Social Codgnition And Attributions Flashcards
What 2 primary needs are people motivated by (heider 1958)
Form a coherent view of the world
Gain control over the environment
What is social cognition
encompasses all processes that involve people
• “The process by which people think about and make sense of
other people, themselves, and social situations”
Why is social cognition important in medicine
• Medicine deals with people
− People are not ‘information-processors’ in the absence of social influence
− People are not influenced by society in the absence of ‘thinking’
• Social cognition is an important determinant of behaviour
• Provides an understanding of how people think and behave, which can help us influence how people think and behave
What is the attribution theory
Process by which individuals explains their cause of behaviour/ events
Based on the locus of causality
Can have attributions for solution and problem
What are the 2 types of attribution theory
• Internal/dispositional: Any explanation that locates the cause as being internal to the person (personality, mood, abilities, attitude, and effort)
– Controllable: “it’s my fault”
• External/situational: Any explanation that locates the cause as being external to the person (circumstances; action of others, nature of situation, social pressures, luck)
– Uncontrollable: “it’s not my fault”
What are the dimensions of attribution
Internal vs external
Stable vs unstable (if cause of behaviour changes over time)
Global (impacts other areas of life) vs specific (only impacts one area of person’s life)
Controllable vs uncontrollable
What locus of control is this phrase
“Whether I am well or not is a matter of luck”
External health loc
What locus of control is this phrase
“I am responsible for my health”
Internal health loc
What locus of control is this phrase
“I can only do what my doctor tells me to do”
External health loc
What is Kelley’s theory about making attributions
Covariation theory
Causality is ascribed to the cause that co-varies with the behaviour
What is the casual schemata (3 factors in Kelley’s theory)
Three types of information to arrive at internal or external attribution.
Set schemata that facilitates causal attributions:
Consensus - cause of behaviour shared with others. Other people do the same in this situation.
Consistency - cause of behaviour same across time and modality
Distinctiveness - cause specific to individual. Does behaviour occur in the same way in other situations.
What would be the internal (dispositional) attribution for someone who is absent
Use casual schemata
Consensus:
No-one else is absent today
Consistency:
Jim is often absent from lectures
Distinctiveness:
Jim is generally unreliable
“It’s Jim’s fault!”
“He can’t be bothered”
What would be the external (situational) attribution for someone who is absent
Use casual schemata
Consensus:
Lots of others are absent today
Consistency:
Jim is rarely absent from lectures
Distinctiveness:
Jim is generally reliable
“It’s not Jim’s fault!” “The traffic must be bad or something”
What is a fundamental attribution error
Subjective to bias
Ignoring influence of situation on behaviour and emphasising personality traits alone. With dispositional attribution.
The tendency to attribute behaviours to a person’s internal qualities while underestimating situational influences
E.g. “i passed my driving test im the best” but ignored the fact that roads quiet.
What is actor observer bias
The tendency to attribute other people’s behaviour to internal causes (theyre lazy) and our behaviour to external causes (im never wrong)
What is self serving bias
The tendency to deny responsibility for failures (situational attribution) - protects our self esteem
but take credit for successes (dispositional attribution)
What is attribution that believes in a just world
Good things happen to good people and vice versa
Harvest what you sow
More optimistic about the world
E.g. if poor then because you didnt work hard enough
What are heuristics
general cognitive frameworks humans rely on regularly to reach a solution quickly
Mental shortcuts that help us solve particular problems
Efficient but not accurate
Cognitive bias
What is cognitive bias
Tendency to draw an incorrect conclusion in a certain circumstance based on cognitive factors
What are types of heuristics
• Representative heuristic
The tendency to allocate a set of attributions to someone if they match the prototype of a given category
• Availability heuristic
The tendency to judge the frequency or probability of an event based on how easily examples come to mind
• False Consensus Effect
The tendency to see one’s own behaviour as typical and to assume that under the same circumstances others would react the same way as oneself
• Anchoring heuristic
The tendency to be biased towards the starting value in making quantitative judgements
Importance of attributions for doctors
• Understanding the causes of health/illness behaviours of patients means you may be able to predict and influence their behaviour
• Understanding your own attributional processes means you may be able to commit fewer biases/errors
Types of illness attributions by patients
• About symptoms – disease or normal?
• About cause – virus, genetics, smoking etc?
• About illness management responsibility – doctor or self?
What is the disadvantage about attributions about symptoms
• Self-diagnosis is far from accurate
• Self serving attributions – lead to delays in consulting - “defensive avoidance” – due to fear
What are attributions about the cause of illness
• 95% people have hypotheses for cause of illnesses
• Biological, emotional, psychological, environmental, self- inflicted, inflicted by other people?
• Cause of illness is one of most important pieces of information people want from doctor
• Affect patients’ decisions about controllability
• Affect coping and adaptation
What are the attributions that others make about the cause of illness
• Understanding?
• Support?
• Priority for treatment?
Differs depending on illness e.g. cancer vs HIV
What are attributions about responsibility for illness management
Internal v external attributions have very different outcomes depending on illness, e.g.,
– Diabetes – internal management attributions leads to better metabolic control
– Obesity – external management attributions leads to better adherence to a diet
High levels of internal control can lead to personal blame if illness is uncontrollable
What is the role of attributions in cardiac event recovery
BASELINE perceptions (immediately after event) predict recovery outcomes:
External locus of control → lower rehab attendance
(Cooper et al., 1999; Petrie et al., 1996)
Behavioural cause → increased perceived control over preventing reoccurrence
(Bennett et al., 2015)
Internal & controllable attributions → faster return to work, decreased depression / anxiety, and improved lifestyle choices (Sararoudi et al., 2016)
Can attributional styles have a long term effect on health
Characteristic and stable attributional styles, e.g.:
– Internal attributional style –> generally good health practices
– Pessimistic attributional style –> negative events are internal, stable, global. affects all aspects of persons life.
– This is characteristic of depression, and a risk factor for physical illness (may be related to reduced immune function)
How do we influence peoples behaviour through health campaigns
Attributions are used in health campaigns and interventions to influence people’s behaviour e.g., change attributions around health behaviour to be:
o More internal
o More Stable (a consistent behaviour)
o More Global (across all situations e.g. eat at home or eat out) o More Controllable (within the person’s control)
Conclusion
• Attributions are important determinants of behaviour
• Attributions have important consequences for treating and
adjusting to illness
• Important to take account of cultural beliefs
