Colin and Jim are waiting to meet with a caterer to plan their wedding menu. The caterer is 30 minutes late and still hasn’t arrived. Colin suggests that the caterer is probably delayed because of traffic. Jim suggests that the caterer is probably disorganized and unreliable. Colin is making a(n) attribution, whereas Jim is making a(n) attribution.

In psychology, the attribution theory explains that people try to understand or make sense of a behavior or event by assigning causes to it. An external or situational attribution explains the cause for the event as a matter of luck, of interference by other people or the environment etc. In short, the behavior or event is caused by something external to itself. On the other hand, internal or personal attribution explains the cause as resulting from the involved person's personality, abilities, skills, mood, efforts, etc. That means the cause would be the very person, not something else. From those explanations, we can conclude Colin is making an external attribution - traffic is the cause - while Jim is making an internal attribution - the caterer is disorganized.