Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

attribution theory 
The theory of 
personality that seeks to explain how 
we decide, on the basis of samples of 
an individual’s behavior, what the 
specifi c causes of that person’s 
behavior are.
situational causes (of behavior) 
Perceived causes of behavior that 
are based on environmental factors.
FIGURE 4 
Determining why people 
behave the way they do. The general 
process we use to determine the causes 
of others’ behavior proceeds in several 
steps. The kind of explanation we come 
up with depends on the time available 
to us, our cognitive resources, and our 
degree of motivation to come up with 
an accurate explanation. If time, cogni-
tive resources, and motivation are 
limited, we’ll make use of our fi rst 
impression, which may be inaccurate. 
(Source: Adapted from Krull & Anderson, 
1997, p. 2.)
Is time available? 
Yes 
Yes 
No 
No 
Are cognitive resources available? 
Is there motivation to change 
the initial explanation? 
Noticing an event 
Event explained; 
process stops 
Formulate and resolve problem 
Is the explanation satisfactory? 
Interpreting the event 
Forming an initial explanation
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586 Chapter 
17 
Social Psychology
person. Hence, the behavior has a  dispositional cause  —that is, it is prompted by the 
person’s disposition (his or her internal traits or personality characteristics).
In our example involving Barbara Washington, her fellow employees attributed 
her behavior to her disposition rather than to the situation. But from a logical stand-
point, it is equally plausible that something about the situation caused the behavior. 
If asked, Barbara might attribute her accomplishment to situational factors and 
explain that she had so much other work to do she just had to get the project out of 
the way or the project was not all that diffi cult and was easy to complete ahead of 
schedule. To her, then, the reason for her behavior might not be dispositional at all; 
it could be situational.