Social Codgnition And Attributions

Question 1

What 2 primary needs are people motivated by (heider 1958)

Answer 1

Form a coherent view of the world
Gain control over the environment

Question 2

What is social cognition

Answer 2

encompasses all processes that involve people
• “The process by which people think about and make sense of
other people, themselves, and social situations”

Question 3

Why is social cognition important in medicine

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

What is the attribution theory

Answer 4

Process by which individuals explains their cause of behaviour/ events
Based on the locus of causality

Can have attributions for solution and problem

Question 5

What are the 2 types of attribution theory

Answer 5

• 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”

Question 6

What are the dimensions of attribution

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What locus of control is this phrase
“Whether I am well or not is a matter of luck”

Answer 7

External health loc

Question 8

What locus of control is this phrase
“I am responsible for my health”

Answer 8

Internal health loc

Question 9

What locus of control is this phrase
“I can only do what my doctor tells me to do”

Answer 9

External health loc

Question 10

What is Kelley’s theory about making attributions

Answer 10

Covariation theory
Causality is ascribed to the cause that co-varies with the behaviour

Question 11

What is the casual schemata (3 factors in Kelley’s theory)

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

What would be the internal (dispositional) attribution for someone who is absent
Use casual schemata

Answer 12

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”

Question 13

What would be the external (situational) attribution for someone who is absent
Use casual schemata

Answer 13

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”

Question 14

What is a fundamental attribution error

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

What is actor observer bias

Answer 15

The tendency to attribute other people’s behaviour to internal causes (theyre lazy) and our behaviour to external causes (im never wrong)

Question 16

What is self serving bias

Answer 16

The tendency to deny responsibility for failures (situational attribution) - protects our self esteem
but take credit for successes (dispositional attribution)

Question 17

What is attribution that believes in a just world

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What are heuristics

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What is cognitive bias

Answer 19

Tendency to draw an incorrect conclusion in a certain circumstance based on cognitive factors

Question 20

What are types of heuristics

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

Importance of attributions for doctors

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

Types of illness attributions by patients

Answer 22

• About symptoms – disease or normal?
• About cause – virus, genetics, smoking etc?
• About illness management responsibility – doctor or self?

Question 23

What is the disadvantage about attributions about symptoms

Answer 23

• Self-diagnosis is far from accurate
• Self serving attributions – lead to delays in consulting - “defensive avoidance” – due to fear

Question 24

What are attributions about the cause of illness

Answer 24

• 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

Question 25

What are the attributions that others make about the cause of illness

Answer 25

• Understanding?
• Support?
• Priority for treatment?

Differs depending on illness e.g. cancer vs HIV

Question 26

What are attributions about responsibility for illness management

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What is the role of attributions in cardiac event recovery

Answer 27

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)

Question 28

Can attributional styles have a long term effect on health

Answer 28

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)

Question 29

How do we influence peoples behaviour through health campaigns

Answer 29

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)

Question 30

Conclusion

Answer 30

• Attributions are important determinants of behaviour
• Attributions have important consequences for treating and
adjusting to illness
• Important to take account of cultural beliefs