Social Psych: Attribution

Causal Attributionns

explanations for an individuals behaviour

Dispositional attributions

explanations comes from within the person

situational attributions

explanation comes from outside the person

stable

the attribute causeing the event isn’t going to change

Unstable

the attribute causing the event isn’t going to change

entity theorists

felt distressed, ashamed, upset about poor academic performance

incremental theories

tended to feel determined and enthusiastic about poor academic performance

Social desirability

does this behaviour align with social norms?

choice

doe the person get to choose to behave this way or not?

noncommon effects:

unusual outcomes are seen as less likely to have alternative, situational explanations

covary

when two variables vary together

High consensus

most people are behaving this way

low consensus

most people are not behaving this way

high distinctiveness

different from their usual behaviour

low distinctiveness

in line with their usual behaviour

high consistency

the behaviour is stable across time. Leads to stable internal or external attributions

low consistency

this behaviour changes overtime. Leads to unstable external attributions

biases

systematic errors or tendencies in how we behave

interaction

when the effects of an independent variable changes as a result of another variable

perceptual salience

how much something stands out from the surrounding environment