Reflections on the history of attribution theory and research: People, personalities, publications, problems.

Fifty years after the publication of The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations (Heider, 1958), attribution inquiry remains strong, but no longer dominant. This article examines some of the people (particularly, Fritz Heider, Edward Jones, and Harold Kelley), publications, and conceptual issues that contributed to the duration of this line of work. Personal anecdotes are included.

[1]  J. W. Atkinson.  Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. , 1957, Psychological review.

[2]  A. Michotte.  The perception of causality , 1963 .

[3]  B. Weiner.  An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. , 1985, Psychological review.

[4]  K. Spence.  A theory of emotionally based drive (D) and its relation to performance in simple learning situations. , 1958 .

[5]  Koch Sigmund Ed,et al.  Psychology: A Study of A Science , 1962 .

[6]  D. Rapaport.  The Structure of Psychoanalytic Theory: A Systematizing Attempt , 1967 .

[7]  M. Seligman,et al.  Learned helplessness in humans: critique and reformulation. , 1978, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[8]  J. Rotter.  Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. , 1966, Psychological monographs.

[9]  F. Heider.  The psychology of interpersonal relations , 1958 .

[10]  J. Harvey,et al.  New Directions in Attribution Research , 2018 .

[11]  H. Kelley.  Attribution theory in social psychology , 1967 .

[12]  R. W. White.  Motivation reconsidered: the concept of competence. , 1959, Psychological review.

[13]  F. Heider,et al.  An experimental study of apparent behavior , 1944 .

[14]  R. Abelson,et al.  Symbolic psycho‐logic: A model of attitudinal cognition , 2007 .

[15]  B. Weiner,et al.  A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences. , 1979, Journal of educational psychology.

[16]  E. E. Jones.  Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior , 1987 .

[17]  E. E. Jones,et al.  From Acts To Dispositions The Attribution Process In Person Perception1 , 1965 .

[18]  L. Festinger,et al.  A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance , 2017 .