Lecture 9- Attributions

Question 0

Who is Heider and what did he say?

Answer 0

Heider is the father of attribution theory. He said that people attribute behaviour to one or two things: internal attributions or external attributions.

Question 1

Define attribution.

Answer 1

The process where people infer the causality of their own or others behaviour.

Question 2

What are internal attributions?

Answer 2

Internal attributions are when the behaviour of a person is explained by the person. For example- she failed because she is dumb

Question 3

What are external attributions?

Answer 3

External attributions say that the behaviour was caused by something in the environment or situation. E.g. I failed the test because my lecturer didn’t explain stuff right

Question 4

What did Kelley extend upon in his covariation model?

Answer 4

Kelley said that people assess 3 things when analyses a persons behaviour. These are: consensus, distinctiveness and consistency.

Question 5

What is consensus according to Kelleys covariation model? What type would lead to an internal attribution?

Answer 5

Consensus is when the behaviour of others involved in the same situation is assessed. If it is an internal attribution then other people’s behaviour shouldn’t correspond with the actors therefore it would be low consensus

Question 6

What is distinctiveness according to Kelleys covariation model? What type of distinctiveness would be needed to make an external attribution?

Answer 6

Distinctiveness is when perceivers look at how the actor acts to different stimuli. If the behaviour was attributed to the environment or situation- the actor would only be reactive to this particular situation so it would be high distinctiveness

Question 7

What is consistency according to Kelleys covariation model? What type would be needed to make an internal attribution?

Answer 7

Consistency is when you look at how the actor would react to the same stimulus if it were to happen again. If it were to be an internal attribution then the person would have to react the same way to the same stimulus everytime

Question 16

What is the fundamental attribution error?

Answer 16

The fundamental attribution error states that people are more likely to overestimate the persons behaviours (internal) and to underestimate the situational context (external)

Question 17

What did Jones and Harris’s study find on FAE?

Answer 17

Jones and Harris manipulated the position a person had about Castro (anti vs pro) and the stated choice they had in the matter (choice vs no choice) and had participants read the essay. Participants were asked to state the likely opinion of the person who wrote essay. They found that when the essay had a choice over the position people said that if they wrote about pro Castro freely than they must be pro Castro. But when the essay was force written participants still suggested that the person who wrote the essay had the same position as the essay. Therefore making the FAE

Question 18

What are three theories as to why the FAE happens?

Answer 18

1. Salience
2. Effort
3. Culture

Question 19

How does salience effect FAE?

Answer 19

It is believed that whatever is salient (most obvious) in a situation will be the attributed cause for the behaviour. E.g if the person is focused on then internal attributions will be made but if be situation is focused on external attributions will be made

Question 20

What did Taylor and Fiscke do to test salience in FAE?

Answer 20

Taylor and Fiscke had participants watch a convo between A and B and manipulated who they focused on in the conversation. The findings concluded that whoever the participant focused on said that they were the causal conversation leader.

Question 21

What real life application did they find where salience caused FAE?

Answer 21

In interrogation rooms! People look at the criminal more in the room and therefore attributed all there nervous/ anxious behaviours the them without considering how the officer was provoking these!

Question 22

How is effort considered to cause FAE?

Answer 22

Gilbert said that it is an automatic response to witness a behaviour and attribute it to internal factors and it requires more effort to consider external factors for behaviour

Question 23

What study did Gilbert and colleagues do to test effort?

Answer 23

Gilbert et al had participants watch a conversation about either relaxing or anxiety provoking topics and either just listen or memorise the convo. Participants then rated how anxious this person would be in day to
Day life. The findings suggested that when people talked about the anxiety provoking topic and participants were asked to memorise the convo they attributed the anxiety to the person. But when it was the anxiety provoking convo and participants could just listen then attributed the anxiety of the person to the situation.

Question 24

What influence does culture have on FAE?

Answer 24

FAE is only really found in western/ individualistic cultures as they focus more on the individual than on the collective.

Question 25

What type of attributions would a depressed person make?

Answer 25

They would blame their successes on external factors and their failures on internal factors oppositely to what is normal of the self serving bias

Question 26

What is the actor-observer bias of attributions?

Answer 26

The actor observer bias is the tendency to attribute your actions to external factors and others actions to internal factors

Question 27

Why does the actor observer bias occur?

Answer 27

Because we have more information about ourselves and the context or environment is more salient to us.

Question 28

What is self serving bias?

Answer 28

The distorted attributions people make to protect or enchant their self esteem.

Question 29

When does self-enhancing bias occur?

Answer 29

Self enhancing bias occurs when you succeed at something so you attribute it to your internal qualities.

Question 30

When does self - protecting bias occur?

Answer 30

Self protecting bias occurs when you do badly at something so you blame it in external factors

Question 31

What study proves that self serving bias is motivational and not perceptual?

Answer 31

Weary et al’s study which looks at if people self serve if they are in front of an audience or if they have to repeat the task. The findings found that people will only self serve if no one is watching and if it is a one off event.

Question 32

What is the ultimate attribution error?

Answer 32

The ultimate attribution error is when you attribute an out groups successes to external factors and their failures to internal factors

Question 33

List 4 reasons we would make an internal attribution:

Answer 33

1. When judging others (specifically when they are salient, when we are distracted or unmotivated and if it’s an individualistic culture) FAE
2. When we’ve done something good (self serving)
3. When an out group does something bad (UAE)
4. When an ingroup does something good (UAE)