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Fritz Heiders 1958 book was an early definition of attribution theory. Others were Jones and Davis's hypotheses about perception of intention, and Bem's self-perception theory.

Attribution theory is about how people make causal attributions, how they answer questions begining with why. It primarily deals with quesitons of social perception. It concerns what Hieder calls "naive psychology". It also involves one's own perceptions of themselves as self-observers. It has to do with th e processes by which man "knows" what he knows and more importantly "knows that he knows".

"I believe that social psychologists finally are realizing that their proper role is not to confound common sense bu rather to analyze, refine, and enlarge on it"

Covariation principle: an effect is attributed to the one of its possible causes with which, over time, it covaries.

Effects are often to come soon after their causes. The normal person as a "naive psychologist" inteprets and attributes causal relationships to the actions of themself and of others. The potential causes are independent variables, and the effect (behavior) is the dependent variable. People have greater confidence in their repsonse to a stimulus when a)their response is associated distinctively with the stimulus, b) others do the same thing in the same situation, c) response is consistent over time . Thus distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency impact confidence in perceptions.

The role of a given cause in producing a given effect is discounted if other plausible causes are also present. If there is high external justificaiton for a behavior, his own internal causes are discounted. With low external justification, the person attributes their behavior to their own internal attitudes.

The augmentation principle is when there are know to be constraints, costs, or risks involved in taking an action, the action is attributed more to...