week 2

Question 1

Social perception

Answer 1

How do we perceive others?
is the study of how people form impressions of and make inferences about other people as sovereign personalities
1- We form initial impressions of people’s external characteristics (person perception)
2- We interpret their non-verbal behavior (facial features, body language)
3- We seek explanations for their behavior (= attributions)

Question 2

Person perception

Answer 2

We form initial impressions of people’s external characteristics

Question 3

attributions

Answer 3

the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events

making an inference about the cause of behaviour that we observe: “Why does someone behave this way?”
mostly by referring to personal dispositions and situational factors

Question 4

we make first impressions…

Answer 4

1- very quickly and often unconsciously
2- based on our “implicit theories” about personality
3- based on certain central characteristics (e.g. a being warm/cold person)

Question 5

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 5

When an originally wrong social belief leads to its fulfillment
e.g. You think of someone as being rude
You act unfriendly towards the person
He/she responds in a rude way.

Question 6

Heider’s Attribution Theory

Answer 6

People are naive scientists
trying to explain the behaviour of our own and others

How?
By making causal attributions about the behaviour

Question 7

What is the use of making attributions?

Answer 7

It helps to understand simple observations

It helps with future predictions

Question 8

two types of attribution

Answer 8

• Dispositional (personal/internal attributions)

- Situational (external attributions)

Question 9

Dispositional (personal/internal attributions)

Answer 9

• Inference says something about the person such as character or personality
• Highly diagnostic

Question 10

Situational (external attributions)

Answer 10

• Inference is based on something about the situation the person is in
• Says little about person; less diagnostic

Question 11

Controllability Attributions

Answer 11

Whether an outcome is controllable or not
If something could be done about it.
-Controllability attributions – lack of effort
-Uncontrollability attributions- lack of ability

Question 12

experiment controllability attributions

Answer 12

Among a group of tough junior high school boys
A training on controllability attributions
helped restore hope about the future
led to increased productivitiy

Question 13

Learned Helplessness Theory

Answer 13

happens when people believe they cannot change the course of negative events.

Stronger when you have internal (dispositional), stable, uncontrollability attributions for failure.

Question 14

how do we determine the cause of behavior?

Answer 14

Correspondent Inference Theory

Covariation Theory

Question 15

Correspondent Inference Theory

Answer 15

example: group assignment, girl eats ice cream instead of working.

systematically accounts for a perceiver’s inferences about what an actor was trying to achieve by a particular action”

Observers infer certain intentions and dispositions from correspondent behaviours.

-By looking at if the behaviour was executed with free will and if it was unexpected.

-By comparing the reason of a particular behvaiour with a set of other likely reasons.
Analysis of non-common effects

Question 16

Non-common effects

Answer 16

Not related to how rare a behavior is.
But with the amount of reasons that are available for a particular behaviour

When the behavior has few potential causes: it corresponds more easily with the intention/disposition we infer.

Question 17

Kelly’s Covariation Theory

Answer 17

More complete theory of attributions

Kelley’s question: What kind of information do individuals use to infer whether an outcome is due to internal (person/disposition) or external (situation/entity) causes?

We use 3 types of information to help us decide
whether an event was caused by
internal or external factors.

Question 18

3 types of information to decide whether an event was caused by internal or external factors

Answer 18

Consensus: How do other actors behave?

Consistency: How does the actor usually behave in this situation?

Distinctiveness: How does this actor behave in other situations?

Question 19

shortcomings for social perception

Answer 19

1: We often make attributions in quite different ways
2: Are people ‘naïve’ scientists?
Attributions are therefore often biased

Question 20

Attributional Biases

Answer 20

a cognitive bias that refers to the systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and others’ behaviors

Question 21

Correspondence Bias (Fundamental Attribution Bias)

Answer 21

When trying to make sense of someone else’s behaviour:
Behaviour is seen as resulting from dispositional factors/character/personality
We underestimate the role of situational factors

e.g. a driver yelling at another driver
Aggressive personality is the immediate inference.

Question 22

Castro Study, Johnes and Harris

Answer 22

Students were asked to read drafts of pro/anti-Castro speeches

evaluated the attitude of the speech-writers towards Castro as favourable or unfavourable?

Manipulation: Topic own choice (free will) versus assigned
the readers thought with both choices the writers character was pro castro

->So we attribute dispositions even in the presence of clear situational effects

Question 23

we attribute dispositions
even in the presence of clear situational effects.
Why?

Answer 23

• Dispositional attribution is automatic response
• Requires effort to process situational influences.
• Some situational effects might be subtle/difficult to detect.

Question 24

The Actor-Observer Difference

Answer 24

a tendency to attribute one’s own actions to external causes while attributing other people’s behaviors to internal causes

Question 25

why do we do the actor observer difference

Answer 25

1- We know our own situational circumstances better.
Therefore we can more easily recall them
2- When observing someone, we focus on the person rather than the behavior.

Question 26

perceptual salience

Answer 26

We tend to over-estimate the causal role (salience) of information we have available to us

Question 27

Self-serving attributional bias

Answer 27

• Motivated distortions in attributions to protect self-esteem
• Attributing own success to dispositions and own failures to situational factors.
• Motivation to self-enhance versus self-protect!

Question 28

Misattribution of Arousal

Answer 28

the process whereby people make a mistake in assuming what is causing them to feel aroused

Each emotion is associated with the physiological experience of: Arousal

Schachter’s two-factor theory of emotion

Question 29

Schachter’s two-factor theory of emotion

Answer 29

Emotions depend on the attributions we make for them rather than directly feeling them.

physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation give an emotional experience

Question 30

attributionsss

Answer 30

Heider’s attribution theory
Correspondent inference theory
Covariation theory

Question 31

biases

Answer 31

• Correspondence Bias (Fundemental Attribution Bias)
• The Actor-Observer Difference
• Self-serving attributional bias