Attribution+Theory

=**__Attribution Theory:__** = Attribution Theory consists of a person's attribution or perceived causes of outcomes. In other words, if a person succeeds or fails, to what do they attribute that success or failure? Weiner colleagues studied this and said that the answers fall into two categories: environmental and personal. The environmental factors include social norms and situations whereas the personal factors include history, knowledge and individual differences. Attributions are discussed in terms of stable/unstable (fixed and stable or variable and unstable), controllable/uncontrollable (how much control a person has over the cause) and internal/external (whether the person attributes the cause to themselves or something else). A person's behavior is a result of those factors and dimensions and how they interact together. How can a teacher use this? If a teacher is aware that a student may feel that success and failure is not within their control, it will definitely impact how they approach assignments and feedback to the student. toc  = = =**Case Study**: =

Suppose Joe — a co-worker or classmate — avoids you. Does this mean he dislikes you? (Maybe you haven't been using a good deodorant.) Could it be just a coincidence? If it happened distinctively over time — he just avoided you for a day or two — you might assume that something has been upsetting him. If it was distinctive over people — Joe avoids you but doesn't avoid others — he may dislike you. If he avoided you at work or school but was sociable outside of those situations— you might assume that work/school pressures were affecting him. However, if Joe avoids almost all types of people most of the time and in most situations, you would be likely to attribute a personal cause — Joe is shy. Regardless of whether you are right or wrong, your attributions will influence your behavior toward Joe.

Consider two people buying a cone of "tooty-fruity, double-nutty" ice cream. If one person bought the cone when the store was out of all flavors except that one, you would tend to attribute the purchase to a ** situational cause **. If she wanted ice cream, there was no other choice. If the other person purchased his cone when there were many flavors available, you would attribute his behavior to a ** personal cause **. He really likes "tooty-fruity, double-nutty" ice cream.

=**Personal Observation**: = An important assumption of attribution theory is that people will interpret their environment in such a way as to maintain a positive image. I see alot of this in my work environment. I see co workers attributing their successes to their own performance when sometimes those successes were a direct result of the actions of others. They take credit for others hard work and call it theirs. Then, when they fail at something they shift the blame to others or to factors beyond their control. They say thing like I cant get these students to learn anything because they are lazy or have bad attitudes. I think that maybe these people should look inside themselves first before blaming everything under the sun. I truely believe that this type of behavior when unchecked is extremely counterproductive. yes we can feel good about ourselves when we succeed, but wecan also be real and understand how that success was achieved. Then we need to own up to our failures to better ourselves. It's called self empowerment!

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= = ** Related Articles ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**~[|Weiner, B.](2010): The Development of an Attribution-Based Theory of Motivation: A History of** **Ideas, //Educational Psychologist, 45//(1), 28-36.** [] <span style="color: #250e71; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">  <span style="color: #050505; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Historically, behavior was thought to be motivated by needs magnified by behavioral patterns that had been reinforced via rewards. Another theory states that motivation is derived from the value of the task amplified by the person’s perception of its attainability (expectancy-value theory). [|Thorndike’s Law of Effect]puts forth that motivation is borne out of behaviors that have been rewarded. A critical element that is not addressed within the article, but as more of a postscript to the stated findings, is that “the relation between expectancy and motivation seems to vary with the dependent variable that is being considered” (p. 35). <span style="color: #050505; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Attribution theory states that it is the perception of the cause that bears out the future expectancy of achieving success or not. <span style="color: #050505; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Attribution retraining:
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">So, if the person believes that the cause of success or failure is due to something malleable and controllable, the expectation of future success is unchanged.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">If the person believes that success or failure came from an external source such as luck or ability, then the person finds reinforcement for beliefs that the results of activities are not under any personal control and should not be expected to change.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">results in behavioral change by addressing self-doubt as a constrictor of success
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">promoting hope as a facilitator of motivation and subsequent success.

<span style="color: #3c2970; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">~[|Thompson, T.] (1994). Self-worth protection: Review and implications for the classroom. //Educational Review, 26//(3), 259-273. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <span style="color: #050505; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">When a student is having unsuccessful results from an activity, self-protective behaviors may emerge such as withdrawal of effort. Self-handicapping behaviors include [|procrastination] and choosing activities that are either easy, promoting success, or very difficult, giving the student an escape excuse. These behaviors are borne of fear of failure. A [|failure] feedback loop ensues wherein students predictably maintain rejection of success and failure avoidance based on a history of failures.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Several actions by the teacher can enhance self-worth and thereby reduce self-handicapping and self-protective efforts. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Attribution retraining: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; line-height: 25px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Reducing evaluative threat by increasing occasions for evaluation, or spreading out evaluative content, can reduce the anxiety felt in conjunction with each evaluative event (i.e. tests and assignments).
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; line-height: 25px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Minimizing uncertainty within achievement contexts can be pivotal, and this can be accomplished in part by ensuring that expectations and guidelines are very clearly stated.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; line-height: 25px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Ability must be de-emphasized as a criterion of self-worth. This can be controlled by decreasing emphasis on individualistic and competitive evaluative exercises in favor of activities that encourage co-operative learning.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 25px;">Academic self-esteem can be enhanced by teachers providing exacting feedback to students about which of their actions might have caused negative outcomes along with specific suggestions for improvement.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 25px;">Feedback must not encourage externalization of success or failure
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Teachers can make a difference in the classroom by avoiding talk that encourages self-defeating cognitions <span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">these behaviors include __reactive__ and __negative__ feedback in the classroom
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">encouraging students to ** accept credit for their successes **.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">should include study skills
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Non- competitive learning structured classroom

=<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> = =<span style="color: #df34cb; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** What do the experts say? ** =

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**Attribution Theory:**

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Joseph Donaldson, UT Extension. Joseph has worked both on the county level as a county 4-H Agent in Giles County and has worked very hard to advance to working on the state level and focusing his time and talents on evaluation and reporting. As an Extension Agent it is imperative that we record impact so that we can report to key stakeholders on the county, regional, state and national level. Joseph has a very important job making sure that Extension Agents and Specialists across the state of Tennessee enters their data. The attribution theory worked well for Joseph because of his personality with his coworkers.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** 1. Please share some background information about yourself. **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I have worked for UT for 13 years as an Extension Agent and Extension Specialist. I am a professional program evaluator. My B.S. and M.S. degrees were earned in Agricultural & Extension Education, and I am working to earn a Ph.D. in Statistics, Evaluation & Measurement in the UT Department of Educational Psychology.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**2. Define in your own words the Attribution Theory.**

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Attribution Theory is a mental process whereby we try to interpret an event of behavior. We “attribute” the event or behavior to an external or internal cause. It’s the way we explain things to ourselves.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** 3. Would you please provide an example or examples of attribution theory using Weiner's Model? **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Weiner proposed that the behavior must be observed, it must be determined to be intentional, and that is must be attributed to internal or external causes. A student took the ACT test and scored remarkably higher than he expected (observed his test score). He did not prepare for the test, unlike his classmates who studied at least one hour daily for several weeks. He attributed his score to luck (an external cause). In may have been that he was naturally more intelligent and/or was more relaxed and refreshed than his classmates.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** 4. Within our group project we are trying to find ways to link theories together. Please share how can you relate the attribution theory to other theories? **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Attribution theory is linked to self-esteem. A person with low self-esteem will internally attribute circumstances that are totally external. A student with low self-esteem who receives a poor test score will think, “I am just not intelligent.” Actually, it may have been a poorly-written test or the teacher may have done a poor job preparing the students for the test!

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** 5. Are there any other models or theories that would provide a good example of attribution theory? **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The concept of goal-setting is important for academic achievement. It’s a tool that helps students shift their focus and understand that hard work does pay off.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** 6. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Attribution Theory? **

<span style="color: black; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As an educator, it has helped me to understand why two students have a completely different viewpoint on some event in the classroom. In the workplace, it helps me understand two different views.

=<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> = =<span style="color: #883fa6; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** Bibliography of Resources ** =

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=<span style="color: #1d8c8c; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">** Biography of a Theorist ** =

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">__**BERNARD WEINER**__

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Professor Bernard Weiner has research interests in attribution theory, emotions, responsibility judgments, impression management, help giving, achievement motivation, reactions to stigmatized, and theories of punishment. His Ph. D. was at the University of Michigan, 1963 and he has been at U.C. L.A. since 1965, where he currently is Distinguished Professor of Psychology. His awards include the Distinguished Scientist Award for SESP, the E. L. Thorndike Lifetime Achievement Award from Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of APA, and the Donald Campbell Research Award from Division 8 of APA. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Bielefeld, Germany; Turku University, Finland; and the University of Manitoba, Canada <span style="display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Retrieved from. [] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">__**FRITZ HEIDER**__ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> **Fritz Heider** (February 19, 1896 – January 2, 1988) was an [|Austrian]-American psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. He is considered to be one of [|social psychology]'s pre-eminent theorists. Heider's 1958 book //The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations// is a theoretical masterpiece that laid the foundations for much of contemporary social psychology. In particular, his work on attribution, balance, and cognitive consistency were vital contributions to the field. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Heider's theoretical position began from the concept of what he called "commonsense psychology." He believed that people use their perceptions of others to explain why they behave the way they do. To do this, Heider suggested that people employ similar means to understanding their physical environment, namely [|perception] of their attributes and behavior and cognition to understand the relationship between objects and their environments. These "social perceptions" may or may not be accurate, as they are subjective and may be based on limited previous experience with the individual, or by placing too much emphasis on the [|personality] of the individual and too little on environmental factors. Heider's thinking was innovative and pioneered a new exploration of how human beings understand and relate to each other, reflecting the essential social nature of human beings which leads people attempt to make sense not just of the physical world of objects but also of their social environment. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">__**HAROLD KELLEY**__ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> **Harold Kelley** (February 16, 1921, [|Boise], [|Idaho] – January 29, 2003, [|Malibu], [|California]) was an American [|social psychologist] and professor of psychology at the [|University of California, Los Angeles]. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Kelley graduated in psychology from the [|University of California, Berkeley] and obtained his Ph.D. from [|MIT]. He moved to UCLA in 1961. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">He liked to consider his main contributions as being his work on the social psychology of personal relationships. However, he is perhaps best known for his contributions to [|attribution theory]. He published important papers on attribution theory from 1967-1973 in U.S. social psychology journals. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">His most important collaboration was with [|John Thibaut], with whom he developed [|social exchange theory]. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">__**DALE SCHUNK**__ <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Dale H. Schunk is an [|educational psychologist] and Dean of the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has researched the effects of social and instructional variables on [|cognition], [|learning], [|self-regulation] and [|motivation]. Schunk has served on the editorial boards of journals such as //Contemporary Educational Psychology// and //Educational Psychology Review//, and has authored many journal articles and book chapters on educational psychology. In addition to other books, he is author of the widely used textbook, //Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective//, and coauthor of //Motivation in Education: Theory Research and Applications//.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Schunk received the Albert J. Harris Research Award from the International Reading Association (1989), an Early Contributions Award from Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (1982), and the Fulbright Distinguished American Scholar Award (1997). Before moving to Purdue, Schunk taught educational psychology at the [|University of Houston] from 1979 to 1985 and at [|UNC-Chapel Hill] from 1986 to 1993. He received his undergraduate education at the [|University of Illinois], and he earned an M.Ed. degree from [|Boston University] and a [|Ph.D.] from the [|Stanford University School of Education].

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">References