| Question | Answer |
| attribution theory | how people explain the cause of behaviour |
| heider (1958) - aspects of attribution theory | Personal attribution (internal, IA) - attribution to internal characteristics of a person (ability, personality, mood, effort)
Situational attribution (external) - attribution to factors external to a person (the task, other people, luck) |
| Kelley,1967
People make personal or situational attributions based on 3 factors | Consistency - YES
distinctiveness - NO
Consensus - NO
= INTERNAL
For internal attribution, CONSISTENCY has to be the ONLY factor
For external attribution any other combination of factors lead external |
| example of attribution theory | A mother beating her child what does it say about the mother?
A student falling asleep during a lecture |
| consistency e.g. | Does the person usually behave this way in this situation? (Does this mother beat the child more often?)(Does this studeny fall asleep during these lectures) if YES =INTERNAL |
| distinctiveness e.g. | Distinctiveness
Does the person behave differently in different situations (Is this the only child she beats?)(is this student awake during other lectures) NO = INTERNAL |
| consensus e.g. | Do others behave similarly in this situation? (Do other people beat this child?)(do other students fall asleep during these lectures) NO = INTERNAL |
| attribution biases | - cognitive heuristics
- availability heuristic
- false-consensus effect
- base rate fallacy |
| cognitive heuristics | information-processing rules of thumb that makes us think quick and easy (but not always flawless) |
| availability heuristics | tendency to estimate the odds that an event will occur by how easily it pops to mind |
| false-consensus effect | overestimation of extent to which others share their opinions, attributes and behaviours |
| base rate fallacy | social perception are more influenced by one vivid life story than statistical facts |
| fundamental attribution error (FAE) (Ross, 1977) | The tendency to underestimate the impact of situational factors on other peoples behaviour |
| FAE examples | Parents are surprised that their child, usually naughty at home, is friendly at school
TV watchers are surprised that actors who play certain characters who represent a set of characteristics are not at all similar in real life |
| FAE Ross et al., 1967 study | P's were either a quiz master or a contestants
How knowledgeable are quiz masters(1) and contestants (2) according to 1) , 2), 3) audience
Quiz master was seen to be more knowledgeable to 2)&3) but quiz masters and contestant were equal to each other |
| FAE Miller,1984 | Indian and american p's were asked to describe the causes of behaviours they had observed in their lives - p's aged 8,11,15 or adults
Individualistic cultures (eg. Uk,usa) are inclined to make personal attributions
Compared to collectivists cultures |
| FAE (San Martin et al,2019) | Cultures vary in relational mobility (freedom,chance a society offers to form new ties and break old one)
Low - Nigeria,Morrocco; high - Israel,Spain
Low RM shows weak sense of IA- those high RM mean thatgrowth is mainly governed by the self |
| why does FAE occur? | 1. People have an impulsive tendency to accept what they encounter as true
2. Culture teaches us to commit to FAE
3. Dispositions in behaviour are caused by a perceptual bias |
| 2 biases | Fundamental attribution error - is a bias in explaining somebody else's behaviour
Self-serving bias - is a bias in explaining our own behaviour
- Tendency to attribute success to ourselves and failures to others or to the situation |
| Results of self-serving bias | Most businessman see themselves as more ethical than the average businessman
86% of people rate their job performance as above average
Most people perceive themselves as more intelligent than their average peer |
| speicla form of self serving bias + examples | Blaming people for their own misfortunes ('blaming the victim')
Examples;
○ Unemployed people are lazy
○ Rape victims are careless
○ Aids victim lack moral standards
- Cancer patients live an unhealthy life |
| reasons for blaming the victim | Self protection (eg. 'if victims cant influence own misfortunes, I can be the next victim')
Fundamental attribution error (underestimation of external factors) |
| locus of control | Is the extent to which a person is more inclined to be more internally or externally attributed |
| Self efficacy (Bandura,1986) | refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments |
| internal and external oriented and self efficacy | Someone who is more internally oriented tends to have greater self-efficacy
Being externally oriented people just shows a persons personality rather than anything positive or negative |
| internal and external locus of control | internal - Individual believes that his/her behaviour is guided by his/her personal decisions and efforts.
external - a belief that life is controlled by outside factors which the person cannot influence, or that chance or fate controls their lives |
| Locus of control and well being (Frey et al, 1986) | Victims of road accidents were interviewed in hospital and it was determined whether they were internally or externally oriented
9 days - internally oriented
34 days - externally oriented
Internally oriented people believe and choose their journey |
