Unit 4.1 Attribution Theory and person perception

Dispositional attributions

are internal, for ex: a person’s intelligence, attitude, or personality

Situational attributions

are external , environmental factors that impact an individual, such as the weather, or world events

Attribution Theory

explains how people interpret and explain the causes of behaviors, this theory helps us recognize our own thought processes, highlights the important of internal and external factors, and also shed light on our own bias

Self-serving bias

When we succeed we attribute that success to our internal factors and when we fail we attribute our failure to external factors

Actor-observer Bias

When we use situational attribution to explain our own actions but use dispositional attribution to explain someone else’s actions

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency to overemphasize internal factors when judging other’s behaviors, while underestimating the importance of situational factors

Explanatory Style

the way an individual explains or rationalizes different events or situations in life

Optimistic Explanatory Style

Tends to explain bad events as temporary problems, putting the blame or focus on external factors that are outside of an individual’s control, so situational attributions

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Tends to explain bad events as something that is more permanent, putting the blame on internal factors that end up impacting the individual, so dispositional attributes

Locus of control

is about who or what an individual believes has power over the events in their life

External Locus of control

Feel like outside factors, or situational factors are what determine the outcome of different events in their lives

Internal Locus of control

when an individual believes their actions directly affect what happens to them

Person Perception

is all about how an individual forms impressions of other people and sometimes even themselves

Mere exposure effect

When an individual is repeatedly exposed to stimulus resulting in the individual to like the stimulus more and more overtime

Self-fulfilling prophecy

when a person’s expectations influence their behavior in a way that causes those expectations to come true

Social comparison

Constantly evaluate ourselves by comparing our circumstances, skills, abilities, and internal characteristics to other people

Upward social comparison

when an individual compares themselves to someone they believe is better off

Downward social comparison

when an individual compares themselves to someone they believe are worse off

Relative Deprivation

the feeling that an individual is missing out on resources, opportunities, or are generally worse off then others

Reference group

the people you are comparing yourself to