Fritz Heider's Theory Of Attributions

Humans are very social and have a need to understand the world around them and why people behave in certain situations. In 1958, Australian psychologist Fritz Heider introduced a theory in which help humans explain our own behaviour and the behaviour of others through attributes. Heider defined attribution as people interpreting and explaining the causal relationships in the world by making assumptions. We make attributions by observing others’ behaviours and formulating their desires and intentions in the situation they are in. There are two types of attributions: dispositional and situational. Dispositional attributions are stable, predictable, evaluative, and easy to make. They usually formulate by internal factors, like observing personality traits, attitudes, habits, and emotions. Whereas, situational attributions are unstable, unpredictable, non-judgmental, and hard to make. They usually formulate by observing external factors, like the environment.

There are three categories that we put

Our tendency to attribute others’ behaviour to dispositional factors, rather than situational factors are an example of the fundamental attribution error. There is less information out in the environment to make dispositional attributions, so we result to situational attributions. Also, the fundamental attribution error does not make us feel helpless in life because we have control on our own opinions on others. Our tendency to attribute success to dispositional factors and failure to situational factors are examples of the self serving bias. People demonstrate this error due to self-presentation and self-esteem. Also, these attribution errors are a result of our expectation or effort to succeed or fail. The fundamental attribution error and the self serving bias are both errors in attribution, since they propose flaws in attribution theory and how people explain