Attribution Theory
The purpose of this review was to discuss the development of attribution theory. Since there is no unifying theory of attribution, this review attempts to explain central ideas comprising the basic tenet that attribution theory describes how people make causal explanations about reality, as well as the behavioral and emotional consequences of those explanations. Attribution theory was developed over time from several social psychologists, including Fritz Heider, Edward Jones, Keith Davis, and Harold Kelley. Heider played a central role in defining attribution theory in 1958, in his book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships. In 1965, Jones and Davis expanded attribution theory through their systematic hypothesis about the perception of intention in their essay "From Acts to Dispositions". Harold Kelley tied together the theoretical foundation of attribution theory in his landmark paper Attribution Theory in Social Psychology in 1967. This paper will identify three key concepts comprising attribution theory. Attribution theory describes the processes of explaining events and behavior, and the behavioral and emotional consequences of those explanation
Jones and Davis also reported the influence of "hedonic relevance", which questioned the impact of the consequences of an actor's behavior on an observer, in terms of making an attribution about the behavior. Also, Jones and Davis reported the influence of "personalism", which questioned the impact of the perceived intentions of an actor on an observer, in terms of making an attribution about the behavior (Jones & Davis, 1965). Jones and Davis predicted that behavior led to more dispositional inferences when it was high in hedonic relevance and personalism (Jones & Davis, 1965). Thus "information level is high for a person who can make highly stable but differentiated attributions" (Kelley, 1967). Although this equation is not typically used in practice, the approximate larger the "F" value, the better one will be able to attribute cause. s. The theory developed within social psychology as a means of dealing with questions of social perception. One of the most influential persons involved in attribution theory, Harold Kelley, reported that attribution theory was significant because "When the attributions are appropriate, the person undoubtedly fares better in his decisions and actions than he would in the absence of the causal analysis" (Kelley, 1973). This theory has made an astounding impact on modern psychology; "Attribution theory came to rival cognitive dissonance as one of the most imperialistic theories in social psychology. Attribution theory was seen as relevant to the study of person perception, event perception, attitude change, the acquisition of self-knowledge, therapeutic interventions, and much more" (Ross and Fletcher, 1985). Harold Kelley (1967) took a different approach when he developed his theory of attribution (Kelley, 1967). Kelley's model, known as the "covariation model", applies to multiple instances of behavior, rather than just a single instance the way correspondent inference theory works (Kelley, 1967). Kelley proposed that many attitudinal, perceptual, and motivational phenomena could be understood as results of the individual's attributions of causes for events (Nisbett & Borgida, 1975). His theory is not limited to interpersonal perception. He uses the theory to try to answer the question: "How does a person validate his/ her opinion of an entity?" Kelley used the example of a person enjoying a movie. Thus, if a person enjoys a movie, is the movie enjoyable to all people, or does that particular person enjoy certain kinds of movies? According to what came to be known as Kelley's "ANOVA Model", in order to make an inference about a thing (eg: enjoyment of a movie), one must question whether the thing is distinct from other things (eg: the movie is distinct from other movies), whether the thing has consensus (eg: agreement that the movie is enjoyable), whether the thing is consistent over time (eg: the movie is still good after repeat viewings
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1971
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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