Kelley's Attribution Theory

Fritz Heider formulated the attribution theory, which states that we tend to credit someone’s behavior to either external forces (the situation) or the person’s internal disposition (personality). The fundamental attribution error is the overestimation of the effect of internal dispositions on a person’s behavior, and the underestimation of the situation they may be in. Since Western cultures are more individualistic, people that we have autonomy when it comes to our behavior, which is why the fundamental attribution error is more prevalent in these societies.

As a Psychology major, I am taught to analyze people in an objective and holistic way. More than once, all humans tend to fall into the trap of the fundamental attribution error. The FAE is the claim that, in contrast to interpretations of their own behavior, people place undue emphasis on internal characteristics of the agent (character or intention), rather than external factors, in explaining another person’s behavior. This means that people tend to accuse a person's errors on internal factors, instead of how external factors can lead to errors. As I was reading “I’d

The Fundamental Attribution Error states that people tend to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on others’ behavior and underestimate the impact of situational influences on other behavior's. In order to better understand this, we must set clear what dispositional and situational influences are. Dispositional influences we refer to enduring characteristics, such as personality traits, attitudes, and intelligence; influences found inside every individual. On the other hand, situational influences refer to external situations that can influence someone to behave in someway.

Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behavior The roles of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behavior could be explained using the attribution theory where attribution is the process of interpreting and explaining behavior and how people try to use these factors to do this . Situational factors refer to external influences such as who you surround yourself with, social norms, the situation and the weather while dispositional factors are about internal factors such as your personality, attitude and beliefs . In explaining behavior these factors can either be combined as one explanation or used separately to determine the cause of one’s actions.

In the movie, Philadelphia, psychologists are able to apply: attribution theory, self-verification theory, social identity theory, cognitive dissonance, and drive theory to explain the behavior of some people. The attribution theory explains the cause of someone’s behavior by associating it to their personality or situation. In the movie, it is applied when Andrew is fired. The law firm claimed that they fired Andrew because of his incompetence, which is a fundamental attribution error because they were blaming him for the reason they fired him.

The main explanation for events is ‘Cosmic Order’ or balance of life, such as Karma or abstract ideas such as ‘truth’. These principles deal with certain outcomes beyond any beings grasp and that the universe has an organic series of events rather than gods or

Finally, the fundamental attribution error occurs when a person fails to notice situational factors and assume that a behavior or specific actions are due to an individual’s personality or character traits (Harman, 1999).

The SSB supposes that we satisfy ourselves by applying our positive behaviour to dispositional factors and our negative behaviour to situational factors. An example of when this occurs could be when you do an exam. If you do well, you like to think that it is thanks to the fact that you studied hard, but when you fail, you like to think that it is because your teacher did not teach the topic well enough. Regardless of the situation, SSB seems to occur in order to boost our self-esteem, which also means that it is more prevalent in cultures where self-image is of importance. So once again, we should take precaution when considering the occurrence of this attribution error, if it seems to show up in a culture where it is not common, you may have misread the

The multidimensional model of causality is a perspective that states abnormal behavior forms from multiple influences such as behavioral, biological, emotional, social and possibly developmental. Creating an example of a multidimensional model of causality is rather simple. I actually have a personal example of this multidimensional model. My freshman homecoming dance took an unfortunate turn. I was dancing with a guy when I did not feel very good at all.

C. Causal Generalization: The understanding of cause and effect. This can be misunderstood without an examination of a large sample to establish validity. For example, the conclusion that smoking leads to lung cancer was accepted after reviewing the effects amongst a large portion of the population. Analogy: If a large sample cannot be taken to establish causation, an analogy may point to a similar situation to use as comparison.

In doing this the individual can create their own theories behind the event and are able to develop a plan for the future if a similar event was to occur (Jasper M.

Therefore, attribution is an important component of human cognitive process, as well as an important influence on the formation of self-concepts. Psychological research into attribution began with the work of Heider(1958) in the early part of the 20th century, subsequently developed by others such as Jones(1965), Davis(1965), Kelley(1967) and Weiner(1974). 2.1.1 The Attribution Theory Heider (1958) put forward the Attribution Theory in the book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which pioneered the modern field of social cognition. As one part of the larger and more complex Heiderian account of social

One of the most interesting subjects that depicts many explanations about human behavior is psychology. Every human being tends to have a distinct behavior, depending on the situation that he or she was exposed to. The presence of other human beings cause the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of the person to be controlled or influenced. There is a considerable amount of factors in which the actions of human beings around them are responsible for the process of making their decisions.

The three key elements of motivation are intensity, direction, and persistence. 7-2) What are some early theories of motivation? How applicable are they today?

The purpose of this theory is to concentrate on the motivation of the people using set of factors with different level. These factors are (see Appendix): 1. Physiological factor: The first level is the physiological needs that contain all the essentials needs of human being, for example, food, water, sleep, home and etc. 2.