Social Attribution Exam Notes

These flashcards cover key concepts related to social attribution, perception, bias, and theory as noted in the lecture.

Social Perception

How people form impressions of and make inferences about others and events in the social world.

First Impressions

The initial judgments we make based on what we first see and hear about someone.

Nonverbal Communication

The way people communicate without words, through means such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and body position.

Implicit Personality Theories

Schemas people use to group various personality traits together, such as assuming a kind person is also generous.

Attribution Theory

A theory that explains the causes of one's own and others' behavior.

Internal Attribution

When a person's behavior is attributed to internal factors, such as personality.

External Attribution

When a person's behavior is attributed to external factors, such as the situation.

Explanatory Style

The habitual way in which a person explains events, assessed across internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific dimensions.

Pessimistic Attribution Style

A style characterized by habitual internal, stable, and global attributions.

Kelley's Covariation Theory

A theory describing how people determine the causes of behavior based on consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency.

Discounting Principle

The idea that people assign less weight to a particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might exist.

Augmentation Principle

The notion that people assign greater weight to a cause of behavior if other causes would normally lead to a different outcome.

Counterfactual Thinking

Thinking about what might have happened differently, influencing emotional reactions to events.

Self-Serving Attributional Bias

The tendency to attribute success to oneself (internal) and failures to external circumstances.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overemphasize personal factors and underestimate situational influences when interpreting others' behavior.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute one's own behavior to situational factors while attributing others' behavior to personal factors.

Just World Hypothesis

The belief that people get what they deserve, leading to attributions that ignore situational variables.

Cognitive Busyness

A state where individuals are unable to process additional information, which affects their attributions.

Perceptual Salience

The degree to which certain cues or factors are noticeable and influence the attribution process.