Attribution Theory

Causal attribution and emotion in the days following competition

by David Sheffield

Published with Mark Allen and Marc Jones in the the Journal of Sport Sciences

We examined the extent to which attributions are consistent in the days following competition and how attributions... more We examined the extent to which attributions are consistent in the days following competition and how attributions made immediately after competition may influence the temporal patterning of emotions experienced in response to competition. A sample of 60 adult female golfers completed measures of performance satisfaction, causal attribution, and emotion immediately after competition, 5 h after competition, and 2 days after competition. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that attributions did not change over this period. Emotions showed a significant decrease in intensity over the 5-h post-competition period. Regression analyses indicated that changes in anger and dejection were more likely in the case of less successful performances. For anger, attributions moderated this level of change. Golfers experienced anger for a longer period when they identified the cause of poor performance as stable rather than unstable. Thus, in the present sample although attributions did not change over 2 days, the longevity of anger depended on the attributions made immediately after competition.

Attributions for performance: A comparative study of Japanese and Thai university students

by Peter Gobel

The impact of culture on student attributions for performance: A comparative study of three groups of EFL/ESL learners

by Peter Gobel

The Busy Social Brain: Evidence for Automaticity and Control in the Neural Systems Supporting Social Cognition and Action Understanding

by Robert Spunt

In press at Psychological Science; co-authored with Matthew D. Lieberman

Much of social cognitive processing is believed to occur automatically, however, the relative automaticity of the... more Much of social cognitive processing is believed to occur automatically, however, the relative automaticity of the brain systems underlying social cognition remains largely untested. We used fMRI to test for automaticity in the function of two brain systems that extant research indicates are important for understanding others’ behavior: the mirror neuron system (MNS) and mentalizing system (MZS). Participants remembered either easy (low cognitive load) or difficult (high cognitive load) phone numbers while observing actions with mirroring- or mentalizing-relevant comprehension goals. For each goal, MNS activation showed relatively little evidence of modulation by load; in contrast, association of the MZS with the goal to infer the actor’s mental state was extinguished by increasing cognitive load. These results support a dual-process model of the brain systems underlying action understanding and social cognition more generally, where the MNS supports automatic behavior identification while the MZS supports relatively controlled social causal attribution.

The interactive attribution of school success in multi-ethnic schools

by Mariette de Haan

The study shows how explanations for school success are expressed and dialogically constructed during teacher–parent... more The study shows how explanations for school success are expressed and dialogically constructed during teacher–parent conferences at school. Attribution theory is used to conceptualize the various explanations for school success that were expressed. However, instead of only looking at attributions as beliefs which individuals or groups ‘have’, the aim of this study is to show how attributions are part of co-constructed processes in which multiple partners impact upon each other’s attributions over the course of a conversation. The results indicated that in the conversations between teachers and minority parents, school performance is more often attributed to effort while in conversations with majority parents, psychological attributions were more common. Besides these differences in content, the process through which these accounts were constructed was different. While the diagnosis on what went wrong was more commonly constructed in case of the conversations with majority parents, they were more characterised by opposition or a passive position by the parent in case of the conversations with minority parents. The analyses show that instead of a simple mismatch between explanations of the home and the school, these explanations are interactionally co-constructed as both parents and teachers necessarily ‘re’-act on each other’s claims and understanding of school success. The results ultimately reveal how the interactive process impacted upon the construction of the attributions and the possibilities this creates for partnerships between parents and teachers to create an understanding of the child’s academic potential across home and school.

A systematic review of content themes in sport attribution research: 1954 - 2011

by Mark Allen

This review sought to identify all sport based attribution research to systematically explore content themes and... more This review sought to identify all sport based attribution research to systematically explore content themes and identify areas for future research.  A literature search identified 167 empirical sport attribution papers (encompassing 202 independent samples) published between 1954 and February 2011.  Frequency calculations showed a disproportionate focus on quantitative methodologies (99.4%), outcome attributions (94.6%), and attributions for personal behavior (69.9%), with relatively few intervention studies or longitudinal designs.  Findings also showed a good proportion of research conducted on youth sport participants (22.3%) and in naturally occurring competitive sport settings (69.5%).  It is recommended that researchers expand their study of attribution in sport to consider those attributions made by coaches and parents, and for diverse events such as athletic injury and dropout.  In addition, more diverse research designs (e.g., longitudinal qualitative investigations) will provide a greater appreciation of the attributions made by sport performers.

An Application of Attribution Theory to Clinical Judgment

by Jennifer Murray

(2009) Co-authored with Dr. Mary Thomson, GCU

The current article presents an application of attribution theory to clinical judgment, with a focus on the theory’s... more The current article presents an application of attribution theory to clinical judgment, with a focus on the theory’s application to clinical judgments of violence risk assessment. While attribution theory has been applied to many diverse fields of human behavior, a comparatively limited level of research and discussion has been raised regarding its application to the very relevant and practical study of clinical decision making (Elbogen, 2002). The current article argues that is not only important for practicing clinicians to understand the way in which their client attributes causality to their behaviour in order to improve upon the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions, but also emphasizes the importance of recognizing and understanding the way in which the clinician attributes causality to the clients behaviour, and how this may affect the development of suitable therapeutic interventions and risk management plans. Through better understanding the effects of attribution on clinical judgments of violence risk assessment, it is argued that improvements to the effectiveness of clinical judgments in violence risk assessment may be possible.

full paper attached.

Influencing expert judgment: Attributions of crime causality

by Jennifer Murray

(2011) Co-authored with Dr. Mary Thomson, GCU; Prof. David Cooke, GCU; Dr. Kathy Charles, Napier University

Purpose. The present research aimed to investigate the effects of attribution on expert clinical judgment in... more Purpose. The present research aimed to investigate the effects of attribution on expert clinical judgment in comparison to semi-experts and laypeople. Two research questions were addressed. First, would experts be less subject to attributional manipulations, in terms of their perceived ratings of dangerousness, than would semi-experts or laypeople? Second, would experts be less subject to attributional manipulations, in terms of their assessments of offender responsibility, than would semi-experts or laypeople?

Method. A 3×3×2 mixed groups design was implemented. Participants read nine crime scenarios that had been internally or externally manipulated. For each scenario,
participants were asked to rate offender dangerousness, offender responsibility, and the seriousness of the crime and to suggest a suitable sentence length. Targeted recruitment was employed, yielding 12 experts, 21 semi-experts, and 22 laypeople.

Results. Offenders were considered to be more responsible for their actions and more dangerous to others in the internal manipulations than in the external ones across all crime types and by all levels of expertise. Findings indicate that semi-experts are less subject to the influence of attributional manipulations than both experts and laypeople. Marked similarities in the pattern of expert and lay person judgments can be observed from the present analyses.

Conclusions. The current findings lend support to previous research in the area in that similarities between expert and lay person judgment were observed. However, through expanding and clarifying the levels of expertise investigated, the current findings highlight the need for greater research into the distinct ‘semi-expert’ group.

full paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/135532510X490183/pdf

Explaining differences between social groups: The impact of group identification on attribution

by Laurent Licata

Explaining differences between social groups: the influence of group membership and identification on attribution

by Laurent Licata

„Kunstkritische Studien über italienische Malerei: Die Galerie zu Dresden. Ein Überblick zu Giovanni Morellis Zuschreibungen“, in: Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2008/Bd. 34, 2010, S. 85-106

by Valentina Locatelli

Inferences about character and motive influence intentionality attributions about side effects

by Jamie Hughes

From Self-Psychology to Moral Philosophy

by J. David Velleman

Published in Philosophical Perspectives (2000)

Empirical evidence supporting my theory of practical reason as self-understanding Empirical evidence supporting my theory of practical reason as self-understanding

How Preferences for Eager versus Vigilant Judgment Strategies Affect Self-Serving Outcomes

by Daniel Molden

“Meaningful” Social Inferences: Lay Theories and Inferential Processes

by Daniel Molden

The Automatic and Co-ocurring Activation of Multiple Social Inferences

by Daniel Molden

Selecting Explanations From Causal Chains: Do Statistical Principles Explain Preferences for Voluntary Causes?

by Robbie Sutton

Hilton, D. J., McClure, J., & Sutton, R. M. (2010). European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 383-400

We investigate whether people prefer voluntary causes to physical causes in unfolding causal chains and whether... more We investigate whether people prefer voluntary causes to physical causes in unfolding causal chains and whether statistical (covariation, sufficiency) principles can predict how people select explanations. Experiment 1 shows that while people tend to prefer a proximal (more recent) cause in chains of unfolding physical events, causality is traced through the proximal cause to an underlying distal (less recent) cause when that cause is a human action. Experiment 2 shows that causal preference is more strongly correlated with judgements of sufficiency and conditionalised sufficiency than with covariation or conditionalised covariation. In addition, sufficiency judgements are partial mediators of the effect of type of distal cause (voluntary or physical) on causal preference. The preference for voluntary causes to physical causes corroborates findings from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience and jurisprudence that emphasise the primacy of intentions in causal attribution processes.

Covariational Influences on Goal-Based Explanation: An Integrative Model

by Robbie Sutton

Sutton, R. M., & McClure, J. (2001). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 222-236.

Covariational and goal-based approaches to social attribution have been treated as competitive or incommensurable.... more Covariational and goal-based approaches to social attribution have been treated as competitive or incommensurable. This article integrates key aspects of each approach. Four studies examined preferences for motivating factors (or goals) and enabling factors (or preconditions) as explanations of intentional actions. The studies manipulated (Studies 1–3) and measured (Study 4) the perceived covariation of these goal-based causes with target actions. Causes that covaried with actions were preferred explanations, in contrast with the goal-based view that motivating factors are generally preferred to enabling factors. Combining goal-based beliefs and covariational reasoning resolves problems faced by each individual approach and generates a novel explanatory typology that combines strengths of goal-based and covariational typologies.

Judgments of Voluntary and Physical Causes In Causal Chains: Probabilistic and Social Functionalist Criteria for Attributions

by Robbie Sutton

McClure, J., Hilton, D. J., & Sutton, R. M. (2007). European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 879-901.

Four experiments investigated judgments about voluntary human actions and physical causes that were embedded in causal... more Four experiments investigated judgments about voluntary human actions and physical causes that were embedded in causal chains ending in negative outcomes (e.g., a forest fire). Causes were judged for their explanatory quality, their effect on the probability of the outcome, and the extent to which they could be socially controlled. Results supported legal theorists' claim that voluntary actions are judged better explanations than physical causes. Indices derived from theories of probability change generally failed to predict the preference for voluntary actions. In contrast, this preference was mediated by the perceived extent to which voluntary versus physical causes may be brought under social control. These results suggest that causal explanation, at least within causal chains, is not driven solely by changes in the probability of an outcome when a cause is added, and that observers recognize the potential social function of explanations in drawing attention to socially controllable causes.

Having a great vacation and blaming the wines: an attribution theory perspective on consumer attachments to regional brands

by Cristina Santini

Paper presented @ Academy of Marketing Science Conference, Portland, 2010