Lecture 4

Question 1

What are attributions

Answer 1

Our perceptions of the causes of behaviour (ours and others)

Question 2

What do attributions allow us to do?

Answer 2

predict how people will behave, and control our own behaviours in certain situations

Question 3

What 3 things allow us to predict how people behave?

Answer 3

• Knowledge of person’s past
• Socialisation of context (norms)
• Knowledge of what we anticipate will happen in the future

Question 4

What 3 things make up an internal attribition

Answer 4

• Disposition
• Mood
• Choice

Question 5

What makes up an external attribution?

Answer 5

pressures of the situation

Question 6

How do we decide if things are internally/externally attributed?

Answer 6

We assess the relative contribution of personal vs external factors to the behaviour

Question 7

What is internal vs external attribution (locus of control)

Answer 7

Internal : i am in control. I did this.
External : things just happen to me. The situation did this.

Question 8

What is a stable vs unstable attribution

Answer 8

Stable: this thing is consistent across time (past and future)
Unstable: this thing is not stable in time

Question 9

What is a global vs specific attribution

Answer 9

Global: this is present in all contexts
Specific: this is certain to specific contexts

Question 10

What is a pessimistic style attribution vs optimistic style attribution

Answer 10

• Pessimistic: internal, stable, global
• Optimistic: external, unstable, specific

Question 11

What is a situational attribution vs a dispositional attribution

Answer 11

Dispositional: something about the person is making them act this way
Situational: something about the situation is making them act this way

Question 12

What 3 things allow us to determine whether behaviours are dispositional/situational?

Answer 12

Consensus: What do most people do in this situation?

Distinctiveness: what does this individual do in most situations?

Consistency: what does this individual do most commonly in this situation?

Question 13

What is the discounting principle?

Answer 13

Discounting principle (Kelley 1973): Multiple plausible causes of same behaviour diminishes attribution to given cause

• ‘because of’ (not giving an attribution because there may be, for example, things going on in their life)
• E.g. my friend was loud in the library because she is going through something/drunk/upset, etc.

Question 14

What is the augmenting principle?

Answer 14

Augmenting principle: Multiple plausible causes of different behaviour enhances attribution to one cause

• ‘in spite of’ (giving an attribution because they are acting against many forces which may have prevented that behaved)
• e.g. They were loud in the library in spite of the be quiet rule

Question 15

What is self serving attribution bias?

Answer 15

• Maintain a sense of self worth and efficacy
• In spite of failure, guilt, shame
• In spite of lucky successes

Internalise our successes and laudable behaviours (e.g. talent, vitrue, good choices)

Externalise our failures and shameful behaviours (e.g. bad luck, other’s ill intentions)

Question 16

What did Lau and Russell 1980 find in relation to self serving attribution bias

Answer 16

Newspaper accounts of athletes attributions after victory and after defeat (Lau and Russell 1980), coded for internal or external attributions

Results= when defeat, much more external attributions. When victory, much more internal attributions

Question 17

What is fundamental attribution error

Answer 17

When we attribute behaviour to internal qualities such as personality and choice when there are obvious situational forces

Question 18

What did Jones and Harris 1967 find in relation to Castro essays and Fundamental attribution error

Answer 18

• Students read essays of other students
  —>Essay pro Castro or anti Castro
• Essay writers ‘free to choose’ which side they would pick, or ‘instructed’ to write either pro/anti
• DV= rating of writers attitudes to Castro

Results= even when they knew that the writer was instructed, students believed that the writers wrote their true opinions (when they might not have)

Question 19

What did Ross et al 1977 find in relation to fundamental attribution error and assigning credit to questioners/answerers

Answer 19

• Assigned to questioner or contestant
  –> Questioner makes up questions where they know the answer
  –> Contestants simply answer
• DV= observer rating of participant’s knowledge

Results= We can see that only the questioner takes the situation into account; we all think that the questioner has the highest knowledge, even though they already knew the answers! As if the contestant is stupid for not knowing the answers to the questions the questioner made up

Question 20

Why do we make fundamental attribution errors? (3 reasons)

Answer 20

1. just world hypothesis
2. Automatic cognition (system 1)
3. Its automatic attention (system 1)

Question 21

Why do we make fundamental attribution errors: what is the just world hypothesis

Answer 21

‘People get what they deserve’
–> assign praise or blame

Outcomes are due to internal qualities
e.g. victim blaming, derogating victims, even ‘past life’ karma

Question 22

Why do we make fundamental attribution errors: what is automatic cognition (Gilbert 1989)

Answer 22

• Participants view video of anxious looking woman
• Assigned to ‘anxiety provoking’ or ‘innocuous topics’
• ^ A-P thinks they were discussing personal failings, I-T thinks they were discussing world travel
• Assigned to Cognitive load or no cognitive load (memorising words while watching video, or not)
• DV= is she an anxious person

Results = Found that cognitive load reinforces false attribution error

Question 23

Why do we make fundamental attribution errors: what is automatic attention

Answer 23

Perceptual salience:
- People capture our attention
- Simpler and more salient than surroundings

–> I don’t see your past, i see you, therefore i must make a quick decision on who you are and why you are acting this way

Question 24

What is the actor observer effect? What is perceptual salience and why does it matter here?

Answer 24

Actors: Generally make situational attributions for behaviours
Observers: Generally make internal attributions for behaviour

Perceptual salience:
- actors generally see situations, therefore make more situational attributions
- Observers generally see the person, therefore make more internal attributions