Attribution (psychology)
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In social psychology, attribution is the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events. Models to explain this process are called attribution theory. Psychological research into attribution began with the work of Fritz Heider in the early 20th century, and the theory was further advanced by Harold Kelley and Bernard Weiner.
Background
Gestalt psychologist Fritz Heider is often described as the early-20th-century "father of attribution theory".
In his 1920s dissertation, Heider addressed the problem of phenomenology: why do perceivers attribute the properties such as color to perceived objects, when those properties are mental constructs? Heider's answer that perceivers attribute that which they "directly" sense – vibrations in the air for instance – to an object they construe as causing those sense data. "Perceivers faced with sensory data thus see the perceptual object as 'out there', because they attribute the sensory data to their underlying causes in the world."
Heider extended this idea to attributions about people: "motives, intentions, sentiments ... the core processes which manifest themselves in overt behavior".
See also
- Abductive reasoning
- Attribution bias
- Living educational theory
- Naïve realism
- Psychological projection
- Trait ascription bias
