attribution theory

n. Attribution theory is a major area of research in social psychology that has several variations and has changed substantially since it was first proposed in the 1940s. Attribution theory involves the way in which people explain behavior. There are two basic categories of attributions, internal (dispositional) causes and external (situational) causes. Situational attributions hold that the behavior occurred because of some external cause or factor operating with the situation. Dispositional attributions hold that the behavior occurred because of some internal cause such as a personal trait, motive, or attitude.
Research has also shown that our attribution processes differ, depending on whether we are trying to estimate the causes of others' behavior versus attributions about our own behavior, a discrepancy known as the actor-observer effect. For estimating the causes of others’ behavior, people generally commit the fundamental attribution error: they tend to underestimate the importance of environmental (external) causes and overestimate the importance if individual (internal) causes. People's estimates about the causes of their own behavior are subject to what is known as the self-serving bias: their attributions about their own behavior vary, depending on which explanation is most favorable to them. Through their attributions, people generally tend to take credit for their successes and deny responsibility for their failures. When our own behavior is desirable or leads to a positive outcome, people tend to make dispositional (internal) attributions, whereas people are more prone to making situational (external) attributions for behavior that is less than desirable and/or results in a negative outcome. Many researchers believe that this self-serving bias is a defense mechanism designed to protect our self-esteem.
A special case of the fundamental attribution error occurs when we make internal attributions on the basis of negative stereotypes that we hold about an out-group. This is referred to as the ultimate attribution error. The ultimate attribution error relates closely to the group-serving bias, which is similar to the self-serving bias. Research on groupserving bias shows that, in general, in-group members are credited for successes while out-group members' successes are attributed to external factors (e.g., luck). In-group failures are attributed to external causes, while out-group failures are attributed to internal causes that are common to all group members (e.g., they are weak or stupid). - MP