Attribution Theory (original) (raw)

Attribution Theory: Finding Good Cause in the Search for Theory

Engaging Theories in Interpersonal Communication: Multiple Perspectives

H umans are an inquisitive species: We wonder why and how things occur, and we develop religions, philosophies, and sciences as ways of answering our questions. Such curiosity influences our cultural, societal, interpersonal, and personal lives in intricate ways. We can easily see many everyday examples of this in our own minds and in our conversations with friends: We ask ourselves why another person looks so lonely, we think about why we did not get a job, and we talk to others to try to figure out why the person we went out with on Saturday has not called us since then. After all, it's Tuesday! So fundamental is the process of asking and answering "why" questionstrying to figure out what caused something else-that it has been characterized as a basic human activity (Heider, 1958), and a family of theories has developed to illumine how and why things happen as they do. This set of theories, collectively called Attribution Theory, attempts to describe and explain the mental and communicative processes involved in everyday explanations, most typically explanations of individual and social events. In this chapter, we describe select parts of these theories and their related scholarship, and we offer critiques of its usefulness for understanding interpersonal communication processes. Purpose and Meta-theoretical Assumptions Even though attributions are talked about in everyday life and studied by people in many academic disciplines, most attribution theories arose in-and 37

Individual Differences and Attributional Analysis of Achievement-Related Behavior

Performance is affected by cognitive learning skills, but also by the reasons people perceive as causes of their successes and failures. People with high achievement needs perceive their successes as caused by their own ability and effort, and their failures as caused by lack of effort. People with low achievement needs blame their failures on lack of ability and do not take credit for their ability when they experience success. A change in attributions changes the way people perform. In one research study, high achievers given placebos they thought would interfere with their abilities tried less hard on a task, while people with low achievement needs and little self-confidence, since they had an excuse for experiencing difficulty, did better than usual. In another study, children subjected to repeated failures kept trying if they believed effort would make a difference. Tendencies to form causal attributions are learned, perhaps differently by different racial and social groups. Howeve7, interventions can change people's assessment of theif chances for success. For example, tests on children who were reinforced for exhibiting effort attributions showed that their work improved and they becaMe more persistent. Teachers should thus take students' individual attribution styles into consideration as a characteristic which affects achievement behavior, and, at the same time, attempt to change students' attributions in the direction of emphasizing ability and effort. (CD)

An intervention to retrain attributions using cbt a pilot study

The role of affective and cognitive factors in learning have long been recog-nised as imperative determinants of the learning process. Maladaptive styles with which we perceive and explain accomplishments and failures in achievement outcomes have an important motivational impact upon approach and avoidance behaviours towards academic tasks. Interventions to change these maladaptive styles are well established, although they stand to gain via addition of cognitive behavioural therapy components. A pilot study attribution retraining intervention was implemented with eight secondary school students, and their results on academic performance, self-concept, and attributional styles were compared to a control group. With significant gains in some specific academic domains, the attributional retraining program is being substantiated for effective use within secondary schools. Implications suggest that this could be an effective tool to retrain students' attributions, with some gains, as the reat-tribution technique is revisited and reinvigorated. Of all human behaviours, learning is perhaps the most dynamic and pervasive. Countless institutions are dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, and most individuals spend a significant part of their early life learning within schools; others spend even longer. Learning has been affirmed as more complex in structure than simple cognitive processes , with a range of factors influencing the learning process (VandenBos, 2007). A crucial cognitive factor known to moderate learning is the attributions attached to success and failure, which have significant implications for future academic performance and motivational qualities throughout the life cycle (). Particularly, the means by which these attributions, or perceived causalities, are deemed to regulate academic approach and avoidance behaviours have been delin-eated by Weiner (1985) in his operational model of achievement motivation. Weiner's model of achievement motivation stipulates that important, unexpected, and adverse achievement outcomes stimulate a causative search to understand the cause of the

Structure of freshmen's causal attributions for exam performance

Journal of Educational Psychology, 1989

This article explores the structure underlying causal attribution for achievement in an actual academic context. Ss were 859 university freshmen drawn from 4 samples. First, they rated the influence of 10 possible causes on their exam performance. Procrustes factor analysis of the causes revealed 4 factors in each of the samples reflecting the dimensions of locus, stability, control, and globality. The fit of the factor solution with theoretical predictions was r = .73. Second, 209 Ss drawn from the same population assessed 10 causes for exam performance along the dimensions of locus, stability, and control. The theoretical fit of these direct judgments was also substantial, r ffi .75. The author concludes that the four dimensions of locus, stability, control, and globality reflect the major characteristics of causal attributions given for academic achievement.

Attribution Among Students Towards their Success and Failure as a Learning Stimulus

2019

This research paper explores the perceived causes of attribution about children’s success and failure in their education. The significance of the study strengthens learners to continue their learning process without dissonance. This is an exploratory as well as explanatory research to explore the role of attribution to enhance the learning abilities of students in the classroom through avoidance and repetitive behavior. The researchers have adopted a qualitative method of study. The universe of the present research was Karachi. The respondents were the students of the standard, VIII, and X. The age of subjects was 13-16 years. The sample size of the present research was 150 respondents. In the present study, the researchers have used an Intellectual Achievement, Responsibility Questionnaire (IARQ) developed by Crandall et. al (1965). The IARQ is composed of 34 forced-choice items which describe Carver & White (1994) BIS (I-) /BAS (I+) scales, The BIS (I-) /BAS (I+) scales a positive...

Establishment of Causal Attribution as A Regulatory Strategy for Teaching and Learning

Iraqi Journal of Science, 2021

The theme of causal attribution has generated a great deal of work and focuses on the factors to which people attribute their behavior. However, its use to explain the results of the evaluation and the support for the regulation of teaching and learning acts has rarely been raised. Indeed, in the evaluation act, which is a privileged moment for reframing the learning process, teachers attribute the results obtained to the student himself, without worrying about the factors to which the student attribute itself these failures. This can distort the regulatory process and increase failure factors. The teacher's attributions of failure often relate to the results of the evaluations and are often explained by factors external to him: such as the lack of commitment of the students, their incompetence and their degree of understanding. and these are internal factors for the student. The aim of this presentation is to show that: the regulation of the teaching and learning act should not...

Attributions as Behavior Explanations: Toward a New Theory

Attribution theory has played a major role in social-psychological research. Unfortunately, the term attribution is ambiguous. According to one meaning, forming an attribution is making a dispositional (trait) inference from behavior; according to another meaning, forming an attribution is giving an explanation (especially of behavior). The focus of this paper is on the latter phenomenon of behavior explanations. In particular, I discuss a new theory of explanation that provides an alternative to classic attribution theory as it dominates the textbooks and handbooks-which is typically as a version of model of attribution as covariation detection. I begin with a brief critique of this theory and, out of this critique, develop a list of requirements that an improved theory has to meet. I then introduce the new theory, report empirical data in its support, and apply it to a number of psychological phenomena. I finally conclude with an assessment of how much progress we have made in understanding behavior explanations and what has yet to be learned.