Attribution Theory Essay

Attribution theory Essay
Discuss the types of attribution someone makes when they appraise a person's behaviour. How may bias occur in their reasoning particularly if they
have a very different background to the person they observe? Attribution theory focuses on ways in which we gather and process information in order
to come up with judgements and explanations for people's behaviours and personalities or as explained by Fiske & Taylor (1991) "how the social
perceiver uses information to arrive at casual explanations for events. It examines what information is gathered and how it's combined to form casual
judgements". There have been many studies aimed at explaining the main errors people make when making inferences about people's behaviour and
whether culture...show more content...
Furthermore, a cause of the FAE (fundamental attribution error) could potentially be the fact that the observer may not see much to gain in making
the effort to analyse the situational causes of a certain behaviour and too cognitively demanding (Andrews, 2001). However, due to the fact that they
have greater incentives to predict and influence behaviour, people who tend to depend on others are less likely to make erroneous attributions, which
explains why people from more interdependent cultures (such as East Asians) tend to avoid the FAE (Choi et al, 1999) in contrast with people from
more independent cultures (such as Europeans or Americans). To further elaborate on this point, numerous psychologists believe that culture may
have a determining effect on whether the observer is prone to excessively relying on dispositional judgements. This is shown in Choi & Nisbett's
1998 study, which was in line with Snyder & Jones' 1974 study, where a group of Korean and American participants were given the task of writing an
essay with a designated position. They were then asked to judge a forced writer (a writer which wrote a piece as a forced task, whether or not what
they were writing reflected their own beliefs). In contrast with the previous study, the Americans' judgements were not affected, however, the Koreans
no longer displayed correspondence bias when the situational
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Explain attribution theory. Draw on the mini–case to identify and explain three biases or errors that may affect the decision–making process of Tom
and Amy. Discuss why attribution theory is important in relation to organisational behaviour and decision–makers in organisations.
Attribution theory, as a powerful model for explaining and exploring decision making in the job selection, which helps us to determine whether an
individual's behaviour is internally or externally caused. The attribution to which behaviour is related to three factors – distinctiveness, consistency and
consensus. (Robbins, Judge, Millet & Boyle 2011) If behavior displays low distinctiveness (same behaviour exhibits in different situations), high
consistency (behaviour does not vary), low consensus (same situations displays different behaviours), which can be regarded as external attributions
and vice versa.
Attribution theory assists us to explain the behavior of interviewers and interviewees in job selection. In the case of interviewers, for example, Silvester
(1997) showed that the attribution theory could be used to help explain the ratings given by interviewers. Interviewers tended to give higher scores
when candidates made internal, stable and controllable attributions about their performance. On the other hand, several studies have shown that
nonverbal interviewee communication (eye contact, smiling, posture, interpersonal distance and gesture) significantly influences interviewers rating

Examples Of Attribution Theory
The attribution theory (Weiner 1972) is formed by Bernard Weiner . Many theories have been formed to try and explain why and how people
succeed and others fail in educational areas of life. In this essay we will attempt to understand the attribution theory in more details, attempt to
understand these in more details and apply them to the case study presented. Last semester, a friend Angela failed all her first year courses. While I
have privately held my views for her failure, I have not confirmed these reasons with her or her lectures. By giving examples I will test my reasons by
applying the attribution theory to explain why she might have failed. Also, I will give examples of social judgements, apply theories of attitude to try
understanding some of the reasons why Amanda might have failed....show more content...
According to the attribution theory, high achievers will choose to approach work rather than avoid tasks related to succeeding as their belief is that
success is due to high ability and effort and because of that they approach tasks confidently.
Attribution theory can be defined as the process of inferring the causes of behaviors and events. When things happen people are more likely to blame
external forces for the event than their own personal characteristics. This is referred to as the Actor – Observation bias. This means that a student is
more likely to blame failing a test paper to a bad lecturer, not being assisted in understanding the work properly or a bad school system rather than
saying they did not prepare well for

Attribution Theory, By Fritz Heider Essay
This paper acts in order to introduce and clarify Attribution Theory, in addition to demonstrating when it is purposeful and to what extent it is accurate.
This will be accomplished through an explanation of the theory, which consists of its origins and key concepts. A communicative episode will be
included to serve as an illustration, along with an analysis of the episode in order to explain the theory in motion. Lastly, its applications, assets, and
liabilities are stated.
Explanation of Theory
In order to maximize the efficiency of processing new information, encounters, or experiences, what is seen is combined with past perceptions and
notions to create an interpretation that acts as an explanation of what is not directly stated or known for one's behavior.. Through this, appropriate
action or conduct is formed or expressed. This process is known as Attribution Theory, primarily founded by Fritz Heider. The theory can be broken
down into two important pieces, internal and external, each affecting the interpretation of one's behavior. It is through these two paths in which
individuals arrive to different conclusions despite the experience shared being the same. This is a The first of these distinctions is internal attribution,
which "locates the cause of a particular behavior within the social actor" (Miller). Internal attributions are formed with interpretations or assumptions of
one's personality or traits. Since the formation of an internal attribution comes from a

Two Theories Of Attribution Essay
Evaluation of Two Theories of Attribution
One attribution theory is the correspondent inference theory by Jones and Davis (1965). This theory was developed on Heider's idea that the observer
has a general tendency to make an internal attribution. This is because it is easier to say that the cause of someone behaviour is something within the
actor as it makes the world seem more stable and predictable, rather than having to make an attribution for a person for every situation this would make
the world seem less stable and more unpredictable.
Jones and Davis set out to look at grounds we use to make dispositional attribution.
There are certain behaviour we expect from certain people because...show more content...
When there are few non–common effects there is greater likelihood of making a person attribution.
The advantages of this theory are that all of the evidences are based on experimental work. They offer hard evidence for their claim that the observer
draws on a number of principles to check observer's behaviour against interference of the actors underlying character. The disadvantage is that not
all–correspondent inference is not always applied by the limited set of principles. The observer often jumps to the conclusion about the cause of other
people behaviour without doing all the analysis that Jones and Davis has suggested. For example when someone is clumsy we usually make a person
attribution even though we know that it not the person but the situation.
Another theory of attribution is Wieners achievement attribution theory.
Wieners work (1979,1986) explored the kind of attribution observers make to explain the cause of success or failure, the theory states that in some task,
such as examination or sports match individual either has a positive or negative emotional reaction. They then make an attribution based around

Attribution Theory and Leadership The power of great leadership in influencing people's behavior and attitude cannot be overemphasized. Proper
leadership offers people simple solutions that they can understand and relate to. When a leader comes up with a solution that is too complicated for
the people to understand, the success rates of such a solution are lower. Bill Strickland offers some insightful points for better leadership. One of the
major lessons acquired from his lecture is that people mirror how you treat them. If you treat people with kindness, they will aspire to become kinder
to you and to others. In the business setting, when leaders treat employees with respect, employees aspire to become more respectful towards the leader
...show more content...
Its simplicity makes it easy to implement on a personal and team level. First, one of the lessons from the attribution theory is that internal attributions
are more powerful that external attributions. This means that when one gives internal attribution to an occurrence, they are more likely to adopt
behavior that supports change (Miller, Brickman & Bolen, 1975). On the contrary, external attribution assigns blame to an outside event thus
disregarding one's ability to change their behavior or attitude. In a work team, the lessons of attribution theory can be applied to help increased team
work. For example, internal attribution can help a team adopt a cohesive attitude thus improving how team members relate. A team leader can use the
attribution theory to improve how the team works and subsequently improve results. An example of a statement that can be effective in improving team
work is, 'We really work well as a team'. This statement helps the team work more cohesively. In summary, the attribution theory is a simple yet
powerful tool of influence. When used effectively, it can help leaders influence how people behave and relate to each other. Attribution helps people
assign responsibility to oneself. Internal attribution is powerful as it helps people see themselves as what they want to become. Behavior change
through internal attribution is effective as one is able to change from the inside. Together with the

Attribution Theory: Kelley's Covariation Model
Kelley's Covariation Model Kelley's (1967) covariation model is the best known attribution theory. It is an attribution theory in which people make
casual inferences to explain why other people and ourselves behave in a certain way. It is concerned with both social perception and self–perception
(Kelley, 1973). He developed a logical model for judging whether a particular action should be attributed to some characteristic (internal) of the person
or the environment (external). The term covariation simply means that a person has information from multiple observations, at different times and
situations, and can perceive the covariation of an observed effect and its causes. He argues that in trying to discover the causes of behavior people act
like scientists. More specifically they take into account three kinds of evidence. Kelley believed that there were three types of causal information
which influenced our judgments. Consensus: It is the covariation of behavior across different people. e.g. Everybody in the audience is laughing;
consensus is high. If only Priya is laughing consensus is low. Distinctiveness: It refers to how unique the behavior is to a...show more content...
It is the duty of the teacher to identify those factors and comprehend it completely in order to teach the students effectively. Among all these factors,
motivation is one of the most significant one. Dorneyi (2001 a) addresses the relevance of motivation by asserting, " 'motivation' is related to one of
the most basic aspects of the human mind, and most teachers and researchers would agree that it has a very important role in determining success or
failure in any learning situation. My personal experience is that 99 per cent of language learners who really want to learn a foreign language (i.e. who
are really motivated) will be able to master a reasonable working knowledge of it as a minimum, regardless of their language aptitude."

Attribution Theory Of Human Behavior
There are two theories that explain the root of human behaviors and why people behave the way they do; The attribution theory and the covariation
model. Heider, the father of the attribution theory, believed that all human beings are amateur scientists, persistently piecing together facts and
information in an effort to grasp a situation and the motivations behind it. Typically, one will assume behavior to be a result of internal personal
factors such as attitude, feelings, and character traits. A teacher yelling at her student will be criticized for having a bad temper. On the flip side,
attributing a behavior to external factors would mean holding the situation and circumstances responsible; The same teacher may actually be yelling
at a student because of his/her lack of conduct. An adorable, vivacious, and chubby relative of mine ran off his yellow school bus in tears last week.
In a choked up voice, and with a trembling body, he described how he had fallen down the stairs on his way down to the school's dining hall for lunch.
In a display of internal attribution, instead of rushing to help him up and offer him their assistance, his classmates giggled at his clumsiness and
laughed how his stout figure could not keep up with his ravenous appetite. His mom on the other hand, in an effort to protect her son, viewed the
situation externally and realized that the steps must've been rickety or wet and thus triggered the fall. According to the covariation model, when
forming an

Attribution Theory The attribution theory is largely derived from Psychology and is usually situated in a post–positive paradigm. The goal of the
theory is to find patterns and make generalizations of certain phenomena in different situations. Fritz Heider is known as the creator of the attribution
theory and believed that people act as "naГЇve scientists" when trying to understand the world around them (Spitzberg & Manusov, 2015, p. 37). Even
though some novelty in relationships is good according to the original version of the Relational Dialectics Theory, most people do not like things that
largely differ from the expected action or outcome. When things are very important or unexpected to people, they tend to look for reasons why and
how those things happened (Spitzberg & Manusov, 2015, p. 38). According to Spitzberg and Manusov (2015),attribution theory can be applied in two
ways: event causation and trait inference (p. 38). Event causation is when people assume that an event caused an action or behavior to occur. Trait
inference is when people assume that a person's characteristics caused the event or behavior. They also claim that there are often four dimensions that
people focus on when making attributions: locus, stability, specificity, and responsibility (Spitzberg & Manusov, 2015, p. 38). Locus refers to the
whether the cause is attributed internally or externally. An example of this would be if a person is running late and you blame it on them

Fritz Heider's Attribution Theory
BACKGROUND
From the theories made by a group of Social Psychologists; Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward Jones and Keith Davis, greatly contributed in the
development of Attribution theory through time. Attribution theory was written in heider's first book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships
during the year 1958 that has been the main part in the origination and meaning of attribution theory. A set of rules of inference Fritz Heider
hypothesized that an ordinary individual might attribute responsibility to another individual for an action. Fritz Heider also distinguished between two
attributions namely the external and internal attributions. In 1965 the systematic hypotheses by Keith Davis and Edward Jones about the perception of
...show more content...
In Attribution theory the limitation is that an individual's explanation of action might be biased. Every individual's attributions are also meaningfully
determined by their motivational and emotional drives. An individual might blame other persons to avoid individual accusation that is a very real
self–serving attribution. Some individuals also make attributions to defend what they observe as attacks and even tend to accuse victims for their
destiny as individuals pursue to aloof themselves from thoughts of suffering the same trouble. Persons also have a tendency to attribute less
inconsistency to other people than themselves, seeing their selves as more complex and less foreseeable than others. Another limitation of attribution
theory is the cultural differences that can be observed. Some people embrace more individualistic cultural views compared to others whose views were
more rounded in traditional orientations. Biased information may yield to contrasting things depending on the cultural values apprehended by the
attributor interpreting the information. However it should be acknowledged that these cross–cultural differences are outcomes from contrasting cultural
conceptions acquired during development in the differing cultures, rather than from individual differences between attributors such as cognitive or
experimental

Causes Of Attribution Theory
The Attribution theory refers to the study of perceived causation (Kelley, 1980). Attributions refer to the inferences that individuals make regarding the
cause of events, their behaviour as well as the behaviour of others (Weiten, 2014). Amanda's failure of all the first year course may be attributed to both
internal and external causes. This refers to either attributing behaviour to personal dispositions or traits, making it an internal attribution, or attributing
the causes of behaviour to environmental and situational demands and constraints, therefore making it an external attribution (Weiten, 2014). This
essay aims to discuss the reasons for Amanda's failure by applying the Attribution theory, giving examples of social judgement as well as applying
theories of attitude, which may be regarded as either positive or negative.
Social Psychology provides us with theories to help us understand the academic behaviour of students. One such theory is the Attribution Theory, which
searches for the causes of one's success and failure. These are known as causal attributions, as they attempt to answer "why" questions (Graham, 1991).
These causes can be classified into three separate dimensions, namely, locus, which refers to whether it is internal or external;...show more content...
It may also be said that Amanda's causes of failure may be attributed to her self–efficiency, her socioeconomic status, lack or parental support and well
as her inability to adjust to university life, all of which caused her stress which further strengthens her behaviour. In addition to this Amanda had
developed a negative attitude towards her first year cause and the observer's attitude towards her are often negative, as they attribute her failure to
internal dispositions, overlooking possible situational

Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave
What does one do when they miss interpreted another's actions and or personality characteristics? New stereotypes, 'boxes', assumptions, etc. all of
which have encroached on a person's worldview. Some are invaluable, others shouldn't be used. One comes to see others in a whole new way by
theories like the Attribution theory and its Fundamental Attribution error, along with Cognitive Dissonance theory all of which involve one's actions and
attitudes.
One of the theories is the Attribution theory. Attribution theory is when individuals discover the causes of behavior as part of the one in observation.
This theory suggests that people are motivated to discover the deep meaning of their behavior as that person makes sense of other's behavior. The
Attribution theory has three dimensions that help describe what a person discovering the meaning of those behaviors and attributing them to different
causes. (King 404) Those three causes are internal or external, stable or unstable, and or controllable or uncontrollable causes. Consequently, these
'causes' have many situations that go along with them. Briefly, internal and external causes ask whether or not that behavior was specific to a
character trait or was that action outside of his or her character and just a situational case. For example, did Gabriele get in the pageant because she
was naturally pretty or because she was 'dolled up' by male artists? The second of the third is the stable or

Emotional Intelligence And Attribution Theory
Introduction
Communication is important not only in day–to day activities, but also in a career. Communication is the exchanging of information by speaking,
writing, or using some other medium. This paper looks at the importance of emotional intelligence and attribution theory for a sales person in the
energy industry. Moreover, it highlights evidence of improvement in both face to face interview and individual presentation. Two actions are also
discussed that have the ability to enhance a career of a sales person in the energy industry.
Emotional intelligence and attribution theory
Emotional intelligence and the attribution theory contribute significantly to a student's performance. In this regard, emotional intelligence refers to a
student's capacity to be aware of express, and control emotions while handling interpersonal relationships empathetically and judiciously. Emotional
intelligence affects how an individual navigates various social complexities, manages behaviour and makes different personal decisions to get a
positive outcome. The attribution theory, on the other hand, regards how human beings understand cases and how this relates to their behaviour and
thinking (McLeod 2010). In other words, attribution theory presumes that people attempt to understand humans' acts. Both the emotional intelligence
and attribution theory will play a critical role in my success as I pursue my graduate career by enabling me to operate more effectively.
Emotional intelligence
A

Bernard Weiner And Heider's Attribution Theory
Attribution Theory
Heider (1958) initially proposed a psychological theory of attribution, but Harold Kelley (1967, 1971) and Bernard Weiner (1985, 1986) established a
theoretical structure that has become a foremost research model of social psychology. Attribution theorists interpret humans as scientists trying to
understand the world around them and using simple statistical techniques to reach different conclusions.
The attribution theory has been most thoroughly examined in the achievement domain. It is stated that in order to determine the causes of success and
failure, casual search is undertaken. This search is usually instigated when unexpected and significant events culminate in failure. Among the most
dominant inferred causes of success and failure are; ability, effort, task ease or difficulty, luck, mood and help or hindrance from others. These
inferences are in part based on informational variable, including past performances and social norms. (Kelley, 1967) "Attribution theory deals with how
the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanations for events. It examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to
form a causal judgment" (Fiske, 1991). Heider states that there is a strong need in individuals to understand transient events by attributing them...show
more content...
"Motivation in the present context refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes
toward learning the language. That is, motivation to learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual works or strives
to learn the language because of desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity." (p.10) He has associated motivation to attitude as he
considers that true motivation must be linked to a striving in order to learn the

Attribution Theory By Fritz Heider..according
Attribution Theory, attempts to explain causes of behavior. It attempts to explain the causes of people 's behavior and attributing or explaining reasons
as to why people behave the way they do Heider(1958). The theory was developed by Fritz Heider..According to Heider (1958) a person can make two
attributions; internal attribution, the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude,
character or personality and external attribution, the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or
she is in.
Weiner (1974) focused hisattribution theory on achievement he identified ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as the most important factors affecting
attributions for achievement. The assumptions of the theory is that there is not a direct relationship between our behavior and its causes. There can be a
variety of behaviors that are perceived resulting from a variety of causes.
Since brand loyalty constitute of attitudes and behavior to settle on a brand. Attribution theory looks into illustrating the driving force behind decision
making. For a brand loyalist to be, multiple mental deductions must be undertaken to get to the most sequentially logical conclusion based on situation
at hand.
2.1.3 Belief Congruency Theory
This theory was developed by M.Rokeach, he pointed out that there are a hierarchy of beliefs, attitudes and values. Beliefs are the building

The Importance Of The Attribution Theory
Introduction We attach and assume meanings to others behavior in our day to day life and the theory developed by Fritz Heider based on this is
called The Attribution Theory. This was developed overtime by many other social psychologists as well, including Edward Jones, Keith Davis, and
Harold Kelley. TheAttribution Theory seeks to help people make sense of their world by identifying causes for the behaviors and events they
experience. Throughout this paper I will explain the theory, talk about my personal experience with it, studies performed about it and lastly the
significance that this theory holds in our society today.
Personal Experience
After researching my theory I recognized we all come in contact with this idea on a day to day basis. We as humans do not like to take responsibility
for our actions when something goes wrong. It is much easier to blame the consequences on anything but ourselves. For example, using internal
attribution someone who trips and falls knows it is because they are clumsy. But using external attribution, he/she would blame their fall on an
inanimate object rather than themselves, even know they know the fall was due to lack of paying attention to where they were going. Just like many
other people, I am guilty of applying this theory in my life. Looking back, I notice there have been times where I blamed MY actions on an external
force, such as my roommate distracting me and keeping me up late while I was trying to do homework. This is human

The attribution theory is the theory on how people explain things. One of the best things about being human is being able to explain anything. A
synonym of attribution is exclamation. We as humans have a strong need to understand things. If you can influence people and explain what is
happening, you may be able to change them.
Attribution Theory
Attribution theory correlates with how people exemplify events and how it affects their behavior and thinking. People making casual explanations is
known as attribution theory. It was established over time from different social psychologists, especially Fritz Heider who played a major role in
producing the theory in 1958. Heider wrote about attribution theory in his book called The Psychology...show more content...
One also might say the sun was in their eyes or there was too much noise or too little. External attributions for winning a game would be "The team
played as one". Internal attributions for loosing a game might be "I did not kick the ball hard enough" or "I could have played better defense".
Problems with External Attribution
Problems that happen with external attribution are threatening an existing habit. This means, people who conduct behavior of an internal attribution
loose the habit if they differ their pattern of attribution. Problems arise when a reward or punishment stops people from making an internal attribution
which brings forth the wanted behavior under their control.
How to Use Attribution Theory Effectively
To use attribution theory effectively, you must apply it in a situation where people are wondering why things are happening. The explanation for this
must be an internal attribution such as thinking a person who is quiet and studying must be a hard working student. Attribution theory gives trust to the
fullest. Effective use is being certain the little things you do result in internal attribution.
Attribution/Persuasion Tactics
Persuasion tactics can be useful, like pointing out foods that will improve your health. They can also be harmful in attracting kids to smoke or drink.
Being more acquainted of persuasion techniques will prepare a person with awareness on how to prevent unnecessary purchases.
The assumption

Fritz Heider : The Theory Of Attribution Theory
The second component of social perception is attribution. Attribution is the process in which we attach meanings of other's behaviors. Similarly,
attribution theory refers to the study of models people implement in order to make judgments about the behavior of others. Fritz Heider, an Austrian
psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school, published "The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations," which expanded his creation of
attribution theory. Heider initiated that "people are naГЇve psychologists trying to make sense of the social world" (Heider, 1958). People tend to
observe others by determining whether behaviors are internally or externally caused and whether those factors are stable or unstable. Stable factors are
unlikely...show more content...
For example, fatalistic cultures such as Hinduism in India exemplify group–serving bias, rather than self–serving bias because the cultural group
believes in fate and reincarnation of souls. More specifically, Hindus tend to believe that what you have done in your past life is responsible for your
fate today, and the actions in this life can affect your next life.
Additionally, Edward Jones and Keith Davis' theory helps individuals understand the process of making internal attribution (1965). People make
internal attribution in correspondence between motive and behavior. Edward Jones and Keith Davis proposed a "Correspondent Inference Theory"
confirming that people make attributions about other people by comparing their actions with alternative actions in order to evaluate their choices.
According to Edward Jones and Keith Davis's theory, the sources of information people use as a basis for their inference of a person include factors
such as: the person's degree of choice, accidental vs. intentional behavior, social desirability, hedonistic relevance, and personalism. On the other hand,
Harold Kelley's "Covariation Model" is an attribution theory in which people make causal inferences to explain why people behave in certain ways
through multiple observations (1967). Kelley's Covariation Model of Attribution also explains how people use social perception to attribute behavior to
internal or external factors and how others

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