Oxford Text pg 229-241

Baron and Byrne (1997)

3 cognitive processes to make sense of the world: interpret info, analyze the initial appraisal (and modify), recall previous knowledge at appropriate times

Heider (1958)

said individuals who try to link observable behaviour to unobservable causes are “naive scientists”

people are cognitive misers

one of the 4 principles of social cognition - humans are limited in their ability and capacity to process information, favoring quick decisions over accuracy

humans engage in both automatic and controlled thinking

one of the 4 principles of social cognition - we rely on automatic thinking, but spontaneous thinking = make mistakes

humans seek consistency in behaviour

one of the 4 principles of social cognition - we change belief or behaviour to eliminate cognitive dissonance

self esteem guides human behaviour

one of the 4 principles of social cognition - higher self-esteem = perform better; lower self-esteem = perform worse

personal situational

when interpreting others’ behaviour, we tend to contribute it to _________ (dispositional) and ________ (external) factors

Jones and Davis (1965)

coined the term correspondence inference, argued that Hedonic relevance, Free choice, and Social desirability will affect the likelihood of making dispositional attributions

Hedonic relevance

Jones and Davis argued this will affect the likelihood of making dispositional attributions - the behaviour positively or negatively affects the person making the attribution

Free choice

Jones and Davis argued this will affect the likelihood of making dispositional attributions - if the person acted on their own free will we’re more likely to make a dispositional attribution

Social Desireability

Jones and Davis argued this will affect the likelihood of making dispositional attributions - desirable behaviour is the norm, undesirable behaviour means you gain information and are shocked

Kelley (1967)

claims we use 3 types of info when making attributions (consensus, consistency, distinctiveness)

fundamental attribution error (FAE)

the tendency to overestimate the importance of dispositional factors and underestimate external factors

Jones and Harris (1967)

studied: participants’ perception of someone’s “true attitude;” found: participants overestimated the importance of dispositional factors

Pettigrew (1979)

3 common elements in FAE experiments: situational factors minimized, dispositional characteristics are magnetized, role requirements are not fully adjusted for the final attribution

Jones and Nisbett (1971)

FAE = we have different information available to us when explaining our behaviour vs someone else's

ultimate attribution error (UAE)

the tendency to underestimate situational factors and overestimate personal factors

Duncan (1976)

studied: which factor participants attribute violent behaviour to; found: when the protagonist is Black = attributed to disposition by White students

Accessibility

the ease with which you can use your schema due to the fact that the memories have been received recently

Priming

the process by which your recent personal experience increases the accessibility of a schema

grain of truth hypothesis

a single experience of one person from a particular demographic generates a larger stereotype

illusory correlation

seeing two variables as related even though they are not

Hamilton and Gifford (1976)

studied: how our expectations of events can distort how we process the information; found: participants make an illusory correlation

Schaller (1991)

studied: how much participants perceived a relationship between group membership and behaviour

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

studied: self-fulfilling prophecy, found: students labeled as “bloomers” did better (higher improvement on intelligence test)

sterotype threat

an anxiety an individual/group experiences when they think their behaviour perpetuates and existing negative stereotype

Steele and Aronson (1995)

studied: the effect of stereotype threat on intellectual performance (through tests) of African Americans with three conditions

sterotype threat condition

the first condition of the Steele and Aronson (1995) study - test described as measuring intelligence

non-sterotype threat condition

the second condition of the Steele and Aronson (1995) study - posed as a problem-solving task unrelated to intellectual ability

challenge condition

the third condition of the Steele and Aronson (1995) study - posed as a difficult test