representation: To maintain a positive public image
2. Ego-centric bias: people consistently exaggerate their contributions to
shared activities. E.g., exaggerating the contributions in a basket ball
match.
3. False-consensus bias: the tendency to imagine that everyone responds
the way they do. Ross, Greene and House (1977) noted that we have a
tendency to assume a false consensus based upon the assumption that
people in general are just like us. They will behave in their ways.

16. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to extend my thanks to this course,
Academic writing for providing me with
immense knowledge for completing my
assignment.

17. REFERENCES
• Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D., &Akert, R.M. (2010).
Social psychology (7thed.). Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Baron, R. A., Branscombe, N. R. & Byrne, D.
(2009). Social psychology (12thed.). New York:
Pearson Education.
• Myer, D.G. (2012). Social psychology (11thed.).
New York: McGraw Hill.
• Sanderson, C.A., &Safdar, S. F. (2012). Social
psychology. Ontario, Canada: John Wiley.