5.01 Attribution theory and Person perception

attributions

how people explain behavior and mental processes of themselves and others.

dispositional attributions

relate to internal qualities of others ex) intelligence or personality.

situational attributions

relate to external circumstances that are experienced.

explanatory style

predictable pattern of attributions where people explain good and bad events in their lives and in the lives of others. can be both optimistic or pessimistic.

locus of control

the amount of control a person has over their environments, situations, and events that happen in their lives.

internal locus of control

believes that they are in control of their own fate.

• tend to believe in free will, delayed gratification, better coping strategies, and overall better achievement.

external locus of control

believes that chance or outside forces beyond their personal control determines their fate.

• poorer health, feel as though they have no personal control over their future.

what are the three types of biases?

1. fundamental attribution error

2. actor-observer bias

3. self-serving bias

fundamental attribution error

when analyzing the behavior of others, we tend to underestimate the power of situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition.

Actor-Observor Bias

when we are the ___ in a situation we understand and give credit to the power of the situation, but when we are the ___ we are more likely to give credit to disposition and virtually ignore the power of the situation.

Self-Serving bias

when were perceive ourselves as more favorable than others.

ex) people accept more responsibility for good deeds rather than bad.

what are the four person perceptions?

1. social comparison

2. relative deprivation

3. self-fulfilling prophecy

4. mere exposure effect

social comparison

type of person perception when people evaluate themselves by comparing to other people and society. Judging ourselves by the standard they set.

relative deprivation

perception that we are worse off than others with whom we compare ourselves too.

ex) someone has a new iPhone so I have to have a new iPhone.

self-fulfilling prophecy

when the way we interact with other people elicit certain behavior both from them and ourselves.

mere exposure effect

when people are exposed to a stimulus more repeatedly over time, causes them to like the stimulus more.