Bernard Weiner (born 1935) is an American social psychologist known for developing a form of attribution theory which seeks to explain the emotional and motivational entailments of academic success and failure.
[1] Weiner has published 15 books and many articles on the psychology of motivation and emotion, and has been a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles since 1965.
Professor Weiner's primary research interests are Social Cognition, Helping, Prosocial Behaviour, Judgment and Decision Making, Motivation, Goal Setting, Causal Attribution, Law and Public Policy, Interpersonal Processes and Emotion, Mood, Affect.
"[3] According to Weiner, everyone has similar psychodynamics in the classroom and students tend to seek explanation for personal failure.
Bernard hoped that these type of scenarios would help him come up with a general theory of social conduct.