Week 5 - Social perception

Question 1

Define Attribution theory (and name 4 sub)

Answer 1

A group of theories that describe how people explain the causes of behaviour.

• Personal Attribution
• Situational Attribution
• Correspondent inference
• Covariation theory

Question 2

Personal attribution

Answer 2

Attribution to internal characteristics of an individual, such as ability, personality, mood or effort.

Question 3

Situational attribution

Answer 3

Attribution to factors external to an individual, such as the task, other people or luck.

Question 4

Correspondent inference theory (+ 3 factors)

Answer 4

predicts that people try to infer from an action whether the act corresponds to an enduring personal trait of the individual.

1. Degree of choice (more is informative)
2. Expectedness of behaviour (student wearing a 3 piece suit vs jeans to class) (less is informative)
3. Intended effects of behaviour (fewer consequences is informative)

Question 5

Covariation principle

Answer 5

A principle of attribution theory that holds that people attribute behaviour to factors that are present when a behaviour occurs and are absent when it does not. E.g. consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency

Question 6

Availability heuristic

Answer 6

The tendency to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur by how easily instances of it come to mind.

Question 7

False-consensus effect

Answer 7

In part, produced by the availability heuristic.

The tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others share their opinions, attributes and behaviours.

Question 8

Base-rate fallacy

Answer 8

The finding that people are relatively insensitive to consensus information presented in the form of numerical base rates.

Question 9

Counterfactual thinking

Answer 9

The tendency to imagine alternative events or outcomes that might have occurred but did not.

Question 9

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 9

The tendency to focus on the role of personal causes and underestimate the impact of situations on other people’s behaviour.

Question 10

Belief in a just world

Answer 10

The belief that individuals get what they deserve in life – an orientation that leads people to disparage victims

Question 11

Impression formation

Answer 11

The process of integrating information about a person to form a coherent impression.

Question 12

Information integration theory

Answer 12

The theory that impressions are based on (1) personal dispositions and the current state of the perceiver and (2) a weighted average of a target person’s characteristics

Question 13

Priming

Answer 13

The tendency for recently used or perceived words or ideas to come to mind easily and influence the interpretation of new information

Question 14

Implicit personality theory

Answer 14

A network of assumptions people make about the relationships among traits and behaviours

Question 15

Central traits

Answer 15

Traits that exert a powerful influence on overall impressions

Question 16

Primacy effect

Answer 16

The tendency for information presented early in a sequence to have more impact on impressions than information presented later

Question 17

Need for closure

Answer 17

The desire to reduce cognitive uncertainty, which heightens the importance of first impressions.

Question 18

Confirmation bias

Answer 18

The tendency to seek, interpret and create information that verifies existing beliefs.

Question 19

Belief perseverance

Answer 19

The tendency to maintain beliefs even after they have been discredited.

Question 19

biased experience sampling

Answer 19

E.g. the instance where you avoid people you have a negative first impression of, and seek out those you have a positive first impression of. When you seek them out more you may find counter-examples to that impression, but not when you avoid them altogether.

Question 20

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 20

The process by which an individual’s expectations about a person eventually lead that person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations