Discounting & augmentation principle

We use attribution in a regular basis, whenever we are asked to give the cause of a behavior or decision we make us of attribution. Attribution refers to the act of assigning or attributing a certain cause to an achievement or accomplishment (Feick & Rhodewalt, 1997). Such that when we are asked to comment on how we were able to ace the exam, we might attribute it to our personal efforts and abilities or to mere luck.

The principles of discounting and augmentation refer to the manner in which we use attribution. Discounting occurs when we try to discount personal ability in favor of external factors, like when we say that the exam was easy when half of the class got a hundred percent correct score. In this example, we discount personal abilities and augment the effect of environmental factors which is the level of difficulty of the test.

On the other hand, when one or two students had perfect scores in the test, then we would be quick to point out that the said students are really good in class which reflects the augmentation principle; we augment the personal abilities of the students. If someone was to comment that the exam was easy, then we would discount the argument based on the fact that only a few students had perfect scores in the test. Discounting and augmentation is said to be dependent on the circumstances in which the behavior or judgment occurs (Feick & Rhodewalt, 1997).

For example, when a child fights with another child, he/she may attribute the fight to the other child’s behavior which is augmenting the personal characteristics of the other child. On the other hand, the child rarely says that the fight was brought about by environmental factors like the weather, peer pressureor the child’s own decision to fight which also reflects the discounting principle. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that discounting and augmentation occurs in tandem.