Attribution in Relationships

During the 1980s and 1990s, the predominant research on attributions in close relationships has focused on attributional biases of partners. The aforementioned egocentric bias has been repeatedly found in different relationship situations (e.g., Fincham 1985). Theorists have suggested that this bias may have affect satisfaction in relationships, or it could serve as a secondary indicator that the relationship is already distressed. In an impressive program of research, Frank Fincham, Thomas Bradbury, and colleagues (e.g., Bradbury and Fincham 1992) have presented evidence that attributions play a causal role in both the development and the breakdown of close relationships. Their theoretical analysis, referred to as a contextual model, emphasizes that context always must be taken into account in understanding relationships. An argument erupts between this couple during breakfast. Attribution, or the interpretation of an event based on what caused it to occur, is a factor in understanding and solving such disagreements. SIE PRODUCTIONS/CORBIS They argue that behaviors exchanged in an interaction can have different meanings, depending on other events occurring in the interaction.

Another interesting track for work on attributions in relationships concerns gender differences. Amy Holtzworth-Munroe and Neil Jacobson (1985) found that in general during the course of relationships, women tend to do more processing and analyzing of the causes of issues and events than do men. In contrast, men appear to become quite active in their analysis when the relationship begins to encounter serious turmoil. This finding, therefore, suggests that a man's involvement in extensive attributional work in a relationship may be a good barometer of the seriousness of distress being jointly experienced in the relationship. It also is consistent with earlier work on possible gender differences in how women and men experience relationship breakdown (e.g., Weiss 1975).