Attribution theory describes the way in which individuals get to know of the factors that cause their actions and also those of other people. It examines how we respond to a question like, why did this happen? or why did the person do this? According to psychologists, when an event occurs we will associate it with internal factors e.g. traits, abilities, or effort of a person or external factors e.g. luck, circumstances or environment. Fritz Heider was the first to present this theory in the 1950s, and Heider was of the opinion that people are naive scientists, who are always seeking to explain social events. The idea was later developed by Harold Kelley who proposed his covariation model that revealed that individuals use consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus in their judgments. Bernard Weiner also did not leave behind as he elaborated how individuals attribute success and failure which have a significant influence on motivation and feelings. The significance of the attribution theory is that it shows the influence of our explanation on attitudes, relationships and even self esteem. To illustrate, it might lower confidence when one blames themselves as the cause of failure and raise it when one blames external causes as the cause of failure. Attributions can be seen playing a key role in our daily life since they determine the way we interpret performance in school, relationship conflicts, and job judgments, making it one of the critical concepts in social psychology.
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