exam 1 - social attribution

Question 1

external attributions

Answer 1

situational causes

Question 2

internal attributions

Answer 2

dispositional causes

Question 3

correspondance inference theory

Answer 3

does a behavior correspond to a personality trait? (how we draw inferences about others

Question 4

Kelley’s theory of covariation

Answer 4

3 dimensions people use…
-consensus
-distinctiveness
-consistency

Question 5

weiner’s theory of attribution

Answer 5

-locus of causality
-stability
-controllability

Question 6

fundamental attribution error

Answer 6

tendency for people (in western cultures) to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences on another person’s behavior

Question 7

actor-observer bias

Answer 7

tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to situational causes and other’s behavior to personal causes

Question 8

perceptual salience

Answer 8

when we act, we notice the situation
when others act, we notice the person

Question 9

self-serving bias

Answer 9

tendency to attribute bad events to external circumstances and attribute good events to oneself

Question 10

discounting principle

Answer 10

idea that people will assign reduced weight to a particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produces the same behavior

Question 11

augmentation principle

Answer 11

if someone performs an action when there are known constraints, their motive for acting must be stronger than any of the inhibitory motives or constraints

Question 12

counterfactual thinking

Answer 12

thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened “if only” something had occurred differently

Question 13

emotional amplification

Answer 13

an increase in an emotional reaction to an event that is proportional to how easy it is to imagine the event not happening