dispositional attribution

Definition. n. When trying to explain a person’s behavior (what is referred to in psychology as making an attribution for the person’s behavior), a dispositional attribution is made when it is assumed that the person has behaved in such a way because of enduring personality characteristics. In other words, the behavior is the result of the person’s disposition or personality.
Explanation. Dispositional attributions are a special case of internal attributions, and the two concepts are often confused. An internal attribution is made when it is judged that a particular behavior was performed because of some factor internal to the person. These internal factors include personality, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, or basically anything else internal to the person that influences him or her to behave that way. For example, if a person does poorly on a test, an internal attribution would be “That person did poorly on the test because he did not study.” The person did not study, so the factor influencing the behavior was internal to the person, but the person may not have studied because he was tired and not feeling well. A dispositional attribution is a special case of an internal attribution because it is made about behaviors that are performed specifically because the person is predisposed to behaving that way. In the example, a dispositional attribution would be “The person did poorly on the test because he did not study for it. He is lazy and never studies for tests!” When people make dispositional attributions, they are not surprised the person behaved in that fashion because the person regularly behaves that way. It may be helpful to note that all dispositional attributions are internal attributions, but not all internal attributions are dispositional attributions.
Development and details. Making attributions about other people’s behaviors influences the way we think about and behave toward those people. If a dispositional attribution is made about a negative behavior, people are more likely to have a bad overall impression of the person who engaged in the behavior. Others are also not likely to expect the person to change the behavior. In the example, the student would be judged as lazy and unmotivated. If people have an overall negative impression of a person due to what they believe are the person’s enduring personality characteristics, the people making the attribution are more likely to treat the person in a negative fashion. The consequences of such actions could be substantial. For example, if a boss attributes her employee’s poor performance to laziness, the boss could decide to fire the employee because she does not believe that the employee can become more motivated. If juries make dispositional attributions about criminal trial defendants, the defendant may be sent to prison for a long time because the jurors are concerned that the person will behave that same way again.

- VKP