attribution Flashcards
Attribution Theory
A theory of social psychology that seeks to explain the causes of individual behavior by attributing it to certain factors such as personal traits, situational factors, or external forces.
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to overestimate the influence of internal factors, such as personality, character, and dispositions, and underestimate the influence of external factors when trying to explain or understand someone’s behavior.
For example, if a person is late to a meeting, the fundamental attribution error would be to assume that the person is lazy or irresponsible, rather than considering external factors such as traffic or a delayed train.
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency to take credit for success and blame external factors for failure.
Attitude
A mental and emotional orientation that reflects a person’s evaluation of a particular object, situation, or event.
Cognitive Dissonance
The mental discomfort experienced when two or more conflicting beliefs or attitudes are held simultaneously.
Social Comparison Theory
The theory that an individual’s self-evaluation and self-esteem are determined by comparing themselves to others.
Attributional Style
The way an individual explains the causes of their own success and failures, as well as the successes and failures of others.
Attributional Ambiguity
The difficulty in determining the cause of an event due to the presence of multiple potential causes.
An example of attributional ambiguity is when an individual is trying to determine the cause of a particular event. For example, if a student fails an exam, they may not be able to determine the exact cause of their failure due to the presence of multiple potential causes, such as lack of preparation, stress, or difficulty of the exam.
Actor-Observer Effect
The tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to situational factors, while attributing the behavior of others to their character or disposition.
An example of the actor-observer effect is when a student fails an exam, they may attribute their failure to external factors such as the difficulty of the exam or the teacher’s grading style, while attributing the success of other students to internal factors such as intelligence or effort.
Ultimate Attribution Error
The tendency to blame an entire group for the behavior of a single individual.
An example of the ultimate attribution error is when an individual blames an entire group for the behavior of a single individual. For example, if someone commits a crime and they are part of a certain ethnic group, some people may blame the entire group for the individual’s actions. This is an example of the ultimate attribution error.
False Consensus Effect
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share one’s beliefs and opinions.
An example of the false consensus effect would be if a person assumes that everyone else agrees with their opinion on a controversial issue, even though they have no evidence that this is the case. This can lead to the person overestimating the number of people who agree with them and underestimating the number of people who disagree with them. another example would be if someone assumes that everyone else is as excited about a new movie as they are, when in reality not everyone is.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The phenomenon whereby one’s expectations of others lead to behavior that confirms those expectations.
An example of the self-fulfilling prophecy would be if a teacher expects a student to do poorly in a class, and as a result, the student does not put any effort into their work and performs poorly. In this example, the teacher’s expectation has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Group Attribution Error
The tendency to attribute the behavior of an individual to the group they belong to, rather than to the individual themselves.
An example of the group attribution error would be if a person attributes the behavior of an individual to their group, rather than to the individual themselves. For example, if an individual from a particular ethnic group commits a crime, they may be judged as representative of their entire group, rather than as an individual.
Dispositional Attribution
Dispositional attribution is the process of attributing the behavior of someone to their personality or character, rather than to external factors. Dispositional attributions are based on the idea that an individual’s behavior is primarily impacted by their internal dispositions, such as personality or intelligence.
An example of dispositional attribution is when an individual attributes the behavior of another person to their personality or character, rather than to external factors. For example, if someone is rude to a friend, the friend may attribute the behavior to the person’s dispositions, such as their lack of patience or their bad temper.
saliance bias
Salience bias is the tendency to focus on information or events that are more noticeable or easily accessible. This bias can lead to distorted or inaccurate interpretations of events, as people may ignore or overlook important details or focus too heavily on certain details that are more easily accessible.
An example of the salience bias would be if someone focuses on the most obvious or easily accessible information when making a decision, rather than considering all the facts. For example, if someone is choosing a restaurant to eat at and they only consider the restaurants that are closest to them, rather than considering all the available options, they are exhibiting the salience bias.
