Attribution in Social Psychology

Dr. Suresh Kumar Murugesan PhD

Attribution
'Attribution' is a concept in social psychology addressing the processes by
which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events.
Example for Attribution

When you get a poor grade on a quiz, you

might blame the teacher for not adequately
explaining the material, completely dismissing
the fact that you didn't study.

When a classmate gets a better grade on the

same quiz, you might attribute his good
performance to luck, neglecting the fact that
he has excellent study habits.
Key terms
● Attribution = Explanation
● Attribution Theory
○ Explains others behaviour by crediting the situation person’s disposition
● Dispositional - factors within the person (Personality
● Situational - factors outside the person (Luck)
Types of Attribution

The main types of attributions we may use in daily life include:

1. Interpersonal Attribution
2. Predictive Attribution
3. Explanatory Attribution
Interpersonal Attribution
When telling a story to a group of friends or acquaintances, you are likely to
tell the story in a way that places you in the best possible light.
 We also tend to attribute things in ways that allow us to make
Predictive future predictions.
Attribution When your bike was damaged, you might attribute the crime to
the fact that you parked in a particular private parking.

As a result, you will avoid that private parking in the future in

order to avoid further damaged.
 ● We use explanatory attributions to help us make sense of the world
Explanatory ●
around us.
Some people have an optimistic explanatory style, while others tend
Attribution ●
to be more pessimistic.
People with an optimistic style attribute positive events to stable,
internal, and global causes and negative events to unstable, external,
and specific causes.
● Those with a pessimistic style attribute negative events to internal,
stable, and global causes and positive events to external, stable, and
specific causes.
Types of attributions
1. External Attribution
2. Internal Attribution
External attributions
● External attribution, also called situational attribution
● It refers to interpreting someone's behavior as being
caused by the individual's environment.
● For example, if one's car tire is punctured, it may be
attributed to a hole in the road; by making attributions to
the poor condition of the highway, one can make sense
of the event without any discomfort that it may in reality
have been the result of their own bad driving.
● Individuals are more likely to associate unfortunate
events with external factors than with internal factors.
● Ex. A child attributes their feelings to the weather outside
their house; The child feels sad because it is raining
outside.
Internal
Attribution
● Internal attribution, or dispositional
attribution, refers to the process of
assigning the cause of behavior to
some internal characteristic, likeability
and motivation, rather than to outside
forces.
● This concept has overlap with the
Locus of control, in which individuals
feel they are personally responsible for
everything that happens to them.
● Example: A child attributes the weather
to their feelings; it is raining outside
because the child is feeling sad.
Types of Attribution
● Stable attribution
● Unstable attribution
 ● Stable Attribution, people infer that an event or behavior is
Stable Attribution due to stable, unchanging factors.
● Example: Suresh gets a grade ‘D’ on his social
Psychology semester paper. If he attributes the grade to
the fact that he always has bad luck, he is making a stable
attribution.
 ● Unstable Attribution, people infer that an event or behavior
Unstable is due to unstable, temporary factors.
Attribution ● Example: Suresh gets a grade ‘D’ on his social
Psychology semester paper. If he attributes the grade to
the fact that he didn’t have much time to study that week,
he is making an unstable attribution.
Relationship between attribution and Personality
Theories of
Attribution
The roots of
attribution theory

Attribution theory is rooted in the work of

1. Kurt Lewin,
2. Julian Rotter,
3. John Atkinson,
4. Fritz Heider,
5. Harold Kelley, and
6. Bernard Weiner.
Different Theories of Attribution

1. Fritz Heider's "Common Sense" Theory (1958)

2. Correspondent Inference Theory by Edward Jones and Keith
Davis (1965)
3. Kelley's Covariation Model (1967)
4. Bernard Weiner's Attribution Theory (1979) etc
Theories of Attribution
1. https://www.integratedsociopsychology.net/theory/meta-states-and-the-cognitiv
e-triad/attribution-theory/
2. https://www.indjsp.org/article.asp?issn=0971-9962;year=2020;volume=36;issu
e=4;spage=277;epage=283;aulast=Banerjee
3. https://nptel.ac.in/content/storage2/courses/109101015/downloads/Lecture%2
0Notes/Lec9-Social_Attribution.pdf
Biases in Attribution
https://www.visualcapitalist.co
m/wp-content/uploads/2017/09
/cognitive-bias-infographic.html
Practical applications of
attribution theories in
various areas of clinical
practice
References
1. Kendra Cherry (May 15, 2020). Attribution and Social Psychology.
https://www.verywellmind.com/attribution-social-psychology-2795898
2. McLeod, S. A. (2012). Attribution theory. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/attribution-theory.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_(psychology)
4. https://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/socialpsychology/section3/page/2/
5. Debanjan Banerjee, Chehak Gidwani and TS Sathyanarayana Rao (2020). The role of “Attributions” in social psychology and
their relevance in psychosocial health: A narrative review.
https://www.indjsp.org/article.asp?issn=0971-9962;year=2020;volume=36;issue=4;spage=277;epage=283;aulast=Banerjee
6. https://www.indjsp.org/viewimage.asp?img=IndianJSocPsychiatry_2020_36_4_277_305945_t1.jpg
7. https://nptel.ac.in/content/storage2/courses/109101015/downloads/Lecture%20Notes/Lec9-Social_Attribution.pdf
8. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/social-cognition-2/
9. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/psychology/psychology/social-psychology/attributions
10. https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/chapter/biases-in-attribution/
11. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/edpsy/chapter/attribution-theory/
12. http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/social-psychology-theories/attribution-theory/
13. https://www.integratedsociopsychology.net/theory/meta-states-and-the-cognitive-triad/attribution-theory/
14. https://storage.googleapis.com/titlemax-media/099372db-50-cognitive-biases-2_80per.png