Definition
Logically inferred judgments or explanations of what caused a person to perform specific behaviors based on one’s observations and knowledge of the person’s environment and dispositions.
Background
Attributional research began as a necessary extension from psychoanalysis and behaviorism in the early 1930s (Heider 1944). Researchers previously focused on unconscious desires and behavioral learning as means to understanding predictors of human behavior. Unfortunately, researchers ignored how the mind processes one’s own observations to further influence behavior. Heider (1944, 1958) argued in response to these views that to understand human behavior researchers must examine how people comprehend their social environment. He reasoned that researchers needed to focus on how events are perceived, rather than trying to determine the “correct” perception.
Heider posited that...
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References
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Blandina, A., Kelley, D. (2020). Attributions. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1780
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1780
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