Lecture 2- Classic Attribution Theory

Question 1

What is Heider’s Naïve Psychology theory of attribution?

Answer 1

People are driven to determine the causes of other’s behaviour in an attempt to control their environment.

People act as though they were amateur scientists, gathering
information and testing their personal theories of cause and effect

There are two kinds of attributions: internal and external.

Question 2

What type of attribution (internal or external) do we prefer and why?

Answer 2

Internal because it places the blame on the person themselves thus giving us more control as we can predict their behaviour in the future.

If we attributed externally then we would be saying the cause was due to the environment or chance which does not give us much control.

Question 3

What is Jone’s and Davis’ correspondence inference theory (1965)

Answer 3

The challenge of attribution is to determine whether a person’s
behaviour corresponds to underlying, stable qualities in the person.

Behaviour is informative about internal states when it:
• has fewer “noncommon effects”
• has fewer alternative causes
• violates social norms
• is unexpected or counter-schematic
• is negative
• has an impact on the perceiver (hedonic relevance)
• is intentional and freely chosen (personalism)

Question 4

In Kelley’s (1967) Covariation (ANOVA) Model what three sources of information does the assessment of attributions depend on?

Answer 4

Consistency
Distinctiveness
Consensus

Question 5

What is consistency?

Answer 5

Does this person-stimulus interaction occur across different situations, or only this situation?

Question 6

What is Distinctiveness?

Answer 6

Does this person have this effect on all stimuli, or only this stimulus?

Question 7

What is Consensus?

Answer 7

Do other people have this effect on the stimulus, or is it only this person?

Question 8

Low Consistency means the cause of attribution is the….

Answer 8

situation

Question 9

High Consistency
High Distinctiveness
High Consensus

means the cause of attribution is the…

Answer 9

Stimulus

Question 10

High Consistency
Low Distinctiveness
Low Consensus

means the cause of attribution is the…

Answer 10

person

Question 11

What if we can’t look at information across time in order to determine a cause? What 2 principles apply here?

Answer 11

We form casual schemas

Principles:

-Discounting principle: any one factor is discounted as a function of
presence of other potential causes.

• Augmenting principle: the role of a potential cause is enhanced in
  the presence of other inhibiting factors

Question 12

What are the key elements of Weiner’s attribution theory?

Answer 12

• Locus (internal and external), stability, and controllability effects attribution. We use all three dimensions not just locus.
• Emotional consequences of attribution (we feel differently depending on how we make attributions)
• Behavioural consequences of attribution
• Self-handicapping (Pre-attribute negative behavior that they anticipate happening to something internal or external. “I’ll never do well on an exam cause I won’t study”)