Attribution

Question 1

What is an attribution?

Answer 1

A process used by individuals to explain the causes of behaviours and events

Question 2

Attribution Theory - Heider (1958)

Answer 2

• People are motivated by two primary needs
• The need to form a coherent view of the world
• The need to gain control over the environment
• To satisfy these needs we act as naive scientists

Question 3

Models of attribution

Answer 3

• Correspondence inference theory

- Co-variation model

Question 4

Correspondence inference theory

Answer 4

• Jones & Davis (1965)

- Internal/dispositional attributions provide valuable knowledge for making predictions, and are therefore preferred

Question 5

Co-variation model

Answer 5

• Kelley (1967)
• Causality is ascribed to those causes which covary with the behaviour they are viewed as causing
• For something to be the cause of a behaviour it has to be present when the behaviour is present and absent when it is absent

Question 6

We make dispositional attributions by considering 3 different types of information…

Answer 6

• Social desirability
• Choice
• Non-common effects

Question 7

Covariation principle

Answer 7

For something to be the cause of a particular behaviour, it must be present with the behaviour and absent when the behaviour is absent

Question 8

Assessing co-variation

Answer 8

• Consensus information - extent to which others react to some stimulus
• Consistency information - the extent to which the person reacts to the stimulus in the same way on different occasions
• Distinctiveness information - the extent to which the person reacts in the same way to other, different stimuli

Question 9

Accuracy of the co-variation model

Answer 9

• All three types of information are not equal
• We attend more to the actor rather than other actors in the context
• Although people follow these rules and deduce causality logically in some circumstances, a number of attributional biases and errors often occur

Question 10

Attribution biases

Answer 10

• The fundamental attribution error
• The actor-observer bias
• Self-serving attributions

Question 11

Jones & Harris (1967)

Answer 11

• Students read either pro- or anti-Castro essays
• Participants were told the authors had chosen the essay topic or were told to write it
• Choice condition people assumed the writer had those opinions
• They also thought the writer had those opinions in the no-choice condition

Question 12

Why do people make the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 12

• The situation is not important when people make attributions for the behaviour of others, but the situation is important when making attributions for one’s own behaviour
• People excuse their own negative behaviour

Question 13

Actor-observer bias

Answer 13

• Observers emphasise dispositional factors when explaining actors behaviour
• Actors emphasise situational factors when explaining their own behaviour
• Jones & Nisbett (1972)

Question 14

Weiner’s Attributional Theory of Motivation (1986)

Answer 14

• Threatening or uncertain events motivate people to seek causal explanations
• Anger emerges from external attributions for negative events
• Guilt arises from internal attributions for negative events
• 3 basic attribution categories; locus of causality, stability and controllability

Question 15

Heider believed that this desire for consistency and stability, the ability to predict and control, makes us behave like ___ _____

Answer 15

Naive scientists

Question 16

What do naive scientists do?

Answer 16

Rationally and logically test hypotheses about the behaviour of others

Question 17

Heider and Simmel (1944)

Answer 17

• Asked participants to describe the movement of abstract geometric shapes
• Found a general tendency to describe the movement in ways indicative of human intentions

Question 18

Internal attribution

Answer 18

Cause is internal, eg. personality, mood, abilities, attitudes and effort

Question 19

External attribution

Answer 19

Cause is external, e.g. actions of others, nature of the situation social pressures or luck

Question 20

The absence of consensus information implies a ______ cause

Answer 20

Dispositional

Question 21

The presence of consistency information implies a _____ cause

Answer 21

Dispositional

Question 22

The presence of distinctiveness information implies a _____ cause

Answer 22

Situational

Question 23

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 23

All other things being equal, we tend to make internal attributions even when there are clear possible situational causes (Ross, 1977)

Question 24

Self-serving biases

Answer 24

• Olsen & Ross (1988)
• We are more likely to make internal attributions for our successes and external ones for our failures
• Maintains our self-esteem

Question 25

Intergroup attributions

Answer 25

• Hewstone & Jaspars (1982)

- Like self-serving biases but in terms of a group e.g. sports team

Question 26

Intergroup attributions can…

Answer 26

Serve to propagate prejudice and discrimination against minority groups in society

Question 27

Social representations theory

Answer 27

• Moscovici (1961)

- Shared beliefs and understandings between broad groups of people