Chapter 5: Social Attribution Flashcards
(57 cards)
________ theory deals with how people assign causes to the events around them and the effects that these explanations have.
Attribution theory
________ theory focuses on the ways in which we answer such questions as ‘Why does my roommate always play his music loudly?’
Attribution theory
Which of the following questions best reflects what attribution theory seeks to explain?
‘Why did Larissa break up with Tom?’
________ refers to a person’s habitual way of explaining many different types of events.
Explanatory style
Psychologists who want to measure a person’s explanatory style assess each of the following attribution dimensions EXCEPT
rational/affective.
In a study conducted by Peterson and his colleagues, participants’ explanatory style when they were young adults
predicted health in older age.
Recall that Dweck and her colleagues aimed to understand why boys and girls tend to explain their failures differently. To this end, they conducted an experiment that manipulated ________. Results showed that ________.
the type of feedback that students received in class; comments teachers typically give to girls lead to internal attributions for failure.
Bo has repeatedly tried to find a job. After each unsuccessful attempt, he concludes that there is just something about him that will always get in the way of success in his life. Bo is displaying a ________ explanatory style.
pessimistic
Kyle, a male student, and Megha, a female student, both failed their geography exams. According to research by Dweck and colleagues, Kyle is likely to attribute his failure to his ________, whereas Megha is likely to attribute her failure to her ________.
lack of effort; lack of ability.
Jim meets Eun Joo for coffee and asks, ‘Would you be my date for the Sigma Chi formal dance?’ She smiles and says, ‘That is so nice of you, but I have already got plans.’ Jim then thinks to himself, ‘I will never find a date for this formal.’ Given this information, you can conclude that Jim’s response reflects a(n) ________ attribution.
stable
Darby consistently attributes her failures to stable, global, and internal causes. Maria accounts for her failures by citing unstable, specific, and external causes. According to research on explanatory style, Darby is likely to ________ than Maria.
earn lower grades.
The ________ dimension of explanatory style considers whether the causes of a particular behavior will be present again in the future.
stable/unstable
Someone with an optimistic explanatory style is likely to make which types of attributions for success?
internal, stable, global
According to ________, our confidence that a particular cause is responsible for a given outcome is reduced if there are other plausible causes that might have produced it.
the discounting principle
Recall that Wells and Gavanski (1989) asked study participants to read a story about a woman who went to lunch with her boss to celebrate a promotion. According to the story, the boss ordered a dish for the woman that contained wine. Unfortunately, the woman was so allergic to wine that she died. The researchers were interested in how participants would respond to additional information about the boss’s behavior. Results of this study showed that participants who thought the
boss almost ordered a different dish that did not contain wine viewed his choice of meals as more causally significant.
Rhonda tells you that she hates her new apartment. According to the covariation principle, which question would you ask to assess the consistency covariation dimension?
Does Rhonda always report hating her apartment, or is she just saying so today?
Trina notices her brother Mark eating a second piece of chocolate from a box of candy. Because he rarely eats candy of any kind, Trina concludes that Mark must really like the chocolate. In this instance, Trina is relying on ________ information to explain her brother’s behavior.
distinctiveness
Jamal watches how his new girlfriend reacts to a performer at a comedy club. Is she easily amused or is the comedian really that funny? If he compares his girlfriend’s response to the comedian to other people in the audience, he is focusing on ________ information.
consensus
Gloria looks back on her marriage and thinks, ‘If only I had put more effort into the relationship, Lew and I would still be together.’ This self-reflection exemplifies
counterfactual thinking.
At the last minute, Christine decided to try a new route to work. On her drive in, she hit a deep pothole, causing one of her car tires to go flat. Her decision to try a new route ________ the likelihood that she engaged in counterfactual thinking.
increased
Hector plays golf every Saturday. His wife, Alicia, notices that after a winning round, Hector tends to play with the kids. After a losing round, he tends to watch television by himself. According to ________, over time, Alicia is likely to conclude that Hector’s golf games can exert a causal effect on his behavior at home.
the covariation principle
Flora will most likely attribute Jeremy’s quiet, shy behavior to his introverted personality when
consistency is high, and consensus and distinctiveness are low.
Maria, Min, and Bobby ran for class president. When the votes were tallied, Maria received thirty-eight votes, Min received thirty-seven votes, and Bobby garnered thirty-five votes. According to Medvec and colleagues’ (1995) study of Olympic athletes’ emotional reactions, one would expect ________ to be the LEAST happy with the election outcome.
Min
Several mountain climbers were trapped on Mount Everest during a blinding snowstorm. Many climbers died on the mountain. One climber made it all the way back to base camp. Unfortunately, however, he collapsed and died mere yards away from the safety of his tent. Because this climber came so close to saving himself, ________ is particularly likely to occur in response to this climber’s death.
emotional amplification
