situational attribution

the ascription of one’s own or another’s behavior, an event, or an outcome to causes outside the person concerned, such as luck, pressure from other people, or external circumstances. Also called environmental attribution; external attribution. Compare dispositional attribution.

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Psychology term of the day

May 2nd 2024

comparator hypothesis

a theory of classical conditioning proposing that the strength of conditioning is based on a comparison of the likelihood that an unconditioned stimulus will occur following a conditioned stimulus with the likelihood that it will occur in the absence of a conditioned stimulus. It predicts that a response will be observed only if the former probability is higher.