8B Social Thinking Flashcards
What is Atrribution Theory?
How we find explanations for the behaviors of others
Covariation Model
Covariation Model: understanding and explaining the behaviors of others related to their environment and surroundings.
-INTERNAL (dispositional): a behavior related to a person more, as opposed to the world working against them.
-EXTERNAL (situational): an unusual situation/behavior of a person that we know they’re usually not like that.
-“Group lateness” - a high level of consensus meaning we’re more likely to attribute the behavior to a situational cause, as opposed to an internal factor.
Your Behavior is attributed to / caused by:
attributional processes:
such as persons (yourself, other people) or situations/environment.
Internal (dispositional) attribution = your disposition
External (situational) attribution = your situation
Fundamental Attribution Error
–we tend to attribute someone else’s behavior to their personality/disposition rather than their situation.
ex. we tend to jump to the assumption that fat people are lazy and over-eat, rather than more situational attributions such as a health problem.
–we tend to blame our behavior on external factors.
^^ together: *Actor-Observer Bias” = we are victims of circumstance but when others perform a behavior, they are willful actors.
–Fundamental Attribution Error tends to occur more commonly in individualistic societies (N. America and Europe), cultures who place an emphasis on individual achievement and independence.
Role of Culture in Attributions
Western cultures = INDIVIDUALIST = attributes behavior to internal/dispositional factors (personality).
–tend to over-attribute success to internal factors.
–failures are more likely to be attributed to external or situational factors.
Eastern and African cultures = COLLECTIVIST = attributes behavior to external/situational factors (like society, your tribe, your teammates).
–tend to attribute success to external factors and failures are more likely to attributed to internal factors.
Self-Serving Bias
-a way of protecting and enhancing our own self-esteem.
Actor/observer difference
–we tend to make excuses for ourselves and blame others.
ex. if we or our friends make bad grades, we say the material is hard and the professor sucks. If it’s someone else making bad grades, we blame it on laziness.
How self-perceptions shape our perceptions of others:
–when we put ourselves in other people’s shoes and assume they feel the same way we feel.
Primacy bias
–the tendency to base a judgment or evaluation on information that was presented earlier. (ex. first impressions)
Recency bias
–the tendency to base a judgement or evaluation on recently occurred events.
Halo Effect
–a form of cognitive bias in which the brain allows specific positive traits to positively influence the overall evaluation of the person, idea, or object in the halo.
Devil Effect (aka Reverse Halo Effect)
–when we have a very negative overall impression or there’s one attribute that’s very negative about a person, it can carry over into negatively influencing how we see a lot of other attributes about a person.
How perceptions of the environment shape our perceptions of others:
Ex. body language changes the way you feel about someone. You are also more likely to perceive someone positively if you are in a relaxed, comfortable environment.
Processes that contribute to PREJUDICE
–power, prestige, and class
–emotion (affective component)
–cognition
–discrimination
Power, prestige, and class
–rich vs. poor, have vs have-nots.
–class is relative. In order for people to be of a higher status, there needs to be people of a lower status beneath them.
Just World Phenomenon
–prestige is based on occupation. High prestige jobs often go to dominant group members, and lower prestige jobs go to minority group members.
