A psychological framework explaining how people interpret and explain the causes of behavior and events, particularly whether they attribute outcomes to internal factors (personality, ability) or external factors (situation, luck). These attributions significantly influence emotions, expectations, and future behavior.
Developed by Fritz Heider in the 1950s and expanded by others, from Latin 'attribuere' meaning to assign or ascribe. The theory emerged from observations that people act like 'naive scientists,' constantly trying to understand why things happen and who or what is responsible.
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