Attribution Differences In Chinese And American English Media Reports

Attribution refers to people’s natural tendency to seek for explanations for events happening to themselves and around them. Heider conceptualized attribution and distinguished two basic causal explanations:personal force and environmental force. Jones and Davis identified the preference of dispositionism. Kelly put forward three principles: consistency, distinctiveness and consensus, and Weiner identified three dimensions of causality:the locus, stability, and controllability of causality. Our ability to communicate effectively is partially dependent on our ability to manage uncertainty, and the explanation of other’s behavior is one of the two distinct types of uncertainty present in our communication. Thus, gaining insights into the way people make attributions can help us reduce uncertainties and improve the effectiveness of our communication.A wide range of cross-cultural attribution researches have been conducted in achievement situations and non-achievement situations. Some scholars argued for the universality of dispositionism, while other scholars argued for the specificity of dispositionism and observed the preferences of dispositionism and situationism among different cultures.In this paper, the investigation of the preferred attribution patterns in achievement and non-achievement situations presented by China Daily and American newspapers is conducted. Sports articles concerning Li Na were collected from The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and China Daily over four Grand Slams and one WTA Mandatory tournament in2011. Only one sport was chosen to ensure that confounds caused by sports difference were excluded, and five games were selected to guarantee the consistency. As for the data analysis, content analysis (open free response method) was used, in which Kelly’s three principles and Weiner’s three dimensions of causality were considered.As for attributions in achievement situations, firstly, the major factors contributing to Li Na’s successes and failures were isolated in both China Daily and American Newspapers. For example, China Daily see ability, personality, motive, and experience as very important determinants of Li Na’s successes, and American Newspapers tend to see ability, opportunity, motive, and mental state as very important determinants of Li Na’s successes. Secondly, the preferred attribution patterns of China Daily and American Newspapers in achievement situations are also identified. Thirdly, the intra-cultural comparison within each newspaper was also carried out in achievement situations to find out the extent to which each newspaper demonstrate dispositionism and situationism.As for attributions in non-achievement situations, six events were isolated for analysis. Attribution about static existence and movable existence were analyzed. The findings are consistent with past researches to a larger extent than attributions in achievement situations do. Discussions were made about the findings in these two situations by considering both cultural and psychological evidence. For example, as for cultural factors, different thinking styles, individualism-collectivism split, and different self-construals are related to different attribution patterns; as for psychological factors, the dual process of attribution (automatic process and correction process) may also influence the final attributions.