Attributions

Question 1

What are attributions

Answer 1

The process of assigning a cause to our behaviour or that of others

Question 2

What is Naïve psychologist as an explanation for attribution theories

Answer 2

Heider 1958 : people act like ‘common sense’ scientist, forming intuitive reasons for people’s behaviour. Based his ideas on three principles.

Question 3

What are Heiders three principles for Naive scientist as an explanation for attributions

Answer 3

As we feel our own behaviour is motivated we look for the causes for other people’s behaviour (heider-simmel illusion experiment). We tend to look for stable and enduring properties that cause behaviour (easier to predict).when attributing behaviour we distinguish between internal / dispositional and external/ situational

Question 4

Internal vs external attribution

Answer 4

Internal (dispositional) process of assigning the cause of our and others behaviour to personal factors.
External (or situational ) assigning the cause of our own or others behaviour to environmental factors

Question 5

Do we rely more on dispositional or situational factors

Answer 5

Dispositional

Question 6

Correspondence inference

Answer 6

Attributing behaviour primarily to underlying disposition, because it is stable makes behaviour more predictable and increase our sense of control.

Question 7

What are jones and Davies five cues for correspondence inference.

Answer 7

The behaviour is freely chosen
The behaviour produces a non - common effect
The behaviour was not socially desirable
The behaviour has an important outcome for us
The behaviour is directed towards us ( positively or negatively)
If no = it’s situational

Question 8

What is meant by non common effect

Answer 8

Effects of behaviour that are relativity exclusive to that behaviour rather than other behaviours.

Question 9

Freely chosen

Answer 9

More indicative of disposition than behaviour that is clearly under control of external threats

Question 10

Why does behaviour with non-common effect tell us more about dispositions

Answer 10

People assume others are aware of non- common effects and that specific behaviour was performed intentionally to produce a non-common effect (outcome bias)

Question 11

Not Socially desirable behaviours…

Answer 11

Not controlled by societal norms so better basis for making a correspondent inference

Question 12

Hedonic relevance

Answer 12

Refers to Behaviour that has important direct consequences for self.

Question 13

Personalism

Answer 13

Behaviour that appears to be directly intended to benefit or harm oneself rather than others

Question 14

What is jones and Davis 1967 experiment

Answer 14

Gave rps essay about Castro and told essay was written freely or enforced (pro or anti castro ) and asked to attribute how the authors true feeing about castro. However for forced pro attitude rps inferred this behaviour to be true. Theory predicts this should be ignored.

Question 15

What are some other criticism of the correspondence inference

Answer 15

Highlights importance intentions in making causal attributions but isn’t unintentional also a source of validity.
For non-common effects to work have to consider the behaviours that did not occur

Question 16

Covariation model

Answer 16

Kelly’s theory of causal attribution - people assign the cause of behaviour the factor that covaries most closely with the behaviour.

Question 17

What are the three classes of information used in the covariation model

Answer 17

Consistency information: extent to which a behaviour Y always co-occurs with X
Distinctiveness information : does behaviour occur across many kinds of stimuli
Consensus : extent do other people react to the stimulus

Question 18

People make internal attributions when..

Answer 18

Consistency is high , distinctiveness is low, consensus is low

Question 19

People make external attributions when

Answer 19

Consistency is high , distinctiveness is high , consensus is high

Question 20

What happens if consistency is low

Answer 20

Cause of behaviour is discounted

Question 21

Criticism of the covariation model

Answer 21

Only works under longer exposure- schemas fill in the gaps until then
Covariation does not mean causation
Demanding set of rules -people more likely to rely on heuristics and schemas

Question 22

Achievement attribution (Weiner 1979)

Answer 22

attribution for how well themselves perform a task : locus, stability and controlability

Question 23

Locus

Answer 23

Is the cause of behaviour perceived as internal or external

Question 24

Stability

Answer 24

Is the internal or external cause stable or unstable

Question 25

Controllability

Answer 25

To what extent is future task performance under the actors control