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How is attribution theory relevant to the way in which people perceive other individuals and groups?
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How is attribution theory relevant to the way in which people perceive other individuals and groups? The human race's need to explain the actions of ourselves and others is known as attribution. Attributing cause to the events around us and to our own behaviour gives us a greater sense of control over our environment and helps maintain our self esteem. Attribution theory developed within social psychology as a means of dealing with questions of social perception. It is the formal psychological account of the attribution process and is concerned with the underlying ideas of why things happen. It explores the explanations we give in answering questions about ourselves and others that usually begin with 'Why?' Fritz Heider (1958) saw the individual as a 'naïve scientist' who linked observational behaviour to unobservable causes. He proposed that we form ideas and theories about our social world and that we look for causes...
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