atributie

Question 1

What is attribution?

Answer 1

The process through which we aim to identify and explain the causes of behaviour of other people and our own behaviour.

Question 2

What is causal attribution?

Answer 2

The process of trying to determine the causes of people’s behaviour.

Question 3

What are internal/dispositional attributions?

Answer 3

Attributing behaviour to the person’s dispositions or traits

Question 4

What is external/situational attribution?

Answer 4

Attributing behaviour to the environment

Question 5

What are the 2 theories of attribution?

Answer 5

Attribution theory (Fritz Heider)
Covariation Model (Harold Kelley)

Question 6

What is Fritz Heider view on attribution theory?

Answer 6

According to Fritz Heider, we tend to see the causes of a person’s behaviour as internal.

Question 7

What is the covariational model? (Kelley)

Answer 7

Theory about how people make attributions.
To form an attribution about what caused a person’s behaviour, we note the presence of possible causal factors.

Question 8

What are the 3 components of the covariational model?

Answer 8

1. Consensus: do other people have similar responses
2. Distinctiveness: does the person respond similarly to other similar stimuli
3. Consistency: is the person’s response consistent over time

e.g.
1. Do all ppl complain coffee is cold in cafe.
2. Does this person complain her coffee is cold in every cafe.
3. Does this person complain coffee is cold all the time

Question 9

According to the covariational model how do we conclude internal vs external attribution?

Answer 9

1. Low consensus (no one complains)
   High consistency (person always complains in this cafe)
   Distinctiveness low (also complains in other settings)
   THEN internal attribution (difficult to please)
2. Consensus high (others complain)
   Consistency (person always complains in this restaurant)
   Distinctiveness high (person does not complain in other settings)
   THEN external attribution (cafe is terible)

Question 10

What is the fundamental attribution error? (Ross)

Answer 10

Underestimate influence of external factors on other’s behaviour.
Overestimate influence of internal factors on others behaviour

Question 11

What is the experiment conducted in regards to fundamental attribution error?

Answer 11

Ppts played role of:
Questioners
Contestants: answering questions
Observers: observing interaction

Observers rated the questioner as more knowledgeable that the contestant
The contestant also rated the questioner higher than the themselves
ALSO
Questioner had lower ratings of themselves but they still rated themselves higher than they rated the contestant

Question 12

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 12

Tendency to attribute own behaviour to situational factors, but others’ behaviour to their disposition.

Question 13

What is the 2-step attribution process?

Answer 13

1. Make an internal attribution
   - assume that a person’s beh was due to smth about that person
   - occurs quickly
2. Adjust attribution by considering the situation
   - requires effort and conscious attention

Question 14

What are the cultural differences between fundamental attribution error?

Answer 14

Members of individualistic cultures prefer dispositional attributions - Americans

Members of collectivist cultures prefer situational explanations - Indians

Question 15

Give me a piece of evidence for fundamental attribution error.

Answer 15

fMRI was used to identify where in the brain cultural experience predicts processing.

Ppts judged length of line inside boxes
2 conditions:
- ignore the box around line (ignore context)
- pay attention to box around line (attend to context)

Americans: greater brain activation when told to pay attention to context
East asians: greater brain activation when told to ignore context

This means that participants had to exert more attention when asked to perceive objects in a way that was not typical

Question 16

What is self-enhancing bias?

Answer 16

We attribute own success to our ability and effort

Question 17

What is self-protecting bias?

Answer 17

We attribute own failure to external factors such as bad luck

Question 18

What are 2 reasons for self-enhancing biases?

Answer 18

Motivational: people want to feel good about self
Cognitive: people expect to succeed and tend to attribute internal causes to expected events

Question 19

Why do we make self-serving attributions?

Answer 19

1. We want to maintain self-esteem. - there is little hope that we can do better in the future. But if we believe we can improve, we are more likely to attribute our failure to internal causes and then work on improving.
2. We want other people to think well of us.
3. We know more about the situational factors that affect out own behaviour than we do about other people’s.

Question 20

What is the link between self-serving attributions and depression?

Answer 20

Low self-esteem people hold more realistic self-views because they do not engage in self-serving biases as much

Question 21

What is depressive realism?

Answer 21

A tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgements.

Question 22

What is the negative explanatory style?

Answer 22

A habitual way of explaining events; in depression negative and pessimistic explanatory style attributes failure to stable and internal causes.

Question 23

What is the cultural difference of self-serving bias?

Answer 23

Chinese students are expected to attribute their success to other people, such as their teachers.

Self-serving bias is more prevalent in Western cultures