Cross-situational consistency in attributions about the causes of others' misfortunes : a critical evaluation of attributional style
Year: 1992
Type: article
Abstract: Attributional style" is a relatively new concept in psychology.It has been defined as cross-situational consistency in causal attributions about a specific class of events.Although examined exclusively in the domain of self-perception, the attributional style construct may be applicable to human perception more generally.The present thesis directly questioned whether attributional style pertains to person perception, by defining and critically evaluating the concept, "controllability attributional style for others' misfortunes", as operationalized by a new measure developed for this investigation."Controllability attributional style" was focused upon because "controllability" has been shown to be a predominant dimension in people's causal thinking about others' misfortunes.Three studies are reported in which a new measure was iteratively developed, its internal .characteristicswere examined, and external correlates of controllability attributional style were examined.Analyses indicated only slight evidence of a cross-situationally consistent attributional style, and strong evidence of discriminativeness in causal perceptions of others' misfortunes.The results of the present studies raise serious questions about the existence of attributional style in the domain of person perception examined.It was concluded that the lack of broad cross-situational consistency and the strong evidence of discriminativeness in causal attributions about others' misfortunes precludes the notion of a cognitive "style".
Source: Summit (Simon Fraser University)
Author: Nancy Higgins
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W123735370