What is Attribution Theory?

Attribution theory is a social psychology theory that deals with how individuals relate and make sense of the social world. More specifically, it is concerned with how people translate events around them and how their translations affect their thinking and behavior. 

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A Little More on What is Attribution Theory

The Attribution Theory was proposed by Fritz Heider, an Austrian psychologist in 1958. This theory is concerned with how individuals perceive the information they receive, interpret events, and how these form causal judgements.

No individual would take an action or decision without attributing it to a cause or factor. 

According to Heider, this is aimed at assessing the explanation that people give to certain behaviors, it considers how individuals interpret their behaviors. 

The theory of attribution posits that attribution, whether done internally or externally, has great influence on how people feel and relate to others. 

This is also dependent on individual personality and cognitive behaviors. 

As a complex psychological process, there have been diverse attempts to explain this concept using many theories. 

From an attribution theory perspective, individuals exhibit creativity when dealing with others people and external factors. 

Academic Research on Attribution Theory

• An attribution theory of leadership, Calder, B. J. (1977). An attribution theory of leadership. In New directions in organizational behavior. St. Clair Press.
• Attribution of success and failure revisited, or: The motivational bias is alive and well in attribution theory, Zuckerman, M. (1979). Journal of personality, 47(2), 245-287. 
• Beyond attribution theory: Cognitive processes in performance appraisal., Feldman, J. M. (1981). Journal of Applied psychology, 66(2), 127.
• An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion., Weiner, B. (1985). Psychological review, 92(4), 548.
• Attribution of success and failure revisited, or: The motivational bias is alive and well in attribution theory, Zuckerman, M. (1979). Journal of personality, 47(2), 245-287. 
• Motivational processes affecting learning., Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American psychologist, 41(10), 1040.
• Intrapersonal and interpersonal theories of motivation from an attribution perspective, Weiner, B. (2001). In Student motivation (pp. 17-30). Springer, Boston, MA.
• A review of attribution theory in achievement contexts, Graham, S. (1991). A review of attribution theory in achievement contexts. Educational Psychology Review, 3(1), 5-39.
• Consumers' responses to negative wordofmouth communication: An attribution theory perspective, Laczniak, R. N., DeCarlo, T. E., & Ramaswami, S. N. (2001). Journal of consumer Psychology, 11(1), 57-73. 
• The development of an attribution-based theory of motivation: A history of ideas, Weiner, B. (2010). Educational psychologist, 45(1), 28-36. 
• Are causal attributions causal? A path analysis of the cognitive model of achievement motivation., Covington, M. V., & Omelich, C. L. (1979). Journal of personality and social psychology, 37(9), 1487.