Question

Elaina complained to her best friend that she lost the spelling bee because the judges were unfair and gave her all of the harder words to spell. Elaina is attributing her performance in the spelling bee to a(n) _____ cause.

Answer 1

Answer:

external cause

Explanation:

Elaina is showing a common phenomenon in social psychology:

the attribution to external causes, which means that she assigns the cause of a happening to situations that are external to her, and rather than assessing her performance in terms of her inner characteristics.

She could have also expressed how her feelings and state of mind at that time played a part, but instead, she is making external attributions, like "judges being unfair by giving her all harder words".

The attribution theory in social psychology see how people try to point out to more causes that are in the surroundings or external, and often this influences their motivations and behaviour.

If people make inferences why others behave in a certain way and they refer to the outside then, we speak of external causes.

Social perception and self-perception can have internal, external causes and often we are advised to seek motivations in any of these ways.