Malle wrote an article that describes the attribution theory in detail and elaborates on how people make sense of behavior. In social psychology, the term attribution has two primary meanings. The first refers to explanations of behavior (i.e., answers to why questions); the second refers to inferences or ascriptions (e.g., inferring traits from behavior, ascribing blame to a person). What the two meanings have in common is a process of assigning: in attribution as explanation, a behavior is assigned to its cause; in attribution as inference, a quality or attribute is assigned to the agent on the basis of an observed behavior. Despite the connection between these phenomena, they have distinct psychological characteristics (Hamilton, 1998; Hilton, Smith, & Kin, 1995; Malle, in press).
Justus Rui Hao WEE wrote an article about how and when attributions affect relationship satisfaction. The author states that there is more to relationships than just internal and external attributions. Previous research on attributions in relational contexts adopted the use of this distinction between internal and external attribution for partner behaviors (Fincham & Bradbury, 1992; for a review see Bradbury & Fincham, 1990). However, researchers have shown that people construe interactions with others in relationship-specific ways (e.g., relational schemas; Baldwin, 1992), with different schemas capturing interactions with different partners. It may then be that in addition to viewing partner behaviors as caused by factors within the partner (i.e., internal attributions) or factors outside the partner such as situational circumstances or behaviors of the self (i.e., external attributions), intimates may also view these behaviors as caused by their partners’ feelings towards them or their relationship (i.e., interpersonal attributions; Rempel, Ross, & Holmes, 2001).
Attribution theory has been insightful in explaining relationships is in the context of nonverbal communication. For example, Manusov conducted a study where couples played the game “Trivial Pursuit” while being videotaped. During the game, one of the members manipulated their nonverbal behaviors. The level of relational satisfaction correlated with perceptions of cause for nonverbal messages. Negative behaviors in relationships were perceived as more intentional, stable and controllable, whereas positive cues were perceived to be more external, unstable and specific (Manusov 1990).
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Fincham studied attributions in close relationships and had several findings. For example, interest in marital attributions was motivated by applied concerns and has therefore focused on marital satisfaction, the final common pathway that leads couples to seek therapy. More specifically, it has been widely assumed in clinical writings that attributions explain variance in marital satisfaction and attributions may help us understand the patterns of behavior exchange found in distressed and nondistressed couples (Fincham, 1989).
