Traditional "Attribution" Models

• Heider: Naive theory of action
• Jones & Davis: Correspondent inference theory
• Kelley: Anova model A New Model of Explanation

  Heider (1958): People's Naive Theory of Action

  • Assumptions (common sense, language)
  • Method (conceptual analysis)
  • Personal vs. Impersonal Causality
  • Intention - Trying - Reasons/Motives

  Personal Causality	Impersonal Causality
  purposive, intentional action	all the rest
  causes --> intention --> action	no intention involved
  Equifinality Local Control	Multifinality Mechanical causality of the total system

  Note that Heider briefly discusses that an intention is whatthe person is trying, not why the person is trying; why he or she is trying is because of the person's reasons or motives. This concept of reasons has been ignored for many years.

  Jones & Davis (1965): Correspondent Inferences

  • Intention = motive = reasons (effects)
  • Focus is on intended actions; perceiver's goal is dispositional inference
  • "Correspondent inferences" (choice analysis from acts to dispositions)
  Problems:Ignore unintentional behavior; ignore reasons; focus too much on dispositions; not really a model of how people explain behavior

  Kelley's (1967) Covariation model

  • Triangle: Attributions to person - entity - circumstances
  • Data on covariation: Consensus, distinctiveness, consistency
  Problems:Confounds intentional and unintentional behavior; ignores reasons; is a model of how people explain behavior but does not apply to single behaviors

  A New Framework

  MALLE, KNOBE, O'LAUGHLIN
  1. What are explanations? cognitive vs. social
  2. What are they not? (e.g., trait inferences)
  3. How do people do it?
  4. What functions and consequences do explanations have?
  Malle's (1999) Model:
  • Distinction between intentional and unintentional behavior
  • Four modes of explanation, with different structure and functions
  • Phenomena that are better understood within this model:
    1. Explanations of groups and individuals
    2. Actor-observer asymmetries
    3. The role of assumptions (intentionality, rationality, subjectivity)
    4. Future research on cross-cultural differences, influence of audiences, norms, pressures