Attribution Theory

By : Nikki Marie Apilando

Attribution Theory

Attributions - “the process of explaining one's own behavior and the behavior of others”.

Discusses how people describe events and experiences in their lives and how they adapt to the results of those actions.

Introduced by Fritz Heider in 1958.Bernard Weiner 1974.

Was developed further by Harold Kelly

Continuation..• The rationale behind the theory is to recognize

why a situation happened so that future events can be anticipated and controlled. • The theory proposes that people’s actions are

attributable to internal and external factors. • Most people state that they are able to explain or

“attribute” the causes of someone’s or their own behavior or actions.

Why is this baby smiling?

TYPES OF ATTRIBUTION

•Personal attributions- internal •Situational attributions- external

Personal attributions• Explanations in terms of personal characteristics.

For example:• “The baby must be a happy baby.”

• Other examples:• “He scored well on the exam because he is smart.”• “She tripped because she is clumsy.”

Situational attributions

• Explanations in terms of situational factors. For example:• “Someone must have just played with the baby .”

•Other examples:• “He scored well because it was an easy test.”• “She tripped because a squirrel ran in front of her.”

•Behavior is observed•Behavior is determined to be deliberate behavior• Is attributed to internal or external causes.

Attribution is a three stage

process: • Effort• Ability• level of task difficulty • luck.

Achievement can

be attribute

d to

• Locus of control- cause of any event as internal or external.

• Stability- whether the cause of the event is stable or unstable across time and situations.

• Controllability.- whether or not the cause of any event is under the control of the learner.

Causal dimensions of

behaviour are

WEI

NER

’S

ATTR

IBU

TIO

N M

OD

EL

Weiner’s Attribution Model

• 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.)

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.

How do people make attributions?

• Consistency: Is the baby always smiling?• Distinctiveness: Are there occasions on

which the baby doesn’t smile?• Consensus: Do all babies smile?

Kelley argued that people take three factors into account when making a personal vs. situational attribution:

STRENGTHS OF THE THEORY

Explains the difference in motivation between high and low doers. • High achievers will attempt, rather than evade,

responsibilities related to prospering. • High achievers believe that failure is considered

to be caused by bad luck and is not their fault.

WEAKNESSES OF THE THEORY• Fundamental Error or correspondence bias- The

tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and over estimate the influence of internal factors.

-Blaming the people first, not the situation.• Self-serving bias- is the tendency for the individuals to

attribute their own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

-It is “our” success but “their” failure.

Shortcuts Used in Forming Impressions of OthersSelective

perception

Halo effect

Contrast effects

Stereotyping

• Selective Perception – People selectively interpret what they see on the

basis of their interests, background, experience,and attitudes.• Halo Effect

– Drawing a general impression about an individualOn the basis of a single characteristic.

• Contrast Effects – Evaluation of a person’s characteristics

that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.

• Profiling –A form of stereotyping in which members

of a group are singled out for intense scrutiny based on a single, often racial, trait.

 PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE THEORY

• Leaders should have an understanding of their staff’s reaction to certain situations.• Leaders should identify characteristics that guide

attributions for achievement.• The theory provides an outlet for management to allow

their staff to have feelings of self-efficacy. • Management should also be able to gauge cause and

effect of specific situations. 

Specific Applications in Organizations

Performance Expectation

Employee interview

Employee effort

Ethnic profiling

Performance Evaluator

Cont…

Employment Interview - during an interview the interviewers make an perceptual judgement and draw early impressions. As a result information elicited early in the interview carries greater weight than does information elicited later.

Performance Expectations - Self-fulfilling prophecy (pygmalion effect): The lower or higher performance of employees reflects preconceived leader expectations about employee capabilities.

Cont..Performance Evaluations - Appraisals are often the subjective

(judgmental) perceptions of appraisers of another employee’s job performance.

Employee Effort - Assessment of individual effort is a subjective judgment subject to perceptual distortion and bias.

Ethnic Profiling - A form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is singled out—typically on the basis of race or ethnicity—for intensive inquiry, scrutinizing, or investigation.

SOURCES 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 https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Motivation_and_emotion/Book/2014/

Attributions_and_motivation https://www.psychestudy.com/social/weiner-attribution-theory