Chapters 4-7

Behavioral Self-Handicapping

people act in ways that reduce the likelihood that they will succeed on a task so that if they fail, they can blame it on the obstacles they created rather than on their lack of ability - men are more likely to engage in behavioral self-handicapping than are women - women are less likely to engage in the kind of self-handicapping in which they put obstacles in their own way, and they are more critical of others who do so - women place more value on trying hard to achieve something than men do and thus are more critical of people who seem not to try hard and then make up excuses for doing poorly

Is the fundamental attribution error stronger in Western than Eastern cultures? (cultural differences in F.A.E)

people in individualist cultures do prefer dispositional attributions about others, relative to people in collectivist cultures, who prefer situational attributions - cross-culture differences in social perception do not appear to be inborn; rather, we arrive in this world with a flexibility of thinking style that is molded over time by cultural (and other) influences

When do people engage in social comparisons?

people socially compare when there is no objective standard to measure themselves against and when they are uncertain about themselves in a particular area

Knowing Ourselves by Adopting Other People's Views

people tend to automatically adopt the attitudes of those they like and want to interact with.

implementation intentions

people's specific plans about where, when, and how they will fulfill a goal

Performance-Contingent Rewards

rewards that are based on how well we perform a task - this type of reward is less likely to decrease interest in a task and may even increase interest because the earned reward conveys the message that you are good at the task - trick is to convey positive feedback without putting extra pressure on people by making them feel nervous and apprehensive about being evaluated

Task-contingent Rewards

rewards that are given for performing a task, regardless of how well the task is done

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance: Protecting Our Self-Esteem

- An important function of the self is to maintain self-esteem, namely people's evaluations of their own self-worth and the extent to which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent. - Cognitive dissonance arises when people act in a way that threatens their self-esteem, which people are motivated to reduce either by: 1. changing their behavior 2. justifying their behavior by changing a dissonant cognition 3. or justifying their behavior by adding new cognitions. - no matter how smart they are, people in the midst of reducing dissonance are so involved with convincing themselves that they are right that they frequently end up behaving irrationally and maladaptively

Self perception theory and the attribution theory

- Attribution theory: the way in which people infer someone else's attitudes and feelings by observing that person's behavior - According to the self-perception theory, we infer our own feelings in the same way: we observe our behavior and explain it to ourselves; that is, we make an attribution about why we behaved that way

Group Autonomy

- East Asian cultures such as those in China, Japan, and Korea tend to stress group autonomy - the individual is more likely to derive his or her sense of self from the social group - the intellectual history of this belief derives from the Confucian tradition as well as from Taoism and Buddhism

Self-Control: The Executive Function of the Self

- In general, exerting energy on one task limits people's ability to exert self-control on a subsequent task. - However, believing that willpower is an unlimited resource can help people exert more self-control, as can praying in advance of a task and forming implementation intentions.

How do people attribute failure in different cultures?

- In individualistic cultures people tend toward the self-serving bias, looking outside of themselves - to the situation - to explain failure - In collectivist cultures, the reverse is true: People often attribute failure to internal causes, not to external ones

Individual Autonomy

- North American and some other Western cultures stress individual autonomy - a person is perceived as independent and self-contained; his or her behavior reflects internal traits, motives, and values - the intellectual history of this cultural value can be traced from the Judeo-Christian belief in the individual soul and the English legal tradition of individual rights

The effects of perceptual salience

- Our visual point of view, perceptual Salience explains why fundamental attribution error is so widespread - We focus our attention more on the person than on the surrounding situation because the situation is so hard to see or know

Mindsets and Motivation

- Some people have a fixed mindset about their abilities, which is the idea that they have a set amount of the ability that cannot change. - Others have a growth mindset, the idea that their abilities are malleable qualities that they can cultivate and grow. - People with a fixed mindset are more likely to give up after setbacks and are less likely to work on and hone their skills - People with a growth mindset view setbacks as opportunities to improve through hard work.

The Origins and Nature of the Self-Concept

- Studies show that great apes such as chimpanzees and orangutans have a rudimentary sense of self because they pass the mirror self-recognition test, whereas lesser apes do not - in humans, self-recognition develops at around 18 to 24 months of age, and by adolescence the self-concept becomes much more complex - as people grow older, their sense of self develops into a full-blown self-concept - in adulthood, people view morality as central to the self-concept more so than cognitive processes or desires

Holistic vs Analytic Thinking

- Western cultures develop analytic thinking style; this style involves focusing on the properties of objects (or people_ while paying much less attention to the context or situation that surrounds that object - The values of collectivistic cultures, such as those of East Asia, cause people to develop more of a holistic thinking style; here, people focus on the "whole picture", the object (or person) and the context that surrounds that object as well as the relationships that exist between them - these generalized differences in thinking styles do predict how we perceive people - analytic thinking suggests you would focus on a person and their expression alone to reach a decision as to how they're feeling; holistic thinking suggests that you would focus on the others in the group, compare them to the person, then reach a decision about how the person is feeling

Western vs Eastern cultures and Personality vs social psychologists

- Western cultures prompt people to think more like personality psychologists, viewing behavior in dispositional terms - Eastern cultures prompt people to think more like social psychologists, considering the situational causes of behavior - people in collectivist cultures are more likely to go beyond dispositional explanations and consider information about the situation as well

protecting self-esteem

- most people try to maintain their self-esteem whenever possible, even if that means distorting reality by changing a thought or belief - the external attribution protects our self-esteem because there is little hope we can do better in the future, but if we believe we can improve, we're more likely to attribute our current failure to internal causes and then work on improving

Cultural Influences on the self-concept

- people who grow up in western cultures tend to have an independent view of the self - people who grow up in Asian cultures tend to have an interdependent view of the self - the differences in the sense of self are so fundamental that it is difficult for people with independent selves to appreciate what it is like to have an interdependent self and vice versa

Fritz Heider

- referred to as the father of attribution theory - Discussed what he called "naive," or "commonsense," psychology - In his view, people were like amateur scientists, trying to understand other people's behavior by piecing together information until they arrived at a reasonable explanation or cause - one of Heider's most valuable contributions is a dichotomy

Why people aren't always logical or rational when forming judgments about others

- sometimes they distort information to satisfy their need for high self-esteem - at other times they use mental shortcuts that, although often helpful, can lead to inaccurate judgments

When do we engage in second step of attributional processing?

- when we consciously slow down and think carefully before reaching a judgment - if we are cognitively alert and motivated to make as accurate a judgment as possible - or if we are suspicious about the behavior of the target person

steps of attribution process

- when we make attributions, we make an internal attribution, assuming that a person's behavior was due to something about that person then sometimes attempt to adjust this attribution by considering the situation the person was in - However, we often skip the second step, making an internal attribution in the extreme - we do this because the first step (making internal attribution) occurs quickly and spontaneously, whereas the second step (adjusting for the situation) requires more effort and conscious attention

The nature of our goals determines who we compare ourselves to

- when we want an accurate assessment of our abilities and opinions, we compare ourselves to people who are similar to us - when we want information about what we can strive toward, we make upward social comparisons, though doing so can make us feel inferior - when our goal is to make ourselves feel better, we compare ourselves to those who are less fortunate (including our past selves); such downward comparisons make us look better

Two Exceptions to Covariation Model

1. studies have shown that people don't use consensus information as much as Kelley's theory predicted; they rely more on consistency and distinctiveness 2. people don't always have the relevant information they need on all three of Kelley's dimensions, so they proceed with the attribution process using the information they do have and, if necessary, making guesses about the missing data

First part of Self-perception theory

1. we infer our inner feelings from our behavior only when we are not sure how we feel - ex. if you don't know whether you like classical music and you've never really thought about how much you like it, you are especially likely to use your behavior as a guide to how you feel

Two Steps to understanding our emotional states

1. we must first experience physiological arousal 2. then we must seek an appropriate explanation or label for it - because our physical states are difficult to label on their own, we use information in the situation to help us make an attribution about why we feel aroused

Second part of Self-perception theory

2. people judge whether their behavior really reflects how they feel or whether it was the situation that made them act that way - ex. if you freely listen to classical music on the radio and no one makes you do it, you are likely to conclude that you listen to the station because you like classical music

ERPs (event-related potentials) vs fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

Although fMRI indicates which brain regions are active, ERPs provide a more fine-grained analysis of the onset and offset of neural firing by measuring electrical activity through sensors placed on the scalp

Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation

An overjustification effect occurs when people focus on the extrinsic reasons for their behavior and underestimate their intrinsic reasons

How would you use the covariation model to explain someone's behavior in a situation?

Focus on three different types of information about the actor and the stimulus: 1. Consensus Information 2. Distinctiveness Information 3. Consistency Information

Event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure brain activity among individuals from different cultures

In one study, researchers presented participants with a series of simple perceptual tasks that involved visual information about "targets" and context - participants were all Americans who grew up in American culture but were from different ethnic backgrounds: European American or East Asian American - the ERPs indicated that European American participants paid more attention to the targets, while East Asian American participants paid more attention to the context surrounding the targets

Covariation Model

Kelley's theory of causal attribution that states that to form an attribution about what caused a person's behavior, we note the pattern between when the behavior occurs and the presence or absence of possible causal factors - By discovering covariation in people's behaviors, you can reach a conclusion about what causes their behavior

Knowing Ourselves by Observing Our Own Behavior

People also gain self-knowledge by observing their own behavior. Self-perception theory argues that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our own behavior and the situation in which it occurs.

How do we use others to define ourselves?

One way is to measure our own abilities and attitudes by seeing how we stack up against other people

Knowing Ourselves through Introspection

One way we attempt to learn about our own feelings, motives, and emotions is with introspection, which is looking inward to examine the "inside information" that we—and we alone—have about our thoughts, feelings, and motives.

Using Other People to Know Ourselves

Our self-concepts are shaped by the people around us.

Ingratiation and Self-Handicapping

People have many different impression management strategies. - One is ingratiation—using flattery or praise to make yourself likable to another, often a person of higher status. - Another is self-handicapping, whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves.

Impression Management: All the World's a Stage

People try to get others to see them as they want to be seen.

Perceived susceptibility to attributional biases for self and the average American

Research participants rated their own susceptibility to two attributional biases and that of the 'average American.' They believed that others were significantly more likely to engage in biased thinking than they themselves were - We realize that attributionally biased thinking can occur in other people, but we're not so good at spotting it in ourselves.

Knowing Ourselves by Comparing Ourselves to Others: Social Comparison Theory

Social comparison theory: The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people - revolves around two important questions: 1. When do people engage in social comparisons? 2. And with whom do they choose to compare themselves?

Self-perception theory

The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs

Two-step attribution process

analyzing another person's behavior first by making an automatic internal attribution and only then thinking about possible situational reasons for the behavior - first step is making internal attribution - second step is adjusting the attribution by considering situation

Self-Control

The ability to subdue immediate desires to achieve long-term goals

Covariation Model Diagram

The covariation model assumes that people make causal attributions in a rational, logical way, observing the clues about consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency and then drawing a logical inference about why the person did what he or she did.

Intrinsic Motivation

The desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external rewards or pressures

Culture, Impression Management, and Self-Enhancement

The desire to manage the image we present to others is strong in all cultures, although the kinds of images we want to present depend on the culture in which we live.

Fundamental theory or schema most of us have about human behavior

The fundamental theory or schema most of us have about human behavior is that people do what they do because of the kind of people they are, not because of the situation they are in - when thinking in this way, we are like personality psychologists, who see behavior as stemming form internal dispositions and traits - social psychologists focus on the impact of social situations on behavior - even when the influence of the situation on behavior is obvious, people persist in making internal attributions

Overjustification Effect

The tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons - rewards can make people lose interest in activities they initially enjoyed

How can we reduce dissonance?

There are three basic ways: 1. By changing our behavior to bring it in line with the dissonant cognition 2. by attempting to justify our behavior through changing one of the dissonant cognitions 3. By attempting to justify our behavior by adding new cognitions

Manipulating Perceptual Salience

This is the seating arrangement for two actors and the six research participants in the Taylor and Fiske study. Participants rated each actor's impact on the conversation. Researchers found that people rated the actor they could see more clearly as having the larger role in the conversation

Differences in cultural thinking styles predict how the brain responds to social stimuli

Trey Hedden and co used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine where in the brain cultural experience predicts perceptual processing - participants were asked to make judgments about the lengths of lines inside boxes: some participants were told to ignore the box around each line (ignore context) and others were told to pay attention to the box around each line (attend to context) - participants showed significantly more brain activity when they had to follow the instructions that were opposite of their usual cultural thinking style - Americans showed greater activation in brain when told to pay attention to the context, while East Asian participants showed greater activity in brain when told to ignore the context

Do people agree with people who are likeable or unlikeable?

We tend to automatically adopt the views of people we like but automatically reject the views of people we do not - If someone is likeable, people agree with their views - if someone is unlikeable, there is more automatic prejudice against their views

Judging Why We Feel the Way We Do: Telling More Than We Can Know

When people introspect about why they feel the way they do, they often use causal theories, many of which are learned from one's culture.

The role of perceptual salience in the fundamental attribution error

Why do people fall prey to fundamental attribution error? - when we try to explain someone's behavior, our focus of attention is usually on the person, not the surrounding situation - situational causes of another person's behavior are practically invisible to us

Attribution Theory

a description of the way in which people explain the causes of their own and other people's behavior

Independent View of the Self

a way of defining oneself in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people

Interdependent View of the Self

a way of defining oneself in terms of one's relationships to other people, recognizing that one's behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others

Upward Social Comparison

comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability - problem with upward social comparison is that it can be dispiriting, making us feel inferior

Downward Social Comparison

comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability

Belief in a just world

defensive attribution where people assume bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people

First, essential step in the process of social perception

determining whether to make an internal or external attribution

Self-serving attributions

explanations for one's successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one's failures that blame external, situational factors - when our self-esteem is threatened we often make self-serving attributions - these attributions refer to people's tendency to take credit for their successes by making internal attributions but to blame the situation (or others) for their failures by making external attributions

Positive reinforcement

giving a reward each time a behavior occurs will increase the frequency of that behavior - we have to consider the effects of rewards on what's inside -- people's thoughts about themselves, their self-concept, and motivation to continue the behavior

One way people learn about themselves, including their attitudes, motives, and emotions

is to observe their behavior and the conditions under which that behavior occurs - this includes observations of their outward behavior as well as their bodily responses

When Consistency is low

it is difficult to make either a straightforward internal or external attribution -- when the actor and stimulus in question do not always produce the same outcome - in such instances, we have to chalk up the event to being a fluke, something peculiar must have happened in this situation

Schachter and Singer Experiment

showed that emotions can be the result of a self-perception process: people look for the most plausible explanation for their arousal. Sometimes the most plausible explanation is not the right one, and so people end up experiencing a mistaken emotion

Finding the Wrong Cause: Misattribution of Arousal

sometimes people make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do (be aroused) - in many situations, there is more than one plausible cause for our arousal, and it is difficult to identify how much of the arousal is due to one source or another - because of this difficulty in pinpointing the precise causes of our arousal, we sometimes misidentify our emotions

When consistency is high

specific patterns of consensus and distinctiveness information can permit a clear internal attribution - Internal attribution: low consensus, low distinctiveness, high consistency (something about the person's personality or values) - external attribution: high consensus, high distinctiveness, high consistency (not about the person, but about the environment of the situation)

With whom do people choose to compare themselves?

the answer depends on whether your goal is to get an accurate assessment of your abilities, to determine what the top level is so that you know what to strive for or to feel better about yourself

Impression Management

the attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen

Extrinsic Motivation

the desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures, not because we enjoy the task or find it interesting - according to self-perception theory, in such situations people often assume that they are motivated by the rewards and not their intrinsic interests

Cognitive Dissonance

the discomfort that people feel when two cognitions (beliefs, attitudes) conflict, or when they behave in ways that are inconsistent with their conception of themselves and threaten their self-esteem - ex. If you are a smoker, you are likely to experience dissonance because you know that smoking significantly increases the risks of lung cancer, emphysema, and earlier death, which is pretty much the ultimate threat to our self-esteem

Distinctiveness Information

the extent to which a particular actor behaves in the same way toward different stimuli

Consensus Information

the extent to which other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does

Consistency Information

the extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances

growth mindset

the idea that achievement is the result of hard work, trying new strategies, and seeking input from others - people with growth mindset view setbacks as opportunities to improve through hard work

Understanding our Emotions: Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

the idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate explanation for it

Fixed mindset

the idea that we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change - people with fixed mindset are more likely to give up after setbacks and are less likely to work on and hone their skills

Harrold Kelley's major contribution to attribution theory

the idea that we notice and think about more than one piece of information when making this decision about making an internal or external attribution - Kelley, like Heider before him, assumed that when we are in the process of forming an attribution, we gather information or data

Self-Awareness Theory

the idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values - when our thoughts turn inward we become self conscious in the sense that we become objective, judgmental observers of ourselves, seeing ourselves as an outside observer would

External Attribution

the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in, with the assumption that most people would respond the same way in that situation

Internal Attribution

the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality

Self-Concept

the overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributions - as we mature, we place less emphasis on physical characteristics and more on psychological states (our thoughts and feelings) and on considerations of how other people judge us

Social Tuning

the process whereby people adopt another person's attitudes - this can happen even when we meet someone for the first time if we want to get along with them - social tuning can happen unconsciously

Ingratiation

the process whereby people flatter, praise, and generally try to make themselves likable to another person, often of higher status

Introspection

the process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives - it is not always pleasant to be thinking about ourselves, and the reasons for our feelings and behavior can be hidden from conscious awareness

Perceptual Salience

the seeming importance of information that is the focus of people's attention - we pay attention to them, think about them, and tend to assume that they alone cause their behavior

Functions of the self

the self serves four functions: 1. self-knowledge 2. self-control 3. impression management 4. self-esteem

Where is self-serving bias strongest?

the self-serving bias is strongest in the United States and some other Western countries - Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, it is also prevalent in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Russia - a reason for this is that many Asian cultures values modesty and harmony - Chinese cultural tradition discourages them to attribute their success to themselves (such as to their talent or intelligence), as it does in the United States and other Western Countries

Self-Handicapping

the strategy whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly on a task, they can avoid blaming themselves

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people's behavior results form internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors - the point of the fundamental attribution error is that people often tend to underestimate external influences when explaining other people's behavior

Bias blind spot

the tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attributional biases in their thinking than we are

self-esteem

the way in which we try to maintain positive views of ourselves

self-control

the way we make plans and execute decisions

impression management

the way we present ourselves to other people and get them to see us the way we want to be seen

Self-knowledge

the way we understand who we are and formulate and organize this information

Causal Theories

theories about the causes of one's own feelings and behaviors; often we learn such theories from our culture - the problem is that our schemas and theories are not always correct and thus can lead to incorrect judgments about the causes of our actions - introspecting about our past actions and current thoughts does not always yield the right answer about why we feel the way we do

Heider's attribution dichotomy

when trying to decide why people behave as they do, we can make one of two attributions: internal attribution or external attribution - this internal/external attribution dichotomy plays an extraordinarily important role in even the most intimate parts of our lives, such as marriage