Hogg, M. A., Cooper, J., Trope, Yaacov, Gaunt, Ruth, Hogg, M. A., Cooper, J., Trope, Yaacov, and Gaunt, Ruth
The present chapter will review theoretical and empirical work on how people explain their own and others’ behavior. In the two decades following Heider’s (1958) analysis of lay psychology, attribution theorists developed normative models of attributional inferences (Jones & Davis, 1965; Kelley, 1967), identified systematic violations of these models (e.g., Ross, 1977), and examined the emotional, motivational, and behavioral consequences of attributional inferences (e.g., Weiner, 1979). Based on conceptual and methodological developments in the general area of social cognition, the focus of attribution research in the last two decades has shifted to the investigation of the cognitive processes underlying attributional inferences. The primary objective of the present chapter is to review this relatively new research. The review will be organized around three interrelated topics: (1) perceivers’ pre-existing models of the determinants of behavior, (2) the use of these models in drawing inferences from concrete behavioral episodes, and (3) the influence of perceivers’ goals and motivation on inference. The first section of the chapter will review research on perceivers’ mental models of behavior. These models specify how personal forces (abilities, traits) and situational forces (task difficulty, incentives) combine to determine behavior. Several lines of research have found systematic differences in these models as a function of type of ability or trait, culture, developmental stage, and individual differences. Thus, some traits are believed to be sufficient conditions for the corresponding behavior, whereas other traits are believed to be necessary conditions for the corresponding behavior. In some cultures, personal traits are believed to be the primary determinant of the behavior, whereas in other cultures situational contingencies are believed to be the primary determinants of behavior. And within cultures, mental models of behavior have been found to vary across