The effect of causal attribution in social psychology is a phenomenon of human perception in which one individual explains the actions of another based on his assumptions and conclusions. At the same time, he does not have the necessary amount of knowledge in a specific situation, so he completes the picture in his head. From the article, the reader will learn what main types of causal attribution exist and why, in conditions of a lack of information, the causes of behavior are attributed to another person.
Types of causal attribution
The definition of the phenomenon of causal attribution comes from Latin (causa means cause, attribution - attribution). To better understand the essence of cognitive distortions, let's consider the main types of causal attribution.
Cultural prejudices
This term refers to the assignment of certain behaviors to a person based on their cross-cultural differences and background. For example, for us, representatives of European culture are predominantly individualists, and Asian ones are collectivists. There are also a large number of jokes about Jews and their tendency to cheat and deceive.
Fundamental error
The fundamental error of causal attribution is to explain the actions of other individuals by internal factors, and one's own - by external factors. An example from life: a person may call another person boring, while he associates his similar actions with the prevailing circumstances.
There are a number of reasons why a fundamental error occurs:
- the individual does not pay attention to the characteristics determined by the role group;
- the individual considers his own behavior to be correct and typical, while he judges the actions of others as abnormal;
- analysis of people's behavior based on actions they did not perform;
- having trust in facts rather than judgments.
To better understand the above, let's look at the following example. Imagine that you and a friend were writing a test or taking a test. You got a good grade while your friend failed the test. It begins to seem to you that he was poorly versed in this subject before. Later, it begins to seem to you that the person is simply lazy and does not pay attention to his learning. The essence of this typical mistake is that you did not take into account objective factors. Perhaps your friend did not have time to prepare for the test due to family circumstances. It is also possible that he may have a different mindset (humanists, techies).
Or imagine the following situation. You are walking down the street and meet a man who cannot stand on his feet. Many people in such a situation will think that they are drunk. This means he is an alcoholic and cannot be helped. This is also incorrect, because there is a high probability that this person suddenly became ill on the way to work or school.
The external disposition is the opposite. You will blame your failed test not on your lack of knowledge, but on the complexity of the ticket.
The participant is not an observer
Very often we evaluate other people through the prism of our own worldview. If we are related to any situation, then our opinion regarding it may differ, since the participant and the observer look at the circumstances from different angles. On the other hand, our opinion regarding this situation becomes different if we become a participant in it.
Dispositional attribution
Dispositional attribution is the attribution of people's behavior to their personality. For example, if a taxi driver responded to you in a rude manner, you might think that he is a bad person. Subject to external factors, we characterize the personality of an individual by his actions alone. Although the reason for the rude answer could be the person’s bad mood or difficult life circumstances.
Defensive attribution hypothesis
This hypothesis manifests itself in the form of beliefs that the individual needs to protect himself from feelings of anxiety. They allow him to justify himself when faced with problems.
A person with such prejudices often rushes from one extreme to another. For example, if an accident occurs, he begins to blame the driver for everything. At the same time, he may be convinced that a similar situation will definitely not happen to him.
Self-serving attribution
For example, if an accountant is promoted at work, he begins to attribute this event to his professional skills. If the promotion was given to his colleague, that accountant begins to feel undervalued by management and begins to think that his colleague has taken his place.
In the past, scientists believed that this is how a person protects self-esteem. But later it turned out that self-interested attribution is formed due to the influence of internal reasons.
Goals and results of the study of attribution theory
In accordance with the mechanisms of causal attribution, methods are determined for the practical use of the results obtained to influence the effectiveness of human activity, its motivation, emotions and goals. The study of attribution helps to establish the moment at which team members assign or accept personal responsibility for their actions. The results are used to adequately assess the real contribution of a particular participant to the overall corporate activities of the group.
The theory of causal attribution was initially studied only within the framework of social psychology. Now it is used in general, pedagogical, developmental, and also in sports psychology. The main areas of study are self-perception, interpersonal perception, and the perception of a large volume of other social objects.
Every day we come across many people. We don’t just pass by, but begin to think about them: what they say, how they look, we observe their behavior.
And often it seems to us that we not only see how a person looks - whether he is fat or thin, tall or short, what color his eyes, hair, how he is dressed - but also such things as whether he is smart or stupid, respectable or No.
We even subconsciously determine his mood, social status and assume that we have already compiled a description of the person. However, it is not. All these actions of ours have their own name, and in psychology this phenomenon is called attribution.
Causal attribution and locus of control
Locus of control is the ability of a person to attribute his successes or failures to either internal or external factors. Locus demonstrates that the response to a specific situation is chosen by the individual consciously. And in the case of causal attribution, the observer’s inferences are greatly influenced by stereotypes and double standards.
Having received an unsatisfactory grade, a student can react in two ways:
- admit that he was not well prepared for the test;
- blame a difficult ticket or a strict teacher for a bad grade.
Unlike causal attribution, locus is based on willpower. To change the locus, an individual needs to stop being a victim and start taking responsibility in case of failure, even if the consequences had a big influence on reasons that had little control over you.
Theories
The main theory that developed this phenomenon is Heider's . He described this theory in his work “The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations.” What does causal attribution theory study?
According to this theory, a person tends to perceive other people through logical analysis based on his own experience and character.
You can trace the chain: self-analysis and identification of relevant qualities, then the perception of existing facts about another person, analysis and logical construction of the final data based on a logical synthesis of personal characteristics.
The causal attribution effect is the basis of modern attribution theory .
Another theory is the theory of relevant assumptions.
It was put forward by American psychologists and asserts the presence of certain “corresponding assumptions” - that is, characteristic features and characteristics that allow one way or another to characterize an object.
For example, at first glance, we attribute someone’s kind and friendly behavior to the kindness of the person as a whole, as a quality, without going into a deeper knowledge of the person.
Mathematical analysis of the assumptions is used as the basis for the covariance model of this concept. It involves searching for the reasons for the characteristics of other people and asking the basic question “why”, on the basis of which assumptions and hypotheses are built according to the mathematical technique of probability analysis.
At the same time, we evaluate other entities based on external and internal factors influencing them.
Causal attribution and learned helplessness
The concept of “learned helplessness” refers to a certain state of an individual, in which he refuses to solve his problems, despite having everything to do so. This happens if previous attempts failed.
Seligman proved that after a series of failures, people put less effort into solving a problem. The individual begins to think that subsequent attempts will not lead to a positive result.
And the theory of causal attribution indicates that the individual does not redouble his efforts so as not to lower his self-esteem. If he fails again, he will begin to associate it with personality traits. Whereas if you don’t make a big effort, the problem can be blamed on external factors. And this is a common occurrence. How often have you refused to make a decision for fear of another failure?
Mechanisms of attribution theory
The mechanisms of causal attribution are based on the following provisions:
getting to know each other in society, people are not limited to information obtained as a result of external observations: they strive to clarify the reasons for an action and formulate conclusions about personal qualities; Since information obtained from outside observation is often insufficient, observers identify probable causes of action and attribute them to the observed participant; the interpretation of causes has a significant influence on the behavior of the observer.
The most significant results of the study were obtained from studying the mechanisms of causal attribution. Installed:
- systemic differences in how people explain their own behavior and the actions of others;
- deviations of the substitution process from logical norms under the influence of subjective factors (informational and motivational);
- a stimulating effect that is exerted on a person’s activity and his motivation by explaining the unsatisfactory results of such activity by the influence of external factors, and satisfactory results by the influence of internal factors.
One of the most common patterns of the theory is considered to be an overestimation of one’s own importance and an exaggeration of the role of certain factors (such as luck, luck, abilities) in shaping the situation.
Misjudgment
When making judgments, a person very often makes mistakes.
This is due to the fact that he usually underestimates external factors and the influence of the situation, but overestimates the personal capabilities of another individual. This case is called the fundamental attribution error. This happens when the reasons are the same for both internal and external factors. The individual cannot make up his mind and a fundamental error occurs.
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By indicating consequences and causes, we draw different conclusions. Also, our conclusions and explanations of reasons will be different depending on whether we like the other person or not.
- If an individual achieves success, then he will indicate his own qualities as the reason.
- The situation will be to blame for an individual's failure.
The phenomenon of causal attribution can be traced in the analysis of the behavior of a nice person and a not so nice one. A person makes a significant mistake when he finds reasons where he was looking for them. This means that if a person has already tuned in to a certain result, he will find it everywhere. If we intend to justify a person's actions, we will always find reasons to justify him.
And vice versa, if we decide to condemn someone, we will definitely condemn them by finding an appropriate reason. At the same time, only people with a developed sense of empathy will attribute responsibility. They tend to imagine themselves in the shoes of others, understand the feelings of strangers and try on other people's behavior patterns.
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Attribution is conjecture when analyzing someone's actions when there is a lack of information. In other words, we want to obtain data about our colleagues, interlocutors, or simply about a group of people based on some data that we have. If this data is not enough, then a psychological phenomenon called attribution arises. It can both reflect reality and distort it
This is very important to consider
Meaning
Let's figure it out: what is attribution? Attribution is a process where people, given a small amount of information, draw conclusions about the reasons for a person’s behavior or events that occurred. But this doesn't always apply to other people. Most often, attribution is directed at oneself, when a person tries to justify or explain his actions by referring to various factors.
The concept and essence of attribution is to take personal action. Those qualities of an individual that are characterized are excluded from the limits of perception - in fact, they even seem to not exist. That is, we can give another definition of attribution - this is the characteristic that they try to create through intuition and some inferences. And, as a rule, attributing certain qualities to one or another individual does not always turn out to be correct.
Causal attribution is aimed at explaining the motives of behavior - both one's own and others'. It happens that you need to analyze and predict the behavior of a person, but there is not enough data for this. Therefore, the reasons and motives that could guide the object of attention are often guessed at.
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This approach is also applicable to social groups when they are characterized, but there are no obvious motives for their behavior in the field of perception. Psychologists call this case group attribution. Group attribution also occurs when a group of individuals tries to explain their positive aspects by internal factors, while for an out-group they point to external factors as the reason. And vice versa, they attribute their negative moments to external factors, while in the outgroup they point to internal factors as the cause of the negative moments.
Attribution theory states that a person analyzes the behavior of other people depending on the reasons that he himself has intuitively identified. According to the theory, causal attribution is divided into two types:
- External.
- Internal.
The external type of attribution is the search for the causes of behavior among factors that do not depend on a person, that is, external factors. And internal (internal) is an explanation of the reasons for behavior based on one’s own psychological state.
Attribution theory implies a certain order of human actions:
- Observation of an object and its behavior in a certain situation.
- Based on assessments and personal perception, draw a conclusion from observing the object.
- Using this conclusion and the behavior of the object, attribute psychological patterns of behavior to it.
The concept and essence of attribution implies speculating about the reasons for people’s behavior, but this does not always correspond to reality. To be more precise, more often than not, the theory of causal attribution is not true.
