Describe attribution theory
- a set of concepts explaining how people assign causes to the events around them and effects of people’s causal assessments
- tend to make very complex inferences about motives and personality based on very little info
Define counterfactual thoughts
- thoughts of a ‘what if’ - what could have, might have, should have happened.
Define emotional amplification
- emotional reactions to counterfactual thinking increase depending on how easy it is to imagine the alternative.
What is emotional amplification proportional to?
- how easy it is to imagine it not happening
Define causal attribution
- linking an event or behavior to a cause to explain the behavior.
- The type of attributions we make for behavior influences how we respond to the person/situation
Describe the shorthand way to represent the Kurt Lewis hypothesis
- B= f(P,E)
Define the Covariation principle
- behaviour should be attributed to potential causes that co occur with the behaviour.
- people more likely to associate the behaviour with causal factors that are present with the behaviour.
What are the 3 parts of the covariation principle
- consensus - do most people do this in th situation?
- distinctiveness - does the target person ONLY do this in this particular situation?
- Consistency - does the target person do this all of the time, or was this a one time occurrence?
Define situational attribution
With consensus distinctiveness and consistency is high
Define Dispositional attribution
- when consensus, distinctiveness are low, but consistency is high.
What are 2 important points about the covariation model?
- people tend to rely more on the consistency and distinctiveness than consensus
- people dont always have all three types of information.
Why do people tend to rely more on the consistency and distinctiveness than consensus?
- prone to attribute behaviour to internal causes and ignore the influence of the situation
- related to fundamental attribution error
Define the discounting principle
- less weight is given to a particular cause of behavior if there are alternative causes present.
- tendency to discount internal attribution.
Define the augumentation principle
Greater weight is given to a particular cause of behaviour if there are other potential causes that would normally produce the opposite outcome.
Describe the differences between internal and external attribution
- internal attribution is due to personality
- external attribution is due to situation.
Describe the differences between a stable and unstable attribution
- stable: due to unchanging factors
- unstable: event was due to temporary factors
Describe the differences between global and specific attributions
- global: infer that it was due to multiple things
- specific: only due to one thing
What is the discounting principle?
- less weight is given to a particular cause of behaviour if there are alternative causes present.
What is the augmentation principle?
- if someone is acting in an unexpected way, we will give more weight to their internal attribution - if there are other potential causes that would normally produce the opposite outcome.
Define self serving attributional bias
- the tendency to attribute failures to external causes and success to internal causes.
Why would people use self serving attributional bias?
- usually occurs because people want to maintain a positive image of themselves.
Describe the ethos and results by Beckman’s study 1970
- pps required to tutor student who is having difficulty with material.
- after 1st round: students assessed, did poorly
- after 2nd round: half of pps”students did poorly, other half: students improved
- pps took credit if student improved and blame student if they still did poorly.
What is surprising about the fundamental attribution error?
- despite obviously situational constraints on someone’s behavior, we still say that the behaviour was caused by their personality.
Describe the results and procedure of the Gilbert and Jones, Van Bowen, Kamala and Gilovich study
Pp is either questioner or responder, completely scripted - responder says nothing about their true personality.
- questioners still judged how altruistic the responders are - (tended to read more/less altruistic responses)
