Interpreting Others’ Behavior & Causal Attributions

Flashcards about interpreting others’ behavior and causal attributions

Causal attributions

A judgment about the cause of a behavior or other event and one of the most important foundations of impressions.

External attribution

Attributing behavior to situational factors.

Internal attributions

Attributing behavior to personal characteristics.

Association

A link between two or more mental representations in our mind.

Accessibility

The ease and speed with which information comes to mind and is used.

Correspondent Inferences

The process of characterizing someone as having a personality trait that corresponds to his or her observed behavior.

Analysis of non-common effects

The behavior has unique effects that other behaviors do not.

Correspondence bias

The tendency to infer an actor’s personal characteristics from observed behaviors, even when the inference is unjustified because other possible causes of the behavior exist.

Salience

The ability of a cue to attract attention in its context.

Actor-observer effect

Attributing other people's behavior to internal causes and attributing one's own behavior to external causes.

Covariation information

Information about potential causal factors that are present when the event occurs and absent when it does not.

Covariation model

The effect is attributed to that condition which is present when the effect is present and which is absent when the effect is absent.

Locus

External vs. Internal factors in achievement related attributions.

Stability

Stable vs. Unstable factors in achievement related attributions.

Controlability

Controlable vs. Uncontrolable factors in achievement related attributions.

Fixed mindset

Internal, stable, uncontrolable factors in achievment related attributions.

Growth mindset

Internal, unstable, controlable factors in achievment related attributions.

Discounting

Reducing a belief in one potential cause of behavior because there is another viable cause.