Interested in empirically investigating the construct validity of intentional vs unintentional attributions. Theory states that causal attributions are given only to intentional behaviours. However, cannot find many empirical studies to support the construct validity of this.
I find it interesting that theories and research onin this area are split into two branches: Attributional Style and Locus of Control.
Bertram Malle seems to be the one writing about your question about attributions and intentional/unintentional behaviors.
Summary of Bertram Malle theory of Folk explanations and attributions:
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/959/01-02tech.pdf?sequence=1
and an article he wrote on the same topic:
http://cogprints.org/3314/1/Explanation_theory_03.pdf
Wikipedia has good pages on both attributional style and locus of control.
For research you will probably find more information if you look at work that has been done on locus of control and attributions regarding health and education as well as job satisfaction.
You might have to look at those studies of attributional style to see if any of them are measuring unintentional behaviors.
I would be very interested in seeing what you come up with!
Hi Katrina,
This may be a bit off target, but causal attributions are a function of personality, the stressor or event being evaluated and the other appraisals of a stressor (novelty, salience, duration, predictability and also control). These are all discussed in Lazarus' work on appraisal. Years ago we developed a measure to examine causality and these other appraisals simultaneously. It is interesting to see how causality changes with stressor groups (e.g. psychiatric patients, persons with physical illnesses, persons under different occupational stressors, etc.). I think this paper is on here, Dimensions of Stress, etc.
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