Attribution theory & Social Identity theory Flashcards
what is an attribute
An assumed characteristic of someone – seen from another person’s point of view.
what are atributions
are inferences that we make about the causes of events, the behaviour of others or our own behaviour.
what is the attribution theory
The Attribution theory looks into how we interpret the reasoning behind the behaviour of others.
- Formed from the idea that people have an innate need to try and understand why people act/ things happen the way they do.
- When we observe another’s actions we make decisions about the intention of the action and the responsibility.
who & when discovered the attribution theory
by Fritz Heider in 1958
what was Heider’s theory
Heider said that people tend to see the cause of a behaviour or action as being either located within the person (internal) our outside the person (external).
what is Internal (dispositional) attribution
When we infer someone’s behaviour is due to their internal factors (personality, attitude, motives etc.)
what is External (situational) attribution
When we infer that someone’s behaviour is due to an external cause/ factor (peer pressure, family problems etc.)
The attribution we use tends to be determined by *what
whether we are performing an action, or if we are observing someone else.
what is a Fundamental attribution error
We often take the behaviour of others at face value, assuming internal factors of their personality and don’t sufficiently take our time to consider the surrounding factors.
what is Self serving bias
When we think about our own behaviour we tend to consider the environment and external factors – we distort facts and make situational excuses to maintain self-esteem.
give an example of Fundamental attribution error
When your friend fails a test its because they obviously didn’t study hard enough.’
(not taking into factor of their internal factors)
give an example of Self serving bias
When you fail a test its because you’ve been having a super hard time recently, and school + home + work was just so busy that you ra out of time…
