Schemas, Heuristics, and Attributions Flashcards
(16 cards)
How did Taylor define Schemas?
a cognitive structure that consists of representations of some defined stimulus
What did Crocker (1984) say about schemas?
Suggested that they are highly stable and resistant to change
What did Rothbart suggest that were the 3 models of schema change?
- Book keeping
- Conversion
- Subtyping
What did Hewstone (1992) say about schema subtyping?
asked children to categorise various different ‘police officers’
found that ‘foot patrol police officer’ and ‘mounted police officer’ were grouped together, but school police officer was not
What are Heuristics?
Mental short-cuts that are fast but error-prone
- we use when we have well established schemas but not when our schemas have recently been seen to be faulty
What is the attribution bias?
The tendency to make particular kinds of inferences across different situations
What is the Naïve scientist (Heider, 1958)
Assumes peoples behaviour is goal orientated (intentional)
- distinguished between dispositional and situational causes
What is the Correspondent Inference Theory (Jones & Davis)
Offers rules for dispositional vs situational attributions
- was behaviour free or constrained
- was behaviour usual
- was behaviour socially undesirable
- is behaviour personally relevant to the perceiver?
What is the covariation Model (Kelley, 1967)
- Consistency
- Distinctiveness
- Consensus
How did Kassin (1979) criticise CCD?
Suggested that people don’t naturally use consensus info as it is usually not available
How did Jones et al. (1965) criticise CCD?
Suggested that other elements of the social situation matter
for example understanding if they were acting freely or if there was an external pressure
What is the Fundamental Attribution Error?
The idea that people tend to make dispositional rather than situational attributions for actions of others (Ross, 1977)
Who proposed the Actor-observer effect and what is it?
Jones, 1972
- Actors tend to attribute causes to situational factors
- Observers tend to attribute causes to actor’s disposition
What did Learner (1978) propose?
The Just World Hypothesis
- the idea that people get what they deserve
What is the Self-serving bias?
Pettigrew (1976)
- the tendency to attribute causality in a way that enhances self esteem
- Success (= internal, stable) vs. failure (= external, temporary)
What are the cultural differences in attribution?
Heine et al. (2001)
- Japanese individuals more accepting of negative ‘self’ info (e.g., “I failed because I lack ability”)
