Advantages Of Attribution Theory

Attribution theory and attitude theories
Humans are a social and curious species. Humans need to understand other people’s behaviour, its cause and the outcome. Humans need to answer these questions in order to cope in a social environment; to provide a safety net and to avoid situations that induce inner turmoil. Moulding our attitudes and establishing a reference point to assign attributions.

Heider(1958) is the founder of the attribution theory . He proposed that humans assign attributes to their own behaviour and the behaviour of others in order to interpret and explains behaviours. Attribution theory explains how the observer uses information to establish causal explanations pertaining to behaviour in addition to understanding how information

The strengths related to attribution theory are as follows. Attribution theory can be applied to a multitude of individuals of various ages this is important as the variation increases the validity of the theory. Furthermore people are gain a sense of control and autonomy; this aids in the ability to cope with the social context. In addition it provides a measure that is able to explain how perception is influenced by cultural and social norms. The attribution theory also has weaknesses. The feedback obtained by these attribution can influence the way in which an individual perceives an event or cause this is supported by Weiner’s(1992) theory of stable-unstable dimensions and the attributions made with failure and success. The perception of causes or events are viewed and interpreted differently by the individual and the observer and finally biases and preconceived social consensus can alter perception. Oversimplification and universality of the overall model in relation to causal factors(McLeod,2010).Kelley and Michela(1980) state that the covariation model is limited by “the accuracy with which covariation between events is perceived”; the affect is created by the predisposition in relation to the cause-effect relationship with