Attributions

In psychology, attributions refer to processes involved in judgments about the cause of behavior and inferences about those people made on the basis of such judgments. In particular, attributions reflect assessments about the role of intentions, traits, and other dispositions versus possible situational factors in determining the actions and outcomes one observes. The study of attribution processes and biases has been actively pursued by psychologists for over half a century, with a heavy emphasis first on theory development and later on the application of insights gained from research on basic attribution tasks and biases.

Studies directly concerned with lifespan issues have been limited, but changes in the types of actions and outcomes that people are called on to assess and respond to at different stages of ...