Psychology--Ch.12.1

collectivist culture

culture that focuses on communal relationships with others such as family, friends, and community

individualistic culture

culture that focuses on individual achievement and autonomy

dispositionism

describes a perspective common to personality psychologists, which asserts that our behavior is determined by internal factors, such as personality traits and temperament

situationism

describes a perspective that behavior and actions are determined by the immediate environment and surroundings; a view promoted by social psychologists

just-world hypothesis

ideology common in the United States that people get the outcomes they deserve

According to the actor-observer bias, we have more information about ________.

influences on our own behavior

internal factor

internal attribute of a person, such as personality traits or temperament

actor-observer bias

phenomenon of explaining other people's behaviors are due to internal factors and our own behaviors are due to situational forces

Making internal attributions for your successes and making external attributions for your failures is an example of ________.

self-serving bias

As a field, social psychology focuses on ________ in predicting human behavior.

situational factors

Collectivistic cultures are to ________ as individualistic cultures are to ________.

situational; dispositional

self-serving bias

tendency for individuals to take credit by making dispositional or internal attributions for positive outcomes and situational or external attributions for negative outcomes

fundamental attribution error

tendency to overemphasize internal factors as attributions for behavior and underestimate the power of the situation

Compare and contrast situational influences and dispositional influences and give an example of each. Explain how situational influences and dispositional influences might explain inappropriate behavior.

A situationism view is that our behaviors are determined by the situation—for example, a person who is late for work claims that heavy traffic caused the delay. A dispositional view is that our behaviors are determined by personality traits—for example, a driver in a road rage incident claims the driver who cut her off is an aggressive person. Thus, a situational view tends to provide an excuse for inappropriate behavior, and a dispositional view tends to lay blame for inappropriate behavior.

Provide an example of how people from individualistic and collectivistic cultures would differ in explaining why they won an important sporting event.

People from individualistic cultures would tend to attribute athletic success to individual hard work and ability. People from collectivistic cultures would tend attribute athletic success to the team working together and the support and encouragement of the coach.

attribution

explanation for the behavior of other people

social psychology

field of psychology that examines how people impact or affect each other, with particular focus on the power of the situation