Attributions in Action

Recent years have seen a rapid expansion of the number of psychologists and applied social scientists working or training in applied settings such as mental health, health promotion, education, work and organisations, management and marketing. Increasingly, the professionals, researchers and students working in these areas are seeking to describe and understand the links between causal beliefs and behaviour, that is, attributions in action. In the context of such applied work, the collection and analysis of qualitative data is often required. This book deals with a powerful, practical and well-tried method the Leeds Attributional Coding System (LACS) for extracting and coding causal beliefs from qualitative interview data. The method has been developed and used over the last ten years, in a variety of applied contexts. The authors have provided here a practical and accessible introduction to the method, illustrated by examples, case studies and useful applications in a range of applied settings. This book provides* an overview of attribution theory and causal beliefs, from a practitioner perspective* an introduction to a tried and tested tool for coding qualitative interview data* clear and explanatory examples of the method in action, as well as useful exercises* case studies from a variety of fields including clinical, organisational and marketing settings