Chapter 3 Flashcards
Define causal attribution.
The process of signing a cause to an event or behaviour
What does parsimony mean?
Simplicity
What is the correspondent inference theory?
It is a theory arguing that people attempt to to infer whether a person’s actions are caused by internal dispositions and they do so by looking at factors related to the action
Define correspondent inference.
The attribution of a personality trait that corresponds to an observed behaviour
What is the covariation model?
Model of causal role attribution which argues that people typically attribute the cause of behaviour to a factor that covaries most clearly with the behavior
What is the covariation principle?
The attribution of events to conditions that tend to be present when the event happens, and absent when it does not happen
What is a consensus?
Information about the extent to which other people react the same way to a particular stimulus
What does discounting mean?
If there is seemingly no relationship between a specific cause and a specific behaviour, the cause is discounted in favour of another
What is a causal mechanism?
A mechanism or explanation for one variable causing another
Define correspondance bias.
People’s tendency to over attribute causes to a a person and infer that if a person behaves in a particular way it must be because of some underlying trait
What is a thought experience?
The process of thinking about a principle and its consequences
What is an actor observer bias?
The tendencies for actors to attribute their own behaviours to the situation and for observers to explain behaviours in terms of personality traits
Define motivated tactician.
Social cognition approach that characterizes people as having various cognitive strategies to choose on the basis of personal motives, need and goals
Define heuristics.
Cognitive shortcuts
Define cognitive miser.
People will take the least cognitively demanding approach to attributions and social judgements
What is a self-serving bias?
The tendency for people to see themselves more positive than others
Define self-serving attribution bias.
Motivated by self-enhancement motives, this is the tendency for people to attribute events to causes that serve the self
Define self-serving bias.
Tendency for people to attribute biases that favour the self in order to enhance or protect the self
Define unrealistic optimism.
The tendency for people to see themselves as more likely than others to experience good things, and less likely than others to experience bad things
What is an illusion of control?
Belief that we have more control over the social world than we actually do
What is the false consensus effect?
The tendency for people to see their own behaviours, attitudes, and opinions as more typical than they are
Explain the false uniqueness effect.
The tendency for people to see themselves as more likely to perform positive behaviours than others
Define the ultimate attribution error.
The tendency to attribute positive in-group and negative out-group behaviours dispositionally, and positive out-group and negative in-group behaviours situationally
Define person perception.
Study of how people make judgements about others, and the info used to make these judgements
What is the configurable model of person perception?
Asch’s model of person perception, which argues that central traits play a greater role in determining the final impression
What are central traits?
Traits that have greater influence on how people configure their impressions of others
What are peripheral traits?
Traits that have lesser influence on how people configure their impressions of others
What is cognitive algebra?
Person perception proposing that people assign positive and negative valence to various person attributes and combine them to form a general evaluation of a person
Define summation.
Model of cognitive algebra assuming that the overall impression that is formed is the total valence of all the pieces of information
Define averaging.
Model of cognitive algebra assuming that the overall impression is the average of all the traits on display
Explain weighted averaging.
Model of cognitive averaging algebra assuming that people assign weights of importance to different traits in different contexts and form an overall impression of a person based on a weighted average
What is a negativity bias?
Common finding hat negative traits are weighted more heavily than positive traits
What is cognitive overload?
Condition in which a task demands a person’s attention and thinking capacity, leaving little left for another task
Define the primacy effect.
Bias in person perception such that people remember the traits they observe first
What is the recency effect?
Bias in person perception such that people remember traits they observe most recently
Define associative network.
Memory model whereby ideas or nodes are connected by associative links
What is a representativeness heuristic?
A cognitive shortcut where people are placed in categories based on their similarity resemblance to the category
Define base rates.
Factual information about people and categories
What is a conjunction fallacy?
Tendency to pay insufficient regard to base rates due to the representativeness heuristics
What is an availability heuristic?
Cognitive shortcut where the likelihood of an event is based on how quickly knowledge or ideas come to mind
Explain anchoring and adjustment heuristic.
Cognitive shortcut where inferences are influenced by initial knowledge or information
Define counterfactual theory.
Imagining alternatives to reality
What is a conformation bias?
The tendency to notice or search for the information that confirms one’s beliefs and not notice information that disconfirms one’s beliefs
Define stigma by association.
Tendency for people to devalue someone because of their association with a stigmatized individual
Define projection.
Process by people attribute their own characteristics to others
