Tina's Self-Serving Attribution Theory

The Self-Serving Attribution theory is when credit is given to internal reasons when one succeeds and to blame external reasons when one fails. According to this theory, Tina would explain her win to her personal bowling skills and possibly her ability to overcome Phil’s tauntings. In this case, Tina would be making an internal attribution.

According to the Self-Serving Attribution theory, Tina would blame external reasons for her lose if she should lose the game. In this instance she may blame Phil’s taughting her for her lose. Tina may lay the blame with Phil because his taunting distracted her and prevented her from preforming at ther best.

The belief in a just world theory is the belief that people get what they deserve. Based on this

theory, Tina would explain Phil dropping his bowling ball on his foot as what he deserved for his earlier behavior. She would believe that he deserved a to break his foot because of treating her so poorly.

Self-serving attribution is the tendency to give credit to internal factors and blame external factors for failures. There are three reason why people make self-serving attributions. The first reason is to maintain self-esteem. In this case, Tina may make a self-serving attribution if she should win the game, bu credititng her internal talents in overcoming Phil’s taunting. The second reason why people make self-serving attributions is that they want o make a good impression. Similarly to the first reason, Tina may blaime Phil’s taunting, an external factor, if she should lose the game in order to blame someone else for her poor performance. The third reason someone might make a self-serving attribution is the lack of information available to them. In this instance, Tina may not have all the information explaining Phil’s behavior. For example, maybe he is just picking at her meaning to be friendly and not trying to be hurtful.