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Attributional Explanation:

Unraveling Structural and Qualitative Complexities

University of Ulster-Jordanstown

The social sciences have recently seen the formation and expansion of a new research paradigm—discursive psychology. What will be especially useful now is to detail and invigorate its theory with empirical discourse analysis. One significant area is the notion of attributional explanation, as this occurs commonly in discursive interaction. Accordingly, the present article explores its organizational and functional richness. As data, stretches of interviews are examined in which explanations are presupposed, implied, or described. From a social-constructionist-linguistics perspective, it will be seen that attributional explanation can be hypothetical and negotiable in nature, it can be structured in several layers of a different character each, and it can be associated with self-identity. Findings such as these reveal that natural human attribution is vastly more varied, intricate, and sophisticated than has been realized and that human beings are more resourceful in their sense-making than has been presumed.

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