ABSTRACT
During the Sixties, all thinking beings were characterized by chronic drives toward consistency and uncertainty reduction, vigilant forces which coaxed social psychologists all toward cognitive quiescence. Self-perception theory became an element in the paradigm shift through the proposal that it could incorporate the major phenomena of cognitive dissonance theory within it. Such a reinterpretation removes a major motivational process, dissonance reduction, and replaces it with the non-motivational, information-processing construct of self-attribution. Consideration of attribution theory is relevant for a symposium on motivation in several respects. Increase a person's favorability toward a dull task, and he will work at it more assiduously. Make him think he is angry, and he will act more aggressively. Change his perception of hunger, thirst, or pain, and he should consume more or less food or drink, or endure more or less aversive stimulation. Happily, the experimental laboratory has blessed some expectations with some striking confirmations.
