User:Knucklecracker7/Attribution (psychology)

Article Draft

Key Theorists

Fritz Heider

Fritz Heider’s most famous contribution to psychology began in the 1940’s when he began studying and accumulating knowledge on interpersonal behavior and social perception. These findings were compiled into his 1958 book “The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations” and Heider’s work became widely recognized as the best source of knowledge on Attribution Theory. In this book, Heider outlines two key goals that he planned to achieve in his studies. The first of which was to develop a scientific theory that was based on a “conceptual network suitable to some of the problems in this field.” This goal has been widely misinterpreted by theorists that attempted to follow in the footsteps of Heider, as many falsely assume that the core of human behavior is person-dichotomy rather than what Heider actually suggested in his book. Heider’s second goal was to redefine the understanding of “common-sense psychology” in order to develop his own scientific theory that explains social perception in humans. This second goal more clearly defined Heider’s theory on attribution. Through Heider’s research of attribution theory, he concerned himself with the reasons a person achieved success or failed. To organize the research, Heider broke the reasonings down into three different subjects, the first being ability, second being effort, and third being task difficulty. Heider saw both ability and effort being internal factors and task difficulty being an external factor.

Bernard Weiner

Bernard Weiner was not the originator of the theory; however, he expanded on this theory in several ways that helped to keep it relevant to today’s society and not fall into a demise that many theories from the 1900s found themselves in. The most influential aspect of Weiner’s work consists of the motivational aspect of attribution theory, which he introduced around the year 1968. This means that how one perceives past events and actions determines what actions a person will take in their future because the past experiences motivated them to do so. Weiner built his contribution of attribution theory off of other well-known theories such as Atkinsons’ theory of motivation, drive theory, and Thorndike’s Law of Effect which describes how rewarded behaviors will more than likely be repeated. Weiner argued that attribution theory is subjective in nature in that a person’s thoughts and feelings drive this theory; thus, researchers do not have to remain objective in their research and can explore the emotions, biases, motivations, and behaviors of their participants.

External

A person is using external attributions as a way to not use hearing aids. Examples of this are: A patient does not have the money to afford hearing aids so they do not purchase them. A person believes using hearing aids would make them a burden to people they are around, so they do not wear them. A person does not trust the doctor that is prescribing them hearing aids. Lastly, a person believes that other health conditions, either pertaining to themselves or someone else in their life, take priority over their need for hearing aids.

Internal

A person is using internal attributions to justify not wearing their prescribed hearing aids. Examples of this are: A patient believes the hearing aids to not be necessary so they choose not to wear them. A patient is afraid of being stigmatized for having a disability and requiring hearing aids to hear properly, so they choose not to wear them. A patient is struggling with adding the usage of hearing aids into their everyday life and believes it to be easier to not wear them at all. Lastly, a patient does not fully understand the benefits that hearing aids will grant them, so they choose not to wear them despite the benefits hearing aids would grant them.

COVID-19 Pandemic

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic furthered studies relating to attribution theory. A study conducted by Elvin Yao and Jason Siegel looked further into Weiner’s definition of attribution theory and how people express emotions when the intentional spreading of COVID occurs. The researchers also included a controllability factor that played a part in the perceived intentionality. The results of the study demonstrated high levels of anger and frustration among people who perceived that someone was intentionally spreading COVID-19. These high levels of frustration also led to a desire to punish the person intentionally spreading the virus, especially when the spreader was in full control of their circumstances and knowledge of their actions. Furthermore, whether or not a “spreader” had control of the factors surrounding the spreading of the virus, as long as the person had a high perceived intentionality then other people responded with anger. This study exemplifies how when the intentions of a person are perceived to be negative to society as a whole, then people respond negatively as well, mostly out of frustration.