Attribution and the self Flashcards
(25 cards)
Attribution Theory
how people interpret and explain the causes of events and behaviours
- causal inferences of why things happen
Heiders Naive Psychology (1958)
Commonsense.
Internal attribution
- assigning the cause of our own or others behaviours to internal or dispositional factors
External
- assigning the cause of our own or others behaviours to external or environmental factors
correspondent inference theory (Jones & Davis)
Correspondence inferences
- explains how people make inferences about the underlying intentions, attitudes, or traits of others based on their behaviour
Acts - reflects some true characteristics of a person
Covariation model (kelley,1967)
a theory that explains how people make causal inferences about behaviour by considering three key pieces of information: consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency
- look for pattenrs in behaviour, observe if behavioru is due to internal or external factors
Consistency
Does this person behave the same way in similar situations over time?
High consistency → behavior happens repeatedly in the same context.
Low consistency → behavior is unusual or inconsistent.
Consensus
Do other people behave the same way in this situation?
High consensus → everyone acts this way → likely external cause.
Low consensus → only this person acts this way → likely internal cause.
Distinctiveness
Does this person behave differently in other situations?
High distinctiveness → the behavior is unique to this situation → likely external cause.
Low distinctiveness → they act this way across many situations → likely internal cause.
Weiners attribution theory
- and the 3 dimensions
(think SPEX204)
explains how individuals interpret and assign causes to their successes and failures, and how these attributions influence their future motivation and behaviour
- locus of control (internal vs. external), stability (stable vs. unstable), and controllability (controllable vs. uncontrollable).
Heuristics
mental shortcuts, or “rules of thumb,” that people use to make quick decisions and judgments, especially when faced with uncertainty or limited information
Attribution Bias vs Heuristics
Attribution bias
- systematic errors
Heuristics
- mental shortcuts
cognitive miser
a term that describes people who tend to minimize their mental effort and energy when thinking and making decisions. They often seek quick, adequate solutions rather than slow, careful ones, and may rely on mental shortcuts or heuristics.
Motivational tactician
people who strategically allocate resources depending on motivation and goals
Correspondence bias
the tendency to infer that peoples behaviour correspond to their disposition (personality)
we attribute things to peoples character rather than context
e.g someone might be rude in once instance - but hey could be having a bad day
Perceptual salience + Taylor and Fiske study
the quality of a stimulus that makes it stand out and capture attention, influencing how we perceive and remember information.The seeming importance of the information that is the focus of peoples attention
study:
investigate how visual attention (perceptual salience) influences the attributions people make about their behaviour
Speaker A and B - differing visual views of people
- resulted in who could see more of A/B person would be seen as more influential
Fundamental attribution error
tendency to attributing character (internal) over context (external)
The actor-observer effect
tendency to make the fundamental attribution error more with others than with ourselves
3 types of heurisitcs
Representativeness
- judge probability of something based on how similar is to a stereotype e.g lady who wears glasses and is quiet = librarian, but in reality is a truck driver
availability
- how common something is based on how easily examples come to mind e.g see news story about plane crash - will feel that flying is dangerous, even though it is statistically safe
anchoring and adjustment heuristic
- we start with an initial value (anchor) and then make adjustments. we tend to not adjust sufficiently from the anchor leading to biased judgements
Three motives of self conception
Self assessment - what makes you
self verification - confirming who you are
self enhancement - discover who you are
Self assessment (charactersitics)
- physical characteristics, Personality traits, social identity, relational
Self Complexity theory (Linville, 1985)
proposes that the number and distinctiveness of self-aspects (different ways of viewing oneself) influence how individuals react to stress and life events. It suggests that individuals with high self-complexity, characterized by multiple and distinct self-aspects, are better equipped to cope with adversity and experience less negative emotional impact.
Self discrepancy theory (higgins, 1989)
people are motivated to reach state where their actual self meets their self guides.
Actual Self = how we currently are
Ideal Self = How we would like to be
Ought Self = How we think we should be
Self evaluation maintenance theory (Tesser, 1988)
describing the process by which individuals maintain or increase their positive self-evaluation, or self-regard, in interpersonal contexts, through reflection, and through comparison.
Three components of social comparison
Relative performance - how well someone is doing in comparison to you
closeness
importance of the domain
Relative performance (comparrision)
Relative performance - how well someone is doing in comparison to you
upward: someone is ding better than you, can either motivate or demoralise you
downward: someone is doing worse so may boost self esteem
Closeness - comparison
how close you are to the person you are comparing yourself to
closer relationships often make comparison feel more impactful
importance of the domain - comparison
how important the area of comparison is to your self concept
- is central to your self esteem - will have stronger emotional consequences
Ideology
An ideology is a collection of ideas or beliefs shared by a group of people
