Review on the Attribution Theory in the Social Psychology: Analytical Essay

Background and Purpose

This study tells about Attribution which includes the process that is used by people to link the underlying causes of the events. Social psychologists in analyzing attribution cases, as with many other issues, do not have a full consensus, and they analyze and study it from different perspectives. That is different theories have been imposed in this case

Methods

The oldest attribution is found in the works of Fritz Haider's theory formulation. In his opinion, most people, who are new to psychologists, trying to understand the behavior of others to make the world more predictable. According to Haider, most people apply on this explain one of the following:

• A - They may have assumed situational factors
• B - They may imagine that the behavior was unintentional and accidental and probably will not happen in the future.
• C - The third explanation is that the person has developed their own personal behavior traits.

Result

Ross and Fletcher conclude that there is no reason to assume that people are always in the mind and even curious what is the cause of their behavior with others. When people try to describe their performance, different types of attribution can have different motivational and emotional consequences for them.

• 2 Mirsadeghi, S. (Mar. - Apr. 2013). A Review on the Attribution Theory in the Social Psychology. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS)
• (Richard W. Mizerski, (Sep., 1979),)

The Attribution Process in Consumer Decision Making Journal of Consumer Research Background and Purpose

Attribution theory deals only with the processes by which attributions are derived from information input (Kelley 1973, p. 126). It encompasses the cognitive sequence from stimulus manipulation to the attribution, but strictly speaking, does not treat the consequences of the attribution, This discussion has merely highlighted the work of Heider, Jones and Davis, Bem, and Kelley, who are the pioneers in, but by no means the only contributors to, the development of attribution theory. Many facets of each of these models were not discussed, either a be- cause of space constraints or because they have less direct application in consumer analysis.

Methods

Attribution theory can be divided into three foci: person-perception (Heider, Jones and Davis, Kelley); self-perception (Bam, Kelley), and object-perception (Kelley). Since Heider is generally considered to be the 'father of attribution theory,' the discussion of the major theories begins with Heider and person-perception.

Result

The role of attribution theory in understanding the information processing aspects of consumer decision-making, it should not be assumed that attribution theory has no other relevance to consumer research. Perhaps the most integral concept underlying attribution theory is learning. Attribution theory is mute in some areas of consumer analysis where one might expect it to have a great deal to say. Finally, attribution theory is not a single theory, but several related theories that provide a common approach to a large class of questions related to the cognitive processes

• Goosenberg, D. (April 25, 2016). The Effects of Punctuality Discordance and Behavioral Attributions on Relationship Satisfaction. The University of British Columbia.
• (Goosenberg, April 25, 2016)

The Effects of Punctuality Discordance and Behavioral Attributions on Relationship Satisfaction.

The University of British Columbia Background and Purpose

The primary aim of this study is to investigate how partner differences in factors such as the perceived importance of punctuality, and the degree to which one perceives their partner’s tardiness as intentional or unintentional, influence the observed association between time perception discrepancies and relationship satisfaction. Our relationships with others are central aspects of our lives, and essential to our health and well-being. The current study is focused primarily on factors related to relationship well-being, and the component of psychological temporality known as time perception, which refers to the awareness of duration and the perception of the passage of time

Methods

based on research by Carly Result, was designed to measure four primaries related to relationship satisfaction. Participants responded using a 9-item, Likert-type scale. The IMS appears to be a reliable and valid method of assessing relationship satisfaction and further, participant responses to the IMS were highly correlated with their responses to other measures shown to be closely related to relationship satisfaction by asking Counterbalance Self & Partner Punctuality Questions Lateness Attribution Questions.

Result

The author has predicted that larger partner differences in the value placed on punctuality would be associated with lower relationship satisfaction. Additionally, the author expected that individuals who attributed their partner’s lateness more so to internal causes would experience lower relationship satisfaction; and that the causes or attributions used to explain their partner’s actions would remain consistent over time.

• Mackey2, M. J. (15 April 2019). Attribution theory: An introduction to the special issue. School of Business and Industry, Florida A&M.
• (Mackey2, 15 April 2019)

Attribution theory: An introduction to the special issue.

School of Business and Industry, Florida A&M. Background and Purpose

Attribution processes have also emerged as an important moderator between supervisory behavior and subordinates. Attribution processes are also a central theme for an Australian Research Council Grant to study the effects of high‐performance work systems. In summary, the scope of application for attribution theory has expanded considerably in recent years. This special issue is designed to provide a forum for further development of our understanding of how attributional processes contribute to explaining some of the most critical issues in organizational behavior.

Methods

Two methods were used to generate the papers for this special issue. As usual, a call for papers was announced by the Journal of

Organizational Behaviour. In addition, a call for papers was issued for the Third International Symposium on Attribution Theory, which was held in March 2018 at the School of Business and Industry at Florida. There were 40 attendees at the Third International Symposium on Attribution Theory, which included scholars from 10 countries.

All participants, including keynote speaker Bernard Weiner, were able to provide feedback on every presentation. All papers included in this special issue were also subject to the Journal of Organizational Behaviour’s standard review process. Ultimately, the study authors, feedback from the attendees of the Third International Symposium on Attribution Theory,

Result

The numerous study designs, research contexts, and focal topics to which attribution theory was applied in this special issue demonstrate the immense amount of opportunities for attribution theory to enrich our understanding of organizational behavior phenomena. Nevertheless, there are still many fruitful areas of inquiry, particularly with respect to theory development and the relationships between attributions and emotional processes.

• Rebecca Peretz-Lange⁎, P. M. (2019). Verbal framing and statistical patterns influence children’s attributions to situational, but not personal, causes for behavior. Tufts University, United States.
• (Rebecca Peretz-Lange⁎, 2019)

Verbal framing and statistical patterns influence children’s attributions to situational, but not personal causes for behavior.

Tufts University, United States Background, and Purpose

Research has shown that children can use both the statistical patterns present in observed behavior, as well as the verbal framing of the behaviors, to infer personal causes. However, research has not explored whether children also use these factors to infer situational causes. The present study examined the impacts of statistical patterns and verbal framing on four and six-year-old children’s (n=218) attributions to personal and situational causes for behavior, as assessed by their explanations for characters’ interactions with toys.

Methods

Two hundred eighteen 4- and 6-year-old children participated in this between October 2015 and August 2017. Within each age group, participants were randomly assigned to 9 conditions with at least 12 participants in each condition.. They chose to include these additional participants in the full sample prior to conducting analyses. A power analysis shows that this sample size is sufficient to detect a medium effect size for the analysis of a two-way interaction between pattern and verbal framing, which were planned a priori for the primary hypotheses discussed above, at a power level of at least 80%. All participants whose parents provided consent to participate completed this study.

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Result

In sum, the current study provides evidence for a personal attribution bias in children’s social causal reasoning and evidence that verbal framing and statistical patterns impact children’s reasoning about both personal and situational causes, specifically with respect to their explanations for social behavior. Children have conceptual biases to represent behavior in terms of personal causes but can identify situational causes if they are suggested through the language they hear or the patterns of evidence they observe. Studying social causal attribution in early childhood may have important implications for understanding the origins of the attribution biases found throughout adulthood..

Introduction

Human beings are encouraged to attribute causes to their behaviors and actions. Attribution is the method in social psychology by which people explain the causes of behavior and occurrences. Models to explain this process are called attribution theory. Psychological research on attribution started in the early 20th century with Fritz Heider's work and Harold Kell's theory was further developed. (Jones & Harris, 1967; Kelley, 1967; Ross, 1977). Attribution theory provides the framework necessary to understand how individuals explain why events in their environment happened (i.e., they make causal ascriptions; Heider, 1958). Several factors stimulated the need for this special issue on attribution theory. First, recent journal articles have made it clear that the potential of attribution theory to contribute to the organizational sciences has not been realized. In particular, an article by Martinod, Harvey, and Desborough (2011) pointed out that although a significant proportion of journal space in social psychology is devoted to attributional perspectives of human behavior, a disproportionally small amount of space is devoted to attributional topics in organizational behavior journals. In that article, they note that many researchers have misconstrued discussions of attribution theory by downplaying the utility of the construct. A recent article by Harvey, Madison, Martinod, Crook, and Crook (2014) directly addressed the criticisms regarding the explanatory power of attribution theory (Lord & Smith, 1983; Mitchell, 1982) by demonstrating through a meta‐analysis that the amount of variance in organizational outcomes that is accounted for by attributional construct is similar to other more popular constructs, such as organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors.

Types of attribution

1.Dispositional Attribution

Dispositional attribution assigns the cause of behavior to some internal characteristic of a person, rather than to outside forces.

When we explain the behavior of others we look for enduring internal attributions, such as personality traits. This is known as the fundamental attribution error.

2. Situational Attribution

The process of assigning the cause of behavior to some situation or event outside a person's control rather than to some internal characteristic.

When we try to explain our own behavior we tend to make external attributions, such as situational or environmental features.

Attribution theory

Attribution theory is concerned with how the causes of conduct and occurrences are explained by ordinary people. The theory of attribution deals with how data is used by the social perceiver to obtain causal explanations for occurrences. It examines what information is gathered and how it is combined to form a causal judgment.

Correspondent Inference Theory

Jones and Davis (1965) believed that deliberate conduct (as opposed to accidental or unthinking conduct) was given specific attention to individuals.

The theory of Jones and Davis enables us to comprehend the inner attribution process. They claim that when we see a correspondence between motivation and conduct, we tend to do this. For example, when we see a correspondence between someone behaving in a friendly way and being a friendly person.

Dispositional attributions give us data from which to predict the future conduct of a person. The inference theory of the correspondent defines the circumstances under which we create dispositional characteristics to the conduct that we perceive as deliberate.

Davis used the word correspondent inference to refer to an opportunity when an observer infers that the conduct of a person matches or corresponds to his character. It is an alternative word to attribution of disposition.

Jones and Davis say we draw on five sources of information:

1. Choice: If behavior is freely chosen it is believed to be due to internal factors.
2. Accidental vs. Intentional Behaviour: Behaviour that is intentional is likely to be attributed to the person’s personality, and behavior which is accidental is likely to be attributed to situation / external causes.
3. Social Desirability: Behaviours low in sociable desirability (non-conforming) lead us to make (internal) dispositional inferences more than socially undesirable behaviours.
4. Hedonistic Relevance: If the other person’s behaviour appears to be directly intended to benefit or harm us.
5. Personalism: If the other person’s behaviour appears to be intended to have an impact on us, we assume that it is “personal”, and not just a by-product of the situation we are both in.

Kelley's Covariation Model

Kelley’s covariation model is the best-known attribution theory. He developed a logical model for judging whether a particular action should be attributed to some characteristic of the person or the environment.

The word covariation merely implies that an individual has data from various observations at distinct moments and circumstances and can see the covariation and causes of an observed impact.

Three kinds of evidence.

• Consensus: the extent to which other people behave in the same way in a similar situation
• Distinctiveness: the extent to which the person behaves in the same way in similar situations.
• Consistency: the extent to which the person behaves like this every time the situation occurs. .

According to Kelley we fall back on past experience and look for either

1. Multiple necessary causes. For example, we see an athlete win a marathon, and we reason that she must be very fit, highly motivated, have trained hard, etc., and that she must have all of these to win
2. Multiple sufficient causes. For example, we see an athlete fail a drug test, and we reason that she may be trying to cheat, or have taken a banned substance by accident, or been tricked into taking it by her coach. Any one reason would be sufficient.

Conclusion

When individuals attempt to define their performance, they may experience distinct kinds of attribution with distinct motivational and emotional implications. An individual can determine how the private attribution or other situational conduct has been effective and under what circumstances.

References

1. Goosenberg, D. (April 25, 2016). The Effects of Punctuality Discordance and Behavioral Attributions on Relationship Satisfaction. The University of British Columbia.
2. Mackey2, M. J. (15 April 2019). Attribution theory: An introduction to the special issue. School of Business and Industry, Florida A&M.
3. Mirsadeghi, S. (Mar. - Apr. 2013). A Review on the Attribution Theory in the Social Psychology. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS).
4. Rebecca Peretz-Lange⁎, P. M. (2019). Verbal framing and statistical patterns influence children’s attributions to situational, but not personal causes for behavior. Tufts University, United States.
5. Richard W. Mizerski, L. L. ((Sep., 1979),). The Attribution Process in Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Research.
6. Anderson ;(2001), Symbolic Psychologic: A model of attitudinal Cognition. Behavioral Science;3,1-13
7. Bettman, James R. (1979), An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice, Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley.
8. Malle, B. F. (2011) Attribution theories: How people make sense of behavior. Theories in Social Psychology, 72-95.
9. Carson, J. E. (2019). External relational attributions: Attributing cause to others' relationships. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(5),