Week 6: Response to "Attributional Tendencies"

2/9/19

Attributions are inferences that people draw about the cause of events, others' behavior, and their own behavior. Fritz Heider (1958) was the first person to describe how people make attributions. He suggested that we have the tendency to give causal explanations for someone's behavior, often by crediting either the situation (ex. stress or abuse) or the person's disposition (personality). He argued that there are two general types of attributions that people make: 

• Personal attribution or internal attribution. The causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings.
• Situational attribution or external attribution. The causes of behavior to situational demands, and environmental constraints.

Teachers can notice when some of their students are hostile, optimistic or pessimistic.  Like we see in the next chart:

As we can see attributions might impact students' and teacher's beliefs about education and learning. it can impact ELs' ways of communication in the classroom. It also can modify their participation and behavior, and their expectations from the teacher or their peers.