What Is Dispositional Attribution?

Attribution refers to the process by which people reason about others or themselves. Specifically, it is the causal explanation and inference made by the observer on the behavioral processes of others or on their own. (Attribution <Attribution> refers to how people explain the causes of their and other people's behaviors. It is a cognitive process in which people draw conclusions about the factors that affect or explain their behavior (McCabe & Dutton, 1993). Attribution concepts and theories so far, attribution has always been a hot research area of social psychology.)

Attribution refers to the process by which people reason about others or themselves. Specifically, it is the causal explanation and inference made by the observer on the behavioral processes of others or on their own. (Attribution <Attribution> refers to how people explain the causes of their and other people's behaviors. It is a cognitive process in which people draw conclusions about the factors that affect or explain their behavior (McCabe & Dutton, 1993). Attribution concepts and theories so far, attribution has always been a hot research area of social psychology.)

Chinese name

Attribution

Foreign name

attribution

Applied discipline

psychology

Application range

Social psychology

Attribution theory

Sociopsychological theory about the perceiver inferring and explaining the causes of others and themselves. Austrian social psychologist F. Heide Heider first proposed the attribution theory in his "Interpersonal Psychology" published in 1958. In the future, some scholars have proposed some new theories on this basis, such as B. Wiener, LY Abramson, HH Kelly, EE Jones, and others. Attribution research in the 1970s became the central subject of American social psychology research.

(1) Hyde's Attribution Theory

Hyde attaches great importance to the study of human perception, and believes that the essence of research on human perception is to examine the way in which ordinary people process information about others and themselves. An observer is so interested in the actions of the observed, like a "naive psychologist," seeking a causal explanation of behavior. In Hyde's view, the cause of the action is either the environment or the individual. If it is the environment, the actor is not responsible for its actions; if it is the individual, the actor is responsible for the results of its actions. Environmental reasons such as others, rewards and punishments, luck, difficulty in work, etc .; personal reasons such as personality, motivation, mood, attitude, ability, effort, etc. If a student fails the exam, it may be due to personal reasons: he is not smart, not working hard, etc .; or it may be due to environmental reasons: the course is too difficult, the exam is not reasonable, etc. Hyde's attribution theory of environment and individual, external cause and internal cause became the basis of later attribution research. He believes that the role of human perception in interpersonal communication is to enable observers to predict and control the behavior of others.

(2) Corresponding inference theory of Jones and Davis

The attribution theory proposed by Jones and KE Davis in 1965 is called corresponding inference. This theory argues that when people perform personal attribution, the intention and motivation of the behavior must be derived from the behavior and its consequences. The deduced behavioral intentions and motivations correspond to the observed behaviors and their results, that is, the corresponding inferences. The more information a person has about the behavior and the reason for the behavior, the more relevant the inferences he makes about the behavior. The more unusual a behavior is, the greater the correspondence of observers to its reasoning.

There are three main factors affecting the corresponding inferences: Non-common results: It means that the selected action plan has different characteristics from other action plans. For example, a person stands up, goes to close the window, puts on a sweater, and we can infer that he feels cold. The act of closing the window alone may also prevent noise outside the window, and the non-common result of wearing a sweater can lead people to conclude that the action is due to cold. Social Expectations: When a person shows actions that meet social expectations, it is difficult to infer his true attitude. For example, when a person attending a party said to the host that he was interested in the party when he left, this is in line with social expectations, and it is difficult to infer his true attitude from this action. However, when a person's behavior does not meet social expectations or is not recognized by the society, the behavior is likely to correspond to their true attitude. As mentioned above, those who attended the party said to the host that the party was bad when they left. This is an act that does not meet the expectations of the society, and it is likely to reflect the true attitude of the actors. Freedom of choice: If we know that someone is free to choose an action, we tend to think that this behavior corresponds to someone's attitude. If it is not free to choose, it is difficult to make corresponding inferences.

(3) Kelly's Third Degree Theory

Kelly proposed in 1973 that people always involve three factors in the attribution process: objective stimulus (existence); actors; the relationship or situation in which they are located. These three aspects constitute a covariant three-dimensional framework, so they are called third-degree theory. The general principle followed is the principle of covariance. The attribution of any of the three factors depends on the three variables of behavior: consistency, consistency, and differentiation. Consistency, for people, that is, whether other people respond to the same stimulus in the same way as the actor. Consistency, context-specific, that is, whether actors respond to a unified stimulus in any situation and at any time. Differential, for objective stimuli, that is, whether the actor does not respond the same to other stimuli of the same type.

(4) Weiner's achievement attribution theory

Wiener and colleagues developed Hyde's attribution theory in 1972. According to Wiener, the internal-external aspect is only one aspect of attribution judgment, and another aspect should be added, namely the temporary-stability aspect. Both aspects are important and independent of each other. The temporary-stability aspect is crucial in forming expectations and predicting future success or failure. For example, if we think that A's outstanding performance is due to stability factors such as his strong ability or easy task, then we can expect that he will do well if given the same task in the future. If we believe that his success is due to temporary factors such as his good mood or good opportunity, then he will not be expected to do well in the future. In 1979, he proposed another important dimension, the control point. He believes that factors such as effort, attention, and help from others are controlled by individual will and are controllable factors; while factors such as ability, luck, and mood are not controlled by human will and are uncontrollable factors.

(5) Attribution theory of Abramson et al.

Abramson, MEP Seligman, and TD Tisdal et al. Further developed Wiener's theory in 1978. They supplemented the attribution of failure based on their learned helplessness research and proposed a third aspect, the general-specific aspect. For example, a student always fails to get good marks on a math exam due to the prejudice of a math teacher, so he gives up his efforts on math, which is a learned manifestation of powerlessness. His powerlessness is a special aspect if it is only shown in one course in mathematics, and it is a universal aspect if it is also spread to other courses. ^[1]

Attribution three-dimensionality

Attribution is a universal need of human beings, and everyone has a set of opinions and ideas about the relationship between the cause of behavior and its behavior, which is summarized from their own experience. Proposed by Heider, initially contained only one dimension, the locus of control.

American psychologist B. Weiner has systematically explored the attribution of behavioral results and divided the attribution into three dimensions:

Internal and external attribution (internal attribution \ external attribution), stable attribution and non-stability attribution, controllable attribution and uncontrollable attribution Internal causes refer to reasons that exist within individuals, such as personal characteristics, qualities, motivations, attitudes, emotions, moods, and efforts. Attribution of behavior to personal characteristics is called internal attribution.

External causes refer to the external conditions of the behavior or event, including background, opportunity, influence of others, and difficulty of work tasks. If the cause of behavior is attributed to external conditions, it is called external attribution or situational attribution.

Comprehensive attribution: In many situations, the occurrence of behaviors and events is not caused by a single factor of internal or external causes, but has the influence of both. This type of attribution is called comprehensive attribution.

Among the success and failure attributions, when successful, individuals tend to be internal attribution, and when failures, individuals rarely explain with personal characteristics, but tend to external attribution. Internal attribution of success is conducive to the determination of self-worth, external attribution of failure, and reducing one's responsibility for failure is a kind of self-defense.

Under competitive conditions, individuals tend to externally attribute the success of others to reduce the pressure on others to succeed, and if others fail, they tend to be attributable internally. Individuals clearly put themselves in a favorable position to protect others' success or failure attribution. This tendency is called motivational attribution error.

The main principles of attribution

There are two main principles people follow when attributing behavior to others:

Covariance principle. According to Hyde, people generally think that any particular behavior is determined by many reasons. According to the principle of covariance, the connection of special results and special causes should be found under many different conditions.

Discount principle. Kelly believes that "the role of a particular cause in producing a particular result should be discounted if other specious causes also exist." That is to say, in the case that more than one reason may work, our attribution should not be too confident, and we should not easily attribute the result to a particular cause.

Attribution factors

(1) The impact of social perspectives. Because people have different social perspectives on attribution, the interpretation of behavioral causes is also significantly different.

(2) Protection of self-worth. In the process of attribution, the individual's explanation of things involved in self-employment has a clear tendency of self-value protection, that is, the attribution is inclined in a direction conducive to the establishment of self-worth.

(3) Time factor. As time goes on, attributions become more and more contextual, and people will explain events from a long time ago as background reasons, not causes of behavioral subjects and stimulating objects.

Factors that affect attribution include ability level, effort level, task difficulty, luck, physical and mental state, and external environment.

Attribution bias

When people attribute attributions to others or themselves, they are not always logical and logical, so attribution bias occurs. It includes cognitive biases, motivational biases, and gender biases. ^[2]