Chapter 5

Attribution Theory

An umbrella term used to describe the set of theoretical accounts of how people assign causes to the events around them, and the effects of their causal assessments

Dimensions: - Locus - Stability - Global/Specific - Controllability

Locus: is cause of behavior due to person (internal) or situation (external)? Stability: is cause unchanging or subject to change? Global/specific: Does cause influence many areas of life or just one specific domain? Controllability: is the cause something that is under the person's control or not?

External Attribution

people infer that a person's behavior is due to situational factors. (situational)

Internal Attribution

people infer that an event or a person's behavior is due to personal factors such as traits, abilities, or feelings (dispositional)

Consistency

refers to what an individual does in a given situation on different occasions. Is the behavior the same now as in the past, or does it vary?

Distinctiveness

refers to what an individual does in different situations. Is a particular behavior unique to a specific situation, or does it occur in many situations?

Consensus

refers to what most people would do in a given situation. Does everyone behave the same way in that situation, or do few other people behave that way?

Weiner's Attribution Model - Ability - Effort - Luck - Task Difficulty

the most important factors affecting attributions are ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. Attributions are classified along three causal dimensions: locus of control (two poles: internal vs. external) stability (do causes change over time or not?) controllability (causes one can control such as skills vs. causes one cannot control such as luck, others' actions, etc.) Attribution is a three stage process: (1) behavior is observed, (2) behavior is determined to be deliberate, and (3) behavior is attributed to internal or external causes. Achievement can be attributed to (1) effort, (2) ability, (3) level of task difficulty, or (4) luck. Causal dimensions of behavior are (1) locus of control, (2) stability, and (3) controllability. i dont ****ing know.