Describe and evaluate studies relating to attribution of causality
Describe an evaluate studies relating to attribution of causality In this essay I will be looking at four theories relating to attribution of causality. Jones (1977) defined attribution as ‘the process by which people use available information to make influences about the causes of particular behaviour’. Internal or ‘dispositional attribution’ (within the person e.g. personality) and external or ‘situational attribution’ (the environment) factors are often used when explaining a person’s behaviour. (Cardwell, 1996). When discussing the theories I will state the strengths and weaknesses of each and how each is related to attribution. Heider (1958) was the first to propose a theory on attribution known as the naïve psychologist (Culatta, 2013). Here he proposed that people try to make sense of our own and others’ behaviour by using their common sense (Cardwell, 1996). Heider initially discussed the distinction between situational and dispositional attribution (12Manage, 2014). Jones and Davis (1965) produced the correspondent inference theory. Their research was on dispositional attributions only and did not consider situational attributions (Ray, 2011). They argued that a basis of inferring intention was made on the consequences exhibited in people’s behaviour. The theory describes the circumstances in which distributional attributes are made to behaviour, which we perceive as deliberate. It states that in order for us to make correspondence inference, we need to examine five sources of information. (Mcleod, 2010). Ray, 2011 states that this theory is helpful when looking at motivations (Ray, 2011). The theory has been criticised by Eiser (1983) as he believes that this model cannot be used for acts that are unintentional (psycology4a, 2006) and Schneier believes that the theory cannot be related to cases of terrorism as it’s implied that the main motivation of the terrorist is death, however it could be a desperate measure for a different end (Ray, 2011).