Personal causality, refers to instances in which p causes x intentionally. That is to say, the action is purposive. - Fritz Heider

In the basic case, where the person is concerned with the dispositional properties of his surrounding environment, the choice is between external attribution and internal (self) attribution.

The action outcome, x , may then be said to be dependent upon a combination of effective personal force and effective environmental force, thus:

Man is usually not content simply to register the observables that surround him; he needs to refer them as far as possible to the invariances of his environment.. The underlying causes of events, especially the motives of other persons, are the invariances of the environment that are relevant to him; they give meaning to what he experiences and it is these meanings that are recorded in his life space and are precipitated as the reality of the environment to which he then reacts.