ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some background on attribution research, discusses particular applications to the study of nonverbal cues, and uses this background to develop attribution measures that can assess the meaning of nonverbal cues. Interaction behaviors that occur between spouses or dating partners have been a particularly important relational context in which to study attribution making. Indeed, for scholars interested in the messages communicated by nonverbal behaviors, an attributional perspective provides a particularly useful framework for tapping into the diversity of interpretations for any given nonverbal cue and for finding possible links between attributions and other relational variables. Attributions for nonverbal behaviors can be assessed through logs or diaries studies and in laboratories. Although considerable research has been done on attributions for a range of behaviors that couples may enact, and a number of researchers have applied attributional perspectives to other communication behavior.
