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Responsibility

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

  • 71 Accesses

Synonyms

Accountability; Blame; Causality; Fault

Definition

Responsibility – The extent to which an outcome of an event (often a behavior or specific consequence) is attributed to a person or object directly or indirectly related to that particular outcome.

Introduction

The current section reviews and compares several models of responsibility within the context of attribution research. Specific components and dimensions of each model are discussed as they relate to other models. These models are then couched within the historical trends and emerging trends of research on responsibility.

Responsibility

A person’s responsibility for an event or outcome has captured attention in psychology for several decades. This stems from a general motivation to explain others’ behaviors and distinguish whether or not the behavior can be attributed to the disposition of that person. Early theories of behavior have focused on the distinction between internal and external causes (this primarily included...

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References

  • Hart, H. L. A. (1968). Punishment and responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press.

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  • Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley.

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  • Malle, B., Guglielmo, S., & Monroe, A. (2014). A theory of blame. Psychological Inquiry, 25, 147–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.877340.

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  • Shaver, K. G. (1985). The attribution of blame: Causality, responsibility, and blameworthiness. New York: Springer.

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  • Shultz, T. R., & Schleifer, M. (1983). Towards a refinement of attribution concepts. In J. Jaspars, F. D. Fincham, & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Attribution theory and research: Conceptual, developmental and social dimensions (pp. 37–62). London: Academic.

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  • Weiner, B. (1995). Judgments of responsibility: A foundation for a theory of social conduct. New York: Guilford.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX, USA

    Logan A. Yelderman & Timothy Lawrence

Authors
  1. Logan A. Yelderman
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  2. Timothy Lawrence
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Logan A. Yelderman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Patrizia Velotti

  2. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Patrizia Velotti

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Yelderman, L.A., Lawrence, T. (2018). Responsibility. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_853-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_853-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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