Chapter 4 Attribution
Introspection
act of reflecting upon one's self and eliminating one's motives and behavior.
Saliency bias
when an object or a behavior is conspicuous, it is salient. If two stimuli differ in their salience, the more salient one is mot likely to be thought to be the cause of ensuring events.
Corresponding bias
when people see behavior as corresponding to a disposition.
High Achievers
will approach rather than avoid tasks which they are confident.
External situations
Events Environment Place
Biases in Attribution
Slef-serving biases Slef-fulfilling Prophecies Motivational biases Saliency biases Overvonfidence phenomenon Illusory correlation Illusion of control Heuristic
Availability Heuristics
a cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory.
Heuristic
a thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgment. defined by Heuristic Myers
Global-Specific
an attribution with which the thought as the cause is global for failure, but specific for success at control
Stable-Unstable
an attribution with which the thought as the cause is stable for failure, but unstable for success at control.
Internal-External
an attribution with which the thought is the cause for failure, but external for success at control.
Salience
casual term of attribution for others behavior are more likely to focus on the person they see , not the situational forces acting upon that person that people may not be aware.
Kelley's Theory of Causal Attribution or Co Variation Model
considered some major points of consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness for both internal and external causes.
Daniel Gilbert
first attribution theorist who used the term for the fundamental attribution error
Self-perception theory
people infer their attitudes by looking at their own behavior and the situations with which it occurs.
Motivational biases
people tend to make more favorable, self-serving and one-sided attributions for their own behavior.
Representative Heuristic
the tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling/representing a typical member.
Actor-Observer effect
this effect means the tendency for people to attribute their own behavior to external causes but that of others to internal factors
Observers
- tend to emphasize the role of actors characteristics, they make dispositional attribution
Personal Attribution Situational Attribution
2 Categories of Attribution
Temporary-internal Temporary-external Stable-internal Unstable-external
4 Diferent Kinds of Causes
External Attribution or Situation Attribution
An attribution that locates the cause of an event to factors external to the person such as luck or other people or situation.
Internal Attribution or Person Attribution
An attribution that locates the cause of an event to factors internal to the person such as personality traits, moods, attitudes, abilities or effort.
Situational attribution
Attribution factors external to an actor such as the task, other people, or luck.
Personal attribution
Attribution to internal characteristics of an actor such as ability, mood, or effort.
Internal dispositions
Enduring traits Motives Attitudes
Self Attribution
Introspection Self-Perception Theory Overjustification effect Attribution of emotions
Controllability
It contrasts causes one can control such as skill, efficacy from causes one cannot control such as aptitude, mood, others' actions, and luck. Being within people's control and others as being outside their control.
4 Main Reasons for fundamental attribution error
Lack of Awareness Unrealistic Expectations Inflated Categorization Incomplete Corrections
Other Attribution Concepts or Theories
Learned Helplesness Kelley's Theory of Causal Attribution or Co Variation Model Jones and Davis's Corespondent Inference Theory
3 main dimensions employed when people explain events
Locus of control Stability Controllability of causal attributions
Attribution theory
People are all scientists of a sort. Because they are motivated to understand others well enough to deal with social environment that is, they observe, analyze and explain their behavior with which the explanations are called attributions. (Fritz Heider)
Native psychology or Common sense psychology
People explain everyday events or people think in a quasi-scientific way like rationally and logically testing hypothesis about the behavior of others.
Correspondent Inference Theory
assumes that people prefer making dispositional attributions.
Low achievers
avoid success related chores because they tend to doubt their ability and/or assume success is related to luck or to "who you know" or to other factors beyond their control.
Self-fulfilling prophecies
beliefs that are necessary to evoke behavior that confirms the initial opinion or expectation of the events.
Franzoi
defined Attribution as a process by which people use information to make inferences about the causes of behavior or events.
Myers
defined Attribution as how people explain others' behavior by attributing it either to internal dispositions or to external situations .
Learned Helplesness
explains that individuals in the stress event have lack of control due to the following attributions:
Attribution Theory (Bernard Weiner)
focused on achievement The most important factors affecting attributions for achievement are ability, effort, task difficulty and luck. Explains the difference of achievement in motivation more particularly between high and low achievers.
Helpless
individuals who continually fail to exercise coping control
Attribution
inference that a person makes about why an event occured or about a person's disposition
Ability
is classified as a stable, internal cause
Effort
is classified as unstable and internal.
Internal cause
is either absence or presence of ability
External cause
is good or bad.
Attribution of emotions
it emphasizes not only self-attribution but also social comparisons. -Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer
Fundamental Attribution Error
or Fundamental Attribution Theory the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon others' behavior. -by Lee Ross -also called "Corresponding Bias"
Actor
tend to emphasize the role of situation, they make situational attribution.
Self serving biases
tendency that people have to attribute positive outcomes to their own behavior.
Over justification effect
the consequence of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may be led to see their action as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing.
Consensus
the extent to which others faced with the same situation, behave in a manner similar to the person perceived.
Distinctiveness
the extent to which the person perceived acts in the same manner as in different situations.
Consistency
the extent to which the person perceived behaves in the same manner as with other occasions when faced with same situations.
Illusory correlation
the perception of a relationship where none exist or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exist.
Illusory of control
the perception of uncontrollable events as subject to one's control or as more controllable that they are.
Overconfidence phenomenon
the tendency to be more confident than correct so that to overestimate the accuracy of one's belief.