Attributions

People make attributions about themselves and other people’s behavior all the time. Attributions are inferences people use to explain their own behavior or the behavior of others during an event. The attribution causes people to see the behavior rather than assume that the behavior is random. It allows people a feeling of some control over their own behavior and situations. Attributions are strongly influenced by the way people interact with each other.

Attribution theory was first addressed by Heider in 1958. He stated that what people perceive and believe about what they see dictates how they act; even when beliefs are invalid. The attribution process is a dichotomy that involves determining internal versus external cause for an event or behavior. The internal attribution is dispositional coming from within the person. The external attribution is situational coming from the environment that surrounds the person.

When an event occurs a person observes the behavior. Then they determine if the behavior is deliberate and then attributes the behavior to internal or external causes. An internal attribution is the blaming factor, agent or the force that someone controls for causing an event. Behavior is caused by personal factors such as traits, abilities or feelings. It can be contributed to disposition, a person’s ability or effort put forth. An external attribution is that the behavior is caused by the situation that surrounds the person. .

Attributions are made based on three criteria; consensus, distinctiveness and consistency. Consensus would be if others react to a certain situation the same. Distinctiveness would be does the behavior happen the same each time. Consistency would be does the behavior occur in similar situations. For example if Sarah is getting yelled at by her boss the consensus would be; do other people frequently yell at her too? Distinctiveness information would be does the boss yell at other employees, as well, or just at Sarah? Consistency information would be does the boss yell at Sarah frequently?

Attribution is also considering the situation that surrounds the person. In western culture most people don’t make it to this step. Western culture frequently does the fundamental attribution error which means that people overestimate dispositional and underestimate situational causes for behavior. They feel that behavior is caused by the person, not the situation. This step requires more effort and more conscious attention. It helps people to slow down before making a judgment. They don’t assess the situation that surrounds the person to see if the environment is contributing to the person’s behavior. For example, if Donna is nasty towards her husband most people would just assume that she is grumpy. But some situational factors that may have contributed to Donna’s mood are maybe she didn’t get enough sleep last night or maybe she is just stressed at work.