: a theory that attempts to explain the interpretive process by which people make judgments about the causes of their own behavior and the behavior of others After studying how people explain others' behavior, Fritz Heider (1958) proposed an attribution theory.

What does attribution mean in psychology?

In social psychology, attribution is the process of inferring the causes of events or behaviors. ... For example, over the course of a typical day, you probably make numerous attributions about your own behavior as well as that of the people around you.

What is the main focus of attribution theory?

Attribution theories typically focus on the process of determining whether a behavior is situationally-caused (caused by external factors) or dispositionally-caused (caused by internal characteristics).