Introduction
This study seeks to find out if a person’s explanatory style, as measured by the attributional complexity and proximal/distal explanatory style scales, will be related to their explanations for poverty. A person having low attributional complexity attributes situations/causations internally (proximal), whilst a person having high attributional complexity attributes externally (distal). Through this correlation, we would like to determine how this relationship will explain poverty.
Discussion
In order to have a control over our environment, humans firstly needs to understand
and have awareness over their environments. Hence, Martinez, Martinko & Ferris (2012)
proposed theory shows that humans are instinctively motivated to attribute causes to the
events they perceive. Proximal (internal) attribution and distal (external) attribution are part
of our cognitive structure. And it is mentioned in Martinez et al., (2012) that people whom
have more developed cognitive regions, will have a clearer attribution of situations. They
know how to differentiate between self (internal) and non self (external), which also means
that people whom do not have as developed cognitive structures, is less able to make a clearer
attribution as compared to the latter.
A study by Steward et al., (2011) indicated that the attributional complexity of a
person (proximal and distal), has the capacity to surpass well established predictors, and even
achieve significant results. College students, whom have poor performance, were being
helped by undergoing a training, which aims to restructure their attributions of poor
performance. Stewart, et al., (2011) stated that the dimensional propertie...
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Looking at what each of these explanations mean people can get a better definition of poverty. Individual-level explanation focuses on the inherited attributes such as IQ and motivation level and are compared with acquired attributes such as investing in an education. Structural explanation is focused on the social organization of society, the organizations could look at the ability to get a good job and the tax allocations. Ideological explanation looks at the negative images that are viewed throughout various groups such as discrimination, this discrimination leads to less good jobs being given to someone of that race or gender. With these explanations in mind, people can get a better idea of how people are being effected in the society which leads to
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Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination depends largely on three factors: distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency. Our perceptions of people differ from our perceptions of inanimate objects.