Social attribution

Question 1

Definition of attribution theories

Answer 1

Describe how people develop causal understanding of human behaviour

Question 2

Heider’s view on attribution theories

Answer 2

• Need to form a coherent understanding of the world beyond a singular view
• Need to control environment
• Need to predict other’s behaviour to have control over them

Question 3

Dispositional attributions

Answer 3

Behaviour as a result of personality

Question 4

Situational attributions

Answer 4

Behaviour as a result of situation

Question 5

Kelly’s covariation theory - Covariation principle

Answer 5

• Judgement of how strongly things are related to one another
• Observed behaviour is attributed to possible causes that go together with the behaviour (dispositional or situational)

Question 6

Kelly’s covariation theory - Consensus

Answer 6

• Do most people behave this way in this situation

Question 7

Kelly’s covariation theory - Consistency

Answer 7

• Does the person always behave this way in this situation

Question 8

Kelly’s covariation theory - Distinctiveness

Answer 8

• Is the behaviour only performed in a particular situation and not in other situations?

Question 9

Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias)

Answer 9

• Overestimate the role of dispositional factors
• Underestimate the significance of situational factors
• Over-attribute other people’s actions to internal dispositions

Question 10

Fundamental attribution error - empirical evidence

Answer 10

People will rate people who speak favourably higher than those who don’t - even despite tone of voice

Question 11

Actor observer effect

Answer 11

Fundamental attribution error occurs when we explain behaviour of others but not of ourselves
* Observers overestimate effect of dispositions
* Actors overestimate effect of situation

Question 12

Actor observer effect - Orvis et al., (1976)

Answer 12

Couples described causes of disagreements in relationships
* Own behaviour - situational (situation not you)
* Partners behaviour - dispositional (their behaviour)

Question 13

Possible explanations for actor observer effect - Jones & Nisbett (1971)

Answer 13

• Focus of attention - we may be focused on different things
• Available information - partner might not know what is going on to cause an argument

Question 14

Self serving attribution bias

Answer 14

Motivated to protect or enhance our self esteem or self concept
* We attribute our failures to the situation
* We attribute our successes to dispositions

Question 15

Self serving attribution bias - Lau & Russell

Answer 15

Newspaper accounts of athletes attributions after victory and defeat, when defeated they say it was external (not them) and when winning they say it was internal (them)

Question 16

Ultimate attribution error

Answer 16

• Ingroup success - internal attribution
• Ingroup failure - external attribution
• Outgroup success - external attribution
• Outgroup failure - internal attribution

Question 17

Ultimate attribution error - Linguistic attribution error

Answer 17

• Abstract language used when describing positive ingroup behaviour
• Concrete language when describing negative ingroup behaviour

Question 18

Social identity theory

Answer 18

Our identity is derived from group memberships and we compare our group with other groups, we strive for a positive group image

Question 19

Causal attributions table

Answer 19

• We have internal and external attributions which can be stable and unstable
• Causality doesn’t exist externally only internally
• Negative ways of attributing causation can be changed to a way that changes ones perception of self

Question 20

Attribution heuristic - dominance

Answer 20

• In western societies people find left to right punches more aggressive
• This follows their own internal dominance schema which matches how they write

Question 21

Testing dominant attribution heuristic

Answer 21

People tended to press left key when asked dominant element in product, showing they follow their own internal dominance schemes