Page "Causality" Paragraph 46

: Attribution theory is the theory concerning how people explain individual occurrences of causation.

Attribution can be external ( assigning causality to an outside agent or force-claiming that some outside thing motivated the event ) or internal ( assigning causality to factors within the person-taking personal responsibility or accountability for one's actions and claiming that the person was directly responsible for the event ).

Taking causation one step further, the type of attribution a person provides influences their future behavior.