On the Accuracy of Dispositional Versus Situational Attributions

Research on attribution “error” often implies that situational attributions are generally more accurate than dispositional ones, and the widespread acceptance of this implication has had important consequences for psychology. However, evidence also exists that would tend to support the reverse conclusion. In fact, the important difference between situational and dispositional attributions is not one of accuracy, but of level of analysis.

[1]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Correlational bias in observer ratings. , 1976 .

[2]  K S Bowers,et al.  Situationism in psychology: an analysis and a critique. , 1973, Psychological review.

[3]  L. R. Goldberg.  Differential attribution of trait-descriptive terms to oneself as compared to well-liked, neutral, and disliked others: A psychometric analysis. , 1978 .

[4]  V. A. Harris,et al.  The Attribution of Attitudes , 1967 .

[5]  D. Bem,et al.  Testing the self-perception explanation of dissonance phenomena: on the salience of premanipulation attitudes. , 1970, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  C. Korte.  Pluralistic ignorance about student radicalism. , 1972 .

[7]  Douglas T. Kenrick,et al.  Personality traits and the eye of the beholder: Crossing some traditional philosophical boundaries in the search for consistency in all of the people. , 1980 .

[8]  Walter Mischel,et al.  The role of purpose in the organization of information about behavior: Trait-based versus goal-based categories in person cognition. , 1981 .

[9]  David C. Funder,et al.  Predicting more of the people more of the time: Assessing the personality of situations. , 1978 .

[10]  D. Buss,et al.  Self-consciousness, self-awareness, and self-attribution , 1976 .

[11]  Seymour Epstein,et al.  The stability of behavior: II. Implications for psychological research. , 1980 .

[12]  Richard L. Wiener,et al.  Is a Behavioral Measure the Best Estimate of Behavioral Parameters? Perhaps Not , 1980 .

[13]  D. S. Holmes,et al.  Dimensions of projection. , 1968, Psychological bulletin.

[14]  A. Tversky,et al.  On the psychology of prediction , 1973 .

[15]  A. Kruglanski.  Causal explanation, teleological explanation: On radical particularism in attribution theory. , 1979 .

[16]  L. J. Chapman,et al.  Illusory correlation as an obstacle to the use of valid psychodiagnostic signs. , 1969, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[17]  D. Buss,et al.  The frequency concept of disposition: dominance and prototypically dominant acts^ , 1980 .

[18]  James M. Fields,et al.  Public Beliefs About the Beliefs of the Public , 1976 .

[19]  D. Funder.  On seeing ourselves as others see us: Self–other agreement and discrepancy in personality ratings. , 1980 .