Attribution Theory Flashcards
What are attribution theories
Social psychological theories about causal inference
What do we call the comon-sense explanations for behavior
Causal explanations
Explain the following situation
“John hit me because I wound him up”
The behaviour is John hitting me, the condition that is attributed the causal role is that I wound him up
Theory of naive psychology (Heider, 1958)
3 principals:
- Believe that a behaviour is motivated not random
- We look for stable and enduring properties of the social world to discover the cases of behaviour
- Distinguish between personal and environmental attribution using internal (dispositional) and external (situational) attribution
Covariation model (Kelly, 1967)
(EXPLANATION)
We identify factors that covary with behaviour then assign the factors to a causal role
Use 3 clases of info
- Consistensy: high v low frequency of behaviour
- Distinctiveness: Targeted at only 1 person (high) or generalise to many people (low)
- Consensus: Others behave this way or condone this (high) or just that person (low)
Use these 3 factors to explain internal or external behaviour
Covariation model (Kelly, 1967)
(LIMITATIONS)
- Under-use of consensus info
- is the info only high or low (multiple observations?)
- Incomplete/no info on one or more of the factors
Covariation model (Kelly 1967)
(TESTS)
McArthur (1972) - participants asked to make internal or external attributionsfor various behaviours.
Given 8 configerations of the 3 info clases
Overall suported covariation model (Kelly, 1967), BUT underused consensus info
Correspondent inference theory (Jones&Davis, 1965)
Infer whether or not behaviour matches a person behaviour using 5 sources of info:
~ Choice - Freely chosen or internal factors
~ Accidental v intentional - Intentional = personality
~ Social desirability - less socially desirable = internal/personality
~ Hedonistic relevance - intend to benefit or harm
~ Personalism - intended impact is assumed personal as opposed to situational
Attributional theory (Weiner, 1979)
Focuses on consequences of attributions rather than causes
3 performance dimensions
- Locus of causality
- Stability of causal factor
- Controllability of causal factor
These factors in combinations result in specific affective responses
Pride, gratitude, hopefulness, hopelessness, guilt, anger, shame, pity
Future expectations (stability)
-Failure and stable = low
-Failure and unstable = higher
-Success and stable = high
-Success and unstable = lower
Actor-observer effect
Tendency to make internal attributions for others behaviour (observer effect) and external attribution for own behaviour (actor effect) -> Studies found internal attributions made when +ive behaviour whoever actor is
Perceptual salience
Actor and observer have different perceptual perspectives so:
Observer = focuses on actor therfore the actor is more salient than situation
Actor = focus on situation therefore situation is more salient than self
See Storm (1973) for manipulation of perceptual salience
False consensus effect
Ross et al. (1977)
People don’t ignore consensus info, instead provide their own consensus info
-> people assume their own behaviour is typical & that others would behave the same in similar circumstance
Expanations
- Similar others
- Salience of opinions
- Justification for opinions + actions
Self-serving Biases
Attributional distortions that enhance or protect self-esteem or self-concept (Tendency to attribute success with int (Self-enhancing bias), and failure with ext (Self-protecting bias)
Explanations:
- Motivational (motivated to have +ive self-image) -> Snyderm et al. (1978)
- Cognitive (For success enhancing bias) -> Miller & Ross (1975)
Influencing factors of self-serving biases
These weaken but do not abolish self-servingbiases (Ries et al., 1981)
- Self-esteem = high self-esteem makes more predisposed to self-serving biases (Lower self-esteem tend to “self-protect” less)
- Self-presentational considerations = tendency to present oneself ina favurable way —>modesty can preclude self-enhancement
Self-handicapping
Anticipate task failure and make ext. attribution before the event therefore protect self if failure occurs ALSO has a self-enhancing effect if success occurs against the odds Berglas & Jones (1978)
