social psychology Flashcards
(185 cards)
What are causal attributions?
Inferences about the causes of one’s own behaviors and the behaviors of others.
What are the two types of causal attributions?
- Internal (dispositional)
- External (situational)
What is an optimistic explanatory style?
Attributing negative outcomes to external, unstable, and specific factors.
What is a pessimistic explanatory style?
Attributing negative outcomes to internal, stable, and global factors.
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors in others’ behaviors.
How does culture affect the fundamental attribution error?
North Americans make more dispositional attributions, while Asian Indians make more situational attributions.
What is the actor-observer effect?
The tendency to attribute our own behaviors to situational factors and others’ behaviors to dispositional factors.
What is the self-serving bias?
Attributing our own desirable behaviors to dispositional factors and undesirable behaviors to situational factors.
What is the ultimate attribution error?
Attributing in-group negative behaviors to situational factors and out-group negative behaviors to dispositional factors.
What does the group attribution error describe?
Attributing individual group member’s beliefs and decisions to the group as a whole.
What are the two versions of the group attribution error?
- Belief that an individual group member’s beliefs reflect the group
- Belief that group decisions reflect the decisions of each individual member
What is Kelley’s covariation model?
A model proposing that attributions about behavior are based on consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness.
What does ‘consensus’ refer to in Kelley’s covariation model?
Whether others would behave the same way in the same situation.
What does ‘consistency’ refer to in Kelley’s covariation model?
Whether the person usually acts this way in this type of situation.
What does ‘distinctiveness’ refer to in Kelley’s covariation model?
Whether the person usually behaves differently in other situations.
When are external attributions likely to be made according to Kelley’s model?
When consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness are all high.
When are internal attributions likely to be made according to Kelley’s model?
When consensus is low, consistency is high, and distinctiveness is low.
What are the two types of cognitive processing distinguished in social cognition?
Automatic processing and controlled processing
Automatic processing is fast and efficient, while controlled processing is slower and effortful.
What is the confirmation bias?
The tendency to seek and pay attention to information that confirms our attitudes and beliefs and ignore information that refutes them
This bias is related to self-verification theory, which predicts individuals seek feedback that confirms their self-concepts.
What does illusory correlation refer to?
Overestimating the relationship between two variables that are not related or only slightly related
An example includes overestimating behaviors consistent with negative stereotypes of minority groups.
Define the base rate fallacy.
The tendency to ignore or underuse base rate information and be influenced by distinctive case features
Juries often rely more on anecdotal evidence than on base-rate information.
What is the false consensus effect?
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our opinions, values, and beliefs
It affects judgments in various situations, such as estimating others’ performance on a test.
What is the gambler’s fallacy?
The belief that a particular chance event is affected by previous events and will ‘even out’ in the short run
An example is believing the next coin toss will be tails after several heads.
What does counterfactual thinking involve?
Imagining what might have happened but didn’t, often involving better or worse outcomes
It is more likely when the outcome is personally significant.