ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Contents ATTRIBUTION THORY DEFINITION TYPES OF ATTRIBUTION FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ATTRIBUTIONS(KELLY’S MODEL) COMMON ATTRIBUTION ERRORS SHORTCUTS USED IN FORMING IMPRESSIONS OF OTHERS BIBLIOGRAPHY

DEFINITION Attribution theory is a theory about how people explain things. Attribution refer to the way people try to understand the behavior of others or interpret events around them. Attribution theory seeks to explain how and why people make these causal attributions.

Types Of Attribution CATEGORY 1 INTERNAL EXTERNAL CATEGORY 2 STABLE UNSTABLE CATEGORY 3 CONTROLLABLE UNCONTROLLABLE

Internal vs. External In an internal, or dispositional, attribution, people infer that an event or a person’s behavior is due to personal factors such as traits, abilities, or feelings. In an external, or situational, attribution, people infer that a person’s behavior is due to situational factors.

Stable vs. Unstable Researchers also distinguish between stable and unstable attributions. When people make a Stable attribution, they infer that an event or behavior is due to stable, unchanging factors. When making an Unstable attribution, they infer that an event or behavior is due to unstable, temporary factors.

Controllable vs. Uncontrollable If something is controllable, we can alter it if we wish to do so. If something is uncontrollable, it is outside our sphere of influence.

Factors That Influence Attributions(Kelly’s model) Distinctiveness : Distinctiveness – the consideration given to how consistent a person’s behavior is across different situations Consistency : Consistency – refers to the measure of whether an individual responds the same way across time. Consensus : Consensus - refers to the likelihood that all those facing the same situation will have similar responses.

Common Attribution Errors Fundamental Error Self-serving Bias

The Fundamental Attribution Error The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to internal factors such as personality traits, abilities, and feelings. The fundamental attribution error is also called the correspondence bias, because it is assumed that other people’s behavior corresponds to their personal attributes. When explaining their own behavior, on the other hand, people tend to attribute it to situational factors.

The Self-Serving Bias The self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to situational factors. This bias tends to increase as time passes after an event. Therefore, the further in the past an event is, the more likely people are to congratulate themselves for successes and to blame the situation for failures.

Shortcuts Used in Forming Impressions of Others Selective perception Halo effect Contrast effects Stereotyping

Cont.… Selective Perception – happens when a person selectively interprets what he sees on the basis of his interests, background, experience, and attitudes. It is impossible for a person to assimilate everything he sees, hears, smells, touches or tastes. Only a limited number of stimuli can be taken in. As a result, people engage in selective perception, but the process is affected by personal interests, background, experience and attitude of the perceiver.

Cont.…. Halo Effect – occurs when one attribute of a person or situation is used to develop an overall impression of the person or situation. In short, this occurs when we draw a general impression on the basis of a single characteristic. Contrast Effects – evaluations of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics. Here, we do not evaluate a person in isolation. Our reaction to one person is influenced by other persons we have recently encountered.

Cont.…. Stereotyping – judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs. Generalization is not without advantages. It is a means of simplifying a complex world, and it permits us to maintain consistency. The problem, of course, is when we inaccurately stereotype.

Bibliography Organizational Behavior - V S P Rao. Organization Behavior -Johhn M Ivancevich ,Robert Konopaske and Michael T Matteson Organization Behavior - Stephen P. Robbins , Timothy A. Judge and Neharika Vohra http://www.simplypsychology.org/attribution-theory.html Google Images