Attribution: Introduction et Définition

Attribution: Introduction and Definition

• Attribution refers to how individuals explain the causes of others' behavior.
• It's a complex area in social psychology with various theories and sometimes inconsistent findings.
• The general meaning of "attribution" is the causal explanation of behaviors, seeking the reasons.
• Attributing dispositions (traits, characteristics) to individuals based on their behaviors.
• Kelley and Michela (1980) distinguished between attribution theories and dispositional theories to highlight the different approaches.
• The core elements include antecedents (pre-existing info, beliefs, motivations influencing attribution), the attribution itself (causal inferences or dispositional attributions), and its consequences (behavioral, affective, cognitive or expectations).
• Key studies examine the causal links individuals establish to interpret and understand events/behaviors.
• People aim to understand the "why" behind events and behaviours, even if their explanations needn't be accurate or logical.

Functions of Attribution

• Environmental Control: Understanding causes allows prediction and control of the environment for one's benefit.
• Cognitive Economy: Attribution simplifies understanding through established schemas and scripts reducing the need for extensive analysis.
• Attribution Errors: Over-reliance on personal characteristics as causes (fundamental attribution error) leads to overlooking the influence of the situation.

Models of Attribution

• Heider (1944, 1958): Heider's naïve psychology of action proposes that attribution involves understanding what an observer concludes about reasons behind a behaviour, compared to the objective reasons for the behaviour.
• It's about how an untrained or naïve individual makes a sense of another person's behaviour.
• His theory is driven by the need to predict and control the environment.

Biases in Attribution

• Fundamental Attribution Error: Overemphasizing internal factors and underestimating situational factors when explaining others' behavior.
• False Consensus Bias: Overestimating the extent to which others share one's own beliefs, behaviors or attitudes.
• Self-serving Bias: Explaining successes with internal factors and failures with external factors to maintain positive self-image.
• Actor-Observer Bias: Differences in attributions depending on whether one is describing their own or someone else's behavior.

Cognitive Economy in Attribution

• Limited cognitive resources and complex environments lead to efficient processing.
• Using schemas, scripts, and stereotypes simplifies understanding.
• Re-activating causal thinking occurs when events deviate from established patterns.
• The study by Langer, Blank, and Chanowitz (1978) demonstrated how different explanations can change peoples' perception of the situation.

Self-Esteem and Attribution

• Maintaining positive self-esteem is crucial for individuals.
• Attribution processes can be used to enhance self-perception and identity.
• Self-serving bias aims to protect self-esteem.

Attribution and Impressions

• Individuals select information to maintain a positive public image(impression management)

Attribution to Factors

• Personal Factors (P) and Environmental Factors (E): A dichotomy explaining behaviors based on ability, motivation, and situational context.
• Covariation Model (Kelley): Individuals act like statisticians, linking causes and effects. This approach considers individual, object, and situational factors to make inferences.
• Kelley's three factors are consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness and how they affect perception of causal factors in behaviours. The study by McArthur (1972) provides examples how consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness affect attribution.

Correspondent Inference Theory (Jones & Davis, 1965)

• Individual's awareness, ability and freedom affect inference about intent.
• Personalism and hedonic relevance are relevant factors making attribution stronger.

Weiner's Attribution Theory of Achievement and Emotions

• Purpose is to understand achievements and associated emotions through three dimensions: internal vs. external, stable vs. unstable, and controllable vs. uncontrollable.

Attribution in Cultural Contexts

• Miller (1984) and Cultural Norms: Cross-cultural comparisons examined how cultural norms influence attribution processes, with potential developmental differences in the impact of cultural norms.
• Criticisms: This field has been critiqued for potential implicit demand effects and difficulty distinguishing internal versus external attribution, in addition to researcher bias influencing results.

Self-Serving Bias and Defensive Attribution

• This bias connects successes to internal factors, and failures to external factors.
• Maintaining self-esteem is the primary motive.
• Studies like Lau and Russell (1980) highlight how individuals tend to attribute success to personal factors and failures to external circumstances to maintain a positive self-image.
• Research like Luginbhul, Crowe, and Kahan (1975) reveals a similar tendency.

False Consensus Effect

• Overestimating how frequent or popular one's own behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs are among others.

Actor-Observer Bias

• Different explanations for one's own actions versus others' actions.
• Actor focuses on situational factors, while the observer focuses on personality.
• Storms (1973) highlights this difference through changing perspectives.