102 Midterm 2 Flashcards
Attributions
how people explain the causes of behavior
Dispositional
attributing behavior to internal characteristics such as ability, personality, mood, or effort
Situational
attributing behavior to external factors such as environment or other people
Consensus
Do other people do this?
Yes -> high consensus -> situational
No -> low consensus -> dispositional
Distinctiveness
Does the person usually behave similarly across different situations?
No -> high distinctiveness -> situational
Yes -> low distinctiveness -> dispositional
Consistency
Does the personal usually do this behavior in this situation?
No -> low consistency -> combination of situational and dispositional
Yes -> high consistency -> definitely situational or definitely dispositional
Castro Study
Participants read pro or anti Castro papers
- rated people who spoke freely in favor of Castro to have more positive views on him but also rated people to have positive attitudes towards Castro who were told to write in favor of Castro
Fundamental Attribution Error
tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors
Role of perceptual salience
people are often the focus, not the situation
Taylor & Fiske (1975)
2 students get acquainted in conversation, 6 observers
People facing person A believed he led the conversation
People facing person B thought he led the conversation
Meritocracy
chances are equal, winners deserve their winnings
Belief in a just world
believe that people get what they deserve in life
Actor-observer bias
tendency to see others’ behavior as a product of their internal states but our own behavior as affected by the situation
self-serving bias
exception to actor-observer bias; tendency to take credit for our successes but blame the situation on our failures
Cultural differences in attribution
East asians = more sensitive to context & background
outgroup homogeneity
the tendency to view members of outgroups as more similar to each other than we see members of ingroups
stereotype
beliefs that associate a group of people with certain traits
prejudice
negative attitude or feelings towards others because of their group membership
discrimination
negative behaviors towards others because of their group membership