3. Attribution Flashcards
What is causal attribution?
- the process of assigning a cause to an event or behaviour
What are the 3 dimensions in which attributions can differ?
Explain each
- locus of causality: behaviours can be attributed to internal or external causes
- stability: behaviours can be attributed to stable/unstable causes
- controllability: behaviours can be attributed to controllable/uncontrollable causes
What’s the other name for internal causes?
dispositional attributions
What’s the other name for external causes?
situational attributions
How does the attribution theory explain how we engage in causal attribution?
- humans are naive scientists motivated by the need to:
1. form a coherent view of the world
2. be in control of their environment - allows us to predict events or behaviour
What are the two theories explaining how we engage in attribution?
- correspondent interference theory
- covariation model
What 5 factors influence whether people make dispositional attributions?
- choice
- non-common unique effects
- social desirability
- hedonistic relevance: does the behaviour have consequences for yourself
- personalism: was the behaviour intended to affect you
What are issues with the correspondent interference theory?
- focusses on single instances of behaviour
- only focusses on the processes underlying dispositional attributions
How does the covariation model differ to the correspondent interference theory?
- accounts for both internal and external factors
- looks at multiple behaviours: more realistic
What does the covariation model argue?
- attributions are based on what factors co-occur with the behaviour/event
What 3 pieces of information does the model draw up on about?
- consensus
- consistency
- distinctiveness
What type of attribute does low consensus lead to compared to high consensus?
consensus = does everyone behave this way to this stimulus?
low = dispositional
high = situational
What type of attribute does low consistency lead to compared to high consistency?
consistency = does this person always behave this way to this stimulus
low = situational
high = dispositional
What type of attribute does low distinctiveness lead to compared to high distinctiveness?
= does this person behave the same to different stimuli
low = dispositional
high = situational
What are the issues with the covariation model?
- we don’t always have information on all of the dimensions, however people still make attributions which could be incorrect
- we don’t always use all this information to make attributions as it’s effortful
What is the fundamental attribution error? (FAE)
the tendency to over attribute to the person rather than the situation
What do cultural differences show to the FAE?
it isn’t as strong across all cultures as it is in western cultures
What is the FAE often referred to now?
Why?
correspondence bias
- dispositional judgments may be more accurate in many cases therefore not an error
What are the 3 explanations of FAE?
- lack of awareness and situational constraints
- unrealistic expectations of behaviour
- incomplete corrections of dispositional inferences
What is the actor-observer effect/bias?
tendency to attribute others behaviour to dispositional factors but our own to situational factors
What are the 2 explanations for the actor-observer bias?
- perceptual focus
- informational differences
What is the perceptual focus explanation to the actor-observer bias?
- when we observe others behaviour, they themselves attract our attention (not the situational background)
- however when we observe our own behaviour we can’t see how we are acting, just the situational background
What is the informational differences explanation to the actor-observer bias?
- we have more information about how we behave in different situations than we have information about how others behave in different circumstances
What did a meta analysis find when it analysed 173 studies on the actor-observer effect?
- it holds for negative behaviours but is reversed for positive behaviours
What is the self-serving attribution bias?
- people are more likely to attribute positive events on to themselves (self enhancement bias)
- but dismiss negative events as attributable to other causes (self protecting bias)
What did a meta analysis of 266 studies on the self-serving attribution bias?
- very large support
however this was found to be less in: - adults/adolescents
- some non-western cultures e.g japan
- samples of those with mental health disorders
