Attribution Theory

Kelley (1967) also introduced a statistical index to strengthen the validity of his covariation theory of attribution, “in order to highlight the naive analysis of evidence and the scientific one” (Kelley, 1967). Attribution theory has come to be one of the most important theories in modern psychology. Thus, if a person enjoys a movie, is the movie enjoyable to all people, or does that particular person enjoy certain kinds of movies? According to what came to be known as Kelley’s “ANOVA Model”, in order to make an inference about a thing (eg: enjoyment of a movie), one must question whether the thing is distinct from other things (eg: the movie is distinct from other movies), whether the thing has consensus (eg: agreement that the movie is enjoyable), whether the thing is consistent over time (eg: the movie is still good after repeat viewings), and whether the thing is consistent over modality (eg: the movie is enjoyed when watched different places, such as in the theatre, in a drive-in, or at home) (Kelley, 1967). Although this equation is not typically used in practice, the approximate larger the “F” value, the better one will be able to attribute cause. He uses the theory to try to answer the question: “How does a person validate his/ her opinion of an entity?” Kelley used the example of a person enjoying a movie. Various combinations of the four premises of Kelley’s model, known as “covariations”, make inferences about human behavior possible (Kelley, 1967). This theory has made an astounding impact on modern psychology; "Attribution theory came to rival cognitive dissonance as one of the most imperialistic theories in social psychology. Attribution theory was seen as relevant to the study of person perception, event perception, attitude change, the acquisition of self-knowledge, therapeutic interventions, and much more" (Ross and Fletcher, 1985). One example that Kelley reports is to help people understand the conditions under which people think they are “free” when in reality they are most concerned with conformity (Kelley, 1967). For example, if a perceiver watches someone act cruelly, the perceiver may infer a disposition of cruelty. Several years later, in 1977, a social psychologist named Lee Ross found this internal attribution preference so pervasive – he termed it the “fundamental attribution error” (Ross, 1977).