theories explaining (Attribution Theories)

Teaching Notes

Chapter 10

Attribution Approaches

· Attribution Theories:

The theories that try to determine why people do what they do in order to uncover the feelings and traits that are behind their actions.

We make three assumptions in order to understand attribution theory:

1. We do attempt to determine the causes of both our own and other’s behavior.

2. Assignment of causes to behavior is not random, rules exist that can explain why (there are rules that explain behavior).

3. The causes attributed to behaviors will influence subsequent emotions and new behaviours.

· Attribution:

The action of regarding something as being caused by a person or thing.

· Theory 1: Heider’s Naïve psychology (1958):

“Naive” or “common sense” psychology

It posits that people are like amateur scientists, trying to understand other people’s behaviour by piecing together information until they arrive at a reasonable explanation or cause

When Trying to decide what causes people’s behavior, we can make one of two attributions:

1. An internal dispositional attribution:

The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality.

2. An external situational attribution:

The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in.

· Theory 2: Covariation

Over time we use Covariation (correlations) to make a judgment about a person’s behavior

· What are the patterns of past behavior?

· Is the behavior distinctive (stands out)?

· Is there consensus (other peoples’ behavior in same situation)?

· Is there consistency (how often does the person do this)?

Harold Kelley’s major contribution to attribution theory was the idea that we notice and think about more than one piece of information when we form an impression of another person.

· Theory 3: Prediction of the Outcome of an achievement-related event

How can we predict what achievement a person will attain?

· Ability

· Effort

· Task-difficulty

· External impact (luck)

Causal Dimensions:

What causes the person to put in effort or complete a task?

· Locus

Internal ability, focus, patience

External task difficulty, situational factors outside of personal control

· Stability

Ability is stable

Effort is unstable

· Controllability

Impact of others on performance

· Theory 4: Biases in Attributions

Why are we biased when we make attributions?

· Self-serving bias = to take credit form work and avoid failure (innate)

· False Consensus (The belief that people feel the same as we do about something)

· Theory 5: Fundamental Attribution Error

Our tendency to attribute behavior to stable internal characteristics. In other words, she did that because she is clever, or he did that because he is not so clever…

FAE happens because:

· We may not be aware of the situational factors

· We fail to fully understand the impact of the situational factors

· Personal experience influences the way we see the behavior

· We are unable or unwilling to fully think about the impact

· Theory 6: Mastery Orientation

Helpless people need performance goals:

· Take life events personally

· Blame others

· Look at disposition and external factors

Mastery-oriented people need learning/outcomes-based goals:

· See life events as general and not personal

· Adjust effort to improve