1. a concept in social psychology referring to how individuals explain causes of events, other's behavior, and their own behavior
2. internal
   1. When an internal attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the individuals personality, attitudes, character, or disposition
3. external
   1. When an external attribution is made, the cause of the given behavior is assigned to the situation in which the behavior was seen
4. Fundamental attribution error
   1. A tendency to overestimate the extent to which a person's behaviour is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors. One plausible reason for this error relates to the perceptual and cognitive salience of the actor as opposed to the situation: that is, observers focus their attention on actors, while the situational causes of the actor's behaviour are less salient and may be unknown.
5. Actor/Observer Difference
   1. Tendency to see other people's actions as internally caused, while focusing more on the role of situational factors when explaining one own's actions - even when explaining the same actions. A widespread of explanation for the actor/observer difference is based on similar perceptual-cognitive factors as that noted for the fundamental attribution error.
6. Self-Serving Attributions
   1. Self-serving attributions are explanations for one's own successess that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one's failures that blame external, situational factors. People tend to make attributions in line with "bad things happen to bad people" and "good things happen to good people" in order to protect their self esteem and prevent feeling vulnerable.