![]() In 1958, Heider published The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, which likened people to scientists: he claimed that people observe others, analyze their behaviors, and come up with their own cause and effect explanations for their actions. People’s perception was more complex than object perception because there exists more than observational data: emotions and beliefs also influence our perception of others. Just as we perceive characteristics in objects, we perceive and infer the characteristics of people based on their behavior. ![]() Later, Heider extrapolated his object attribution theory to people. Heider concluded that people attribute sensory information to underlying causes in the world, which causes them to view objects as ‘out there’. The color yellow is a mental construct, but we say that a ball – which exists outside our minds – is yellow. He soon developed his theory of object perception, which explored why people attribute qualities to objects when those qualities exist only in their minds. Heider was interested in how people perceived qualities within inanimate objects. 4 Social psychologists have contributed to this field by studying the relationships between perception and interpersonal behavior.Īustrian social psychologist and father of attribution theory, Fritz Heider, began studying these relationships in the 1920s while writing his thesis. Phenomenological research studies experiences and meanings to understand how people encounter the world and particular situations. Phenomenology refers to the study of subjective experience. 1 For example, if you are playing basketball and play really well, you might explain this by the fact that you had a protein shake that morning and predict that every time you have a protein shake, you will perform well in basketball. Predictive Attribution: our tendency to explain events with a cause and effect relationship in a way that makes it possible to make future predictions and alter our behavior accordingly. 1 Often, that means providing context to explain negative behaviors in a way that places blame outside of yourself. Interpersonal Attribution: the process of spinning a story to friends in a way that places you in the best possible light. We tend to use dispositional attributions too often and ignore the situational variables that cause behavior. 3įundamental Attribution Error: the mistake of overestimating the influence of internal characteristics and underestimating the influence of external forces on someone’s behavior. We tend to make dispositional attributions when we explain someone else’s negative behavior. 3 We tend to make situational attributions when we explain our own negative behavior.ĭispositional Attribution: explaining our own or another’s behavior using internal characteristics. Situational Attribution: explaining our own or another’s behavior using situational contexts instead of individual characteristics or personality. With others, we tend to make dispositional attributions, believing their behavior is caused by personal characteristics. As the aforementioned example demonstrates, people tend to be more understanding of their own behaviors and attribute them to the situation instead of an inherent characteristic. In psychology, attribution theory attempts to understand how people form relationships between events, internal characteristics, and behaviors. ![]() We make similar attributions on a daily basis to explain the behavior of ourselves and others. ![]() In these two scenarios, you attributed different causes to the two acts of unsafe driving. You rationalize this decision because it was an exception, not something you do regularly you are usually a safe and thoughtful driver. Not being familiar with the area, you cut someone off to avoid a wrong turn. The very next day, you are on your way to meet a client at a new location. You start to feel angry and deem this driver a careless, selfish person with a lack of concern for the safety of others. Imagine you are driving to work and you get cut off by another car.
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