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The defensive attribution hypothesis (or bias, theory, or simply defensive attribution) is a social psychological term where an observer attributes the causes for a mishap to minimize their fear of being a victim or a cause in a similar situation.
Defensive Attribution Theory aims at describing how an individual ultimately wants to explain behavior in a way that protects their ego and is flattering to the self. [4]: 213–235 Attributions are deemed as biased because an individual, in explaining behavior, will "take credit for good outcomes and avoid responsibility for the bad".
Fritz Heider discovered Attribution theory during a time when psychologists were furthering research on personality, social psychology, and human motivation. [5] Heider worked alone in his research, but stated that he wished for Attribution theory not to be attributed to him because many different ideas and people were involved in the process. [5]
Research on attribution biases is founded in attribution theory, which was proposed to explain why and how people create meaning about others' and their own behavior. This theory focuses on identifying how an observer uses information in his/her social environment in order to create a causal explanation for events.
Fundamental attribution error, the tendency for people to overemphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior [115] (see also actor-observer bias, group attribution error, positivity effect, and negativity effect).
Victim mentality is primarily developed, for example, from family members and situations during childhood. Similarly, criminals often engage in victim thinking, believing themselves to be moral and engaging in crime only as a reaction to an immoral world and furthermore feeling that authorities are unfairly singling them out for persecution. [ 3 ]
SEAN GLADWELL - Getty Images Snack Mindfully “If you are hungry before bed, snack on foods such as whole wheat crackers, cheese, almonds, yogurt, oatmeal, bananas and granola,” suggests Dr. Roban.
In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism is an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and outer stressors. [1] [2] [3] According to this theory, healthy people normally use different defence mechanisms throughout life.