Social attribution Flashcards
Definition of attribution theories
Describe how people develop causal understanding of human behaviour
Heider’s view on attribution theories
- 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
Dispositional attributions
Behaviour as a result of personality
Situational attributions
Behaviour as a result of situation
Kelly’s covariation theory - Covariation principle
- 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)
Kelly’s covariation theory - Consensus
- Do most people behave this way in this situation
Kelly’s covariation theory - Consistency
- Does the person always behave this way in this situation
Kelly’s covariation theory - Distinctiveness
- Is the behaviour only performed in a particular situation and not in other situations?
Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias)
- Overestimate the role of dispositional factors
- Underestimate the significance of situational factors
- Over-attribute other people’s actions to internal dispositions
Fundamental attribution error - empirical evidence
People will rate people who speak favourably higher than those who don’t - even despite tone of voice
Actor observer effect
Fundamental attribution error occurs when we explain behaviour of others but not of ourselves
* Observers overestimate effect of dispositions
* Actors overestimate effect of situation
Actor observer effect - Orvis et al., (1976)
Couples described causes of disagreements in relationships
* Own behaviour - situational (situation not you)
* Partners behaviour - dispositional (their behaviour)
Possible explanations for actor observer effect - Jones & Nisbett (1971)
- Focus of attention - we may be focused on different things
- Available information - partner might not know what is going on to cause an argument
Self serving attribution bias
Motivated to protect or enhance our self esteem or self concept
* We attribute our failures to the situation
* We attribute our successes to dispositions
Self serving attribution bias - Lau & Russell
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)
Ultimate attribution error
- Ingroup success - internal attribution
- Ingroup failure - external attribution
- Outgroup success - external attribution
- Outgroup failure - internal attribution
Ultimate attribution error - Linguistic attribution error
- Abstract language used when describing positive ingroup behaviour
- Concrete language when describing negative ingroup behaviour
Social identity theory
Our identity is derived from group memberships and we compare our group with other groups, we strive for a positive group image
Causal attributions table
- 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
Attribution heuristic - dominance
- In western societies people find left to right punches more aggressive
- This follows their own internal dominance schema which matches how they write
Testing dominant attribution heuristic
People tended to press left key when asked dominant element in product, showing they follow their own internal dominance schemes
