First published in 1983. Theories of causal attribution fall into two areas- those that are concerned with the basic psychological processes underlying causal attribution and those that deal with the motivational, affective, and behavioral consequences of causal assignation. The authors of this study explore the first theory theory based on one major assumption. Causal attribution is a manifestation of the tendency for consciousness, as a system, to organize cognitive content, that is, cognitions, into the simplest structures possible.