ENTRIES A–Z
Philip Winn in Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
An attribution is an inference we make about the perceived underlying dispositional characteristics about ourselves or another organism. The subject of our attributions, however, can vary from those aspects of an indi vidual's persona such as INTELLIGENCE, humour, or aggressiveness (see AGGRESSION) to the ascription of emotional states (see EMOTION) and intention. Social psychology has largely focused on the latter where intention is considered to be a central component of our system of beliefs about why individuals behave in the way they do and the ascriptions we give regarding causality, responsibility and blame. Attributions can focus on whether behaviour is considered dispositionally or externally based, stable or unstable, global or specific, or controllable or uncontrollable. Attribution theory refers to a number of social psychological models which attempt to formalize the psychological processes involved in comparing and weighing available information. The attributions we make, however, are generally regarded to reveal more about the perceiver than the perceived. Attributional research is largely concerned with the consequences of such attributions for our emotions and behaviour.
Cognition and stress
Tony Cassidy in Stress, Cognition and Health, 2023
While Seligman and colleagues arrived at their attributional style theory through a search for the explanation for learned helplessness, Weiner (1986, 1990; Weiner, Russell & Lerman, 1978, 1979) drew on the substantive literature on attributions in the field of social cognition. Originating with Heider (1958), the concept of attribution had found a central role in the social psychology of the 1970s. The development of theory on how the layperson attributes causes for their own and others’ behaviours had identified several important dimensions in the process, the most consistent being the internal-external dimension. This reflects the work on the fundamental attribution error discussed previously. Weiner identified four dimensions that were important regarding emotions. In addition to the internal-external dimension, he suggested stability, controllability and intentionality. He distinguished between internal-external attributions and attributions of controllability in that one might attribute a cause as being internal but still not see it as controllable. The stability dimension he saw as being important in terms of expectancy about future behaviour, again like the notion of optimistic versus pessimistic thinking. Intentionality was an additional and important dimension concerned with identifying responsibility in others. The stress-prone individual would be the person who made external attributions or, in cases of internal attributions, felt they were uncontrollable, had a pessimistic expectation for the future and tended to see the thwarting actions of others as intentional and deliberate.
Life Quest
Peter Tate, Francesca Frame in Bedside Matters, 2020
Back in the Department of Experimental Psychology, everyone was seething with attribution theory, promulgated by Gestalt psychologist Fritz Heider, asking why people in various circumstances did what they did. It was just at this moment that fate took a hand. We were sitting drinking coffee in the large open concourse when a very striking young lady walked past. David's head swivelled into a position not normally considered possible, and he immediately made it his business to find out who she was. Jennifer King had come to Oxford to study the Health Belief Model. This interest was serendipitous in so many ways; their subsequent marriage, two daughters and a lifetime working together, being only part. Jenny's clear-headed analysis of the lessons to be learned from this 1950s American social psychological model helped crystallise our thoughts about the consultation.
Forgive and Forget?: Examining the Influence of Blame and Intentionality on Forgiveness Following Hypothetical Same-Sex Infidelity in the Context of Heterosexual Romantic Relationships
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2020
Amanda Denes, Megan R. Dillow, Maria DelGreco, Pamela J. Lannutti, Jennifer L. Bevan
Blame has been pointed to as a potentially important consideration in the context of same-sex infidelity (e.g., Denes et al., 2015). Denes et al. (2015) explained that “in the context of infidelity, blame is the extent to which an individual is thought to be responsible for her or his extradyadic behavior” (p. 417). Attribution theory (Heider, 1958) focuses on the process of making sense out of behavior, in part by determining who or what is responsible for such behavior (Shaver, 1985). Other work building from attribution theory also points to the role of intentionality in understanding attributions surrounding blame and responsibility (e.g., Weiner, 1995). As such, attribution theory provides an informative lens for exploring sense-making processes in the context of infidelity.
Gender Differences in Behavioral Problems in Child Victims of Sexual Abuse: Contribution of Self-Blame of the Parent and Child
Published in Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 2023
Anabel De Champlain, Amélie Tremblay-Perreault, Martine Hébert
Causal attribution (internal or external) refers to the process by which the individual perceives and then interprets behaviors and events by inferring the causes of the situation (Zinzow et al., 2010). For example, a SA victim could interpret that the event happened through their own fault (internal attribution) or the fault of the abuser (external attribution). According to this concept, an internal attribution is related to the conviction that specific characteristics of the individual or their behavior have caused the event. Studies have shown that following SA, the majority of victims are likely to develop self-blame (internal attribution) (Zinzow et al., 2010). In the current study, self-blame refers to the sense of responsibility of a person who believes that they should have felt, thought or acted otherwise (Kubany & Watson, 2003). Self-blame is a component of self-directed emotions, such as guilt, used when a stressful event appears and therefore, influences the way the individual will adapt to it.
Older men and women reflect on changes in sexual functioning in later life
Published in Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 2021
Liat Ayalon, Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan, Inbar Levkovich, Khaled Karkabi
The present study documents a gender pattern, with men being more likely to identify sexual changes in themselves and women corroborating this observation, as they too were more likely to notice sexual changes in their male partners. This pattern is consistent with past research, which has shown that men with erectile dysfunction or premature ejaculation are more likely to attribute sexual difficulties to themselves and undermine positive sexual experiences compared with men who had no functional difficulties (Rowland, Mikolajczyk, Pinkston, Reed, & Lo, 2016; Scepkowski et al., 2004). This pattern of self-blaming is in contrast to predictions made by the attribution theory, which argues for a self-serving bias, in which individuals are more likely to attribute positive experiences to themselves and negative ones to others or to circumstances (Kelley, 1967). Moreover, it is not only men who blame themselves, but also women too tend to attribute the difficulties to men, hence, potentially further strengthening a tendency to self-blame among men. This finding suggests that efforts to address negative attributions should address both partners.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Autonomy
- Cognitive Bias
- Gestalt Psychology
- Reductionism
- Locus of Control
- Psychology
- Locus of Control
- Folk Psychology
- Self-Determination Theory
- Self-Serving Bias
- Just-World Hypothesis