Have you ever wondered why we, as humans, perceive things in a certain way? This question is the basis of attribution theory in social psychology. The goal is to explain human behaviors – why we have certain perceptions and act in a specific way.

Explaining Attribution Theory

Fritz Heider was the first person to ask such questions in psychology formally. According to Heider, "people measure others' behaviors by either their internal disposition or the external situation that they're in" (Thompson, 2021). There is also a heavy influence on self-perceptions to understand how or why we react to a situation. Attribution theory focuses on explaining our behaviors and actions. This theory focuses on questions such as, "Does a person react in a certain way based only on what's inside their psyche or also on environmental factors?" Is shouting, anger, laughing, or crying a reaction based on internal or external factors? Attribution theory of psychology is an umbrella field covering many categories such as attribution theory in organizations, politics, and everyday life.

Factors Affecting Attribution

Attribution theory focuses on three important factors or attributes to define a personality; locus of control, stability, and controllability. You can find their definitions in the Salem Press Encyclopedia (2021). Let's have a look into how these factors influence behaviors.

Locus of Control

Locus of control has both external and internal factors. It emphasizes whether a person thinks that the reasons for success or failure are based on external circumstances or personal attributes. Let's use the example of a student who is studying for a test. Internal factors in this example would be the time the student spent studying and the student's efforts into studying. The internal control factor can be measured by the effort and time the student puts forth in the task. But what about external factors? A great example of an external factor is the idea of luck playing a part in the outcome of the test results.

"I passed my test because I am lucky." (external)

"I can achieve my goals through my hard work." (Internal)

Stability

Next is the stability (changeable/stable) attribute that focuses on changing the sources of success or failure. Continuing with our example of the student who is preparing for a test, the abilities and difficulties of this task are considered to be stable. But how are ability and difficulty stable or changeable factors? According to Attribution Theory (2021), students who understand that ability changes with effort quickly learn that durability is excellent motivation to push forward and persist. Let's say that the student failed the test. Some things that may run through their mind might be, "I should have studied more and gone to bed early." This is changeable because the student would have been able to make an effort to change the reason for failing.

On the other hand, the following example is stable. Perhaps the student fails the test and says, "It is because my teacher does not like me." This would be considered stable because, according to this thought process, the student can not change the fact that the teacher does not like them, and therefore that is why they did not pass the test.

What is the locust of control when a student studies?, pixabay.com

Controllability

The last of the three attributes is controllability (not controllable/controllable). This attribute focuses on another question, "Can we change and control the circumstances and behaviors or are these entirely out of our control?" In the case of our student, the task's difficulty level and the student's abilities are considered not controllable. The amount of effort needed for studying is the only controllable factor.

Fundamental Attribution Error

"Never judge a book by its cover." You may have heard this phrase before, and, as you know, this means that we should be careful not to make quick assumptions or generalizations. The fundamental attribution error explains a common habit of overestimating a person's natural personality and "underestimating the position that they are in" (Myers, 2010). An example of this would be our student is late for the class, and the teacher chastises them. The next day, the teacher is late but makes excuses they found justifiable.

Fg. 2 Angry teacher, pixabay.com

The fundamental attribution error exists because of the multiple perceptions we as humans have all over the world. This theory suggests that you might know what is happening in your life. However, you do not know the same for those around you. You can see this if you look closely at the theories and ideas of social psychology. One of the examples is comparing the cultural responses and ideals of someone from the east and someone from the west. Have you ever traveled to a different part of the world with different cultural understandings and expectations?

Cognitive Dissonance Theory in Psychology

Of course, actions can affect attitudes in many ways. When we realize that our actions and attitudes collide, there may be a degree of uncomfortable feelings. This is called cognitive dissonance. Many psychological experiments have showcased this theory in people's actions and words. A person may try to justify their thoughts and actions by thinking, "If I said/did it, it must be because it is how I actually feel." The conclusion is that the more responsibility we give to the actions and words that we commit to, the more dissonance will occur.