The concept explores how individuals interpret events and behaviors, both their own and those of others, by ascribing causes to them. These perceived causes are attributions, and they can be internal, relating to personal characteristics like ability or effort, or external, relating to situational factors such as luck or task difficulty. For example, attributing a student’s poor test score to a lack of studying represents an internal attribution, while attributing it to an unusually difficult exam represents an external attribution.
Understanding how individuals form these causal explanations is crucial for interpreting social interactions and predicting future behavior. It offers insights into various psychological phenomena, including prejudice, self-esteem maintenance, and relationship dynamics. Historically, its development stems from the work of Fritz Heider, who posited that people are naive scientists attempting to understand and control their environment by constructing causal explanations for events. Subsequent researchers, such as Harold Kelley and Bernard Weiner, expanded upon this foundation, proposing models that delineate the processes and dimensions involved in this cognitive activity.
