Attribution Theory

Attribution Theory focuses on people’s tendency to make sense of why things occur and who was responsible for their occurrence. Originally a psychological concept, authors Brian H. Spitzberg and Valerie Manusov discuss the ways in which attributions are also a communication construct. They review the origins and primary foci of attribution research with an emphasis on the ways that people sense-make about interpersonal interaction, including their use of correspondence, co-variation, responsibility judgments, and biases. They highlight attributions in close relationships and for the darker sides of interpersonal communication and show some of the ways in which our attributions may affect subsequent interpersonal communication. In this chapter, the authors blend original and contemporary research to present a set of theories and concepts created to explain and predict interpersonal attribution-making, offer a critique of the theory consistent with criteria for judging post-positive theory development, and present opportunities for relevant new applications of the theory for interpersonal interaction.