Psychology (2025) Unit 4 – Social Psychology and Personality

Attribution Theory

A framework for understanding how individuals explain behavior, focusing on internal and external attributions.

Internal Attribution

Connecting behavior to internal qualities such as intelligence or personality.

External Attribution

Linking behavior to external circumstances the person is experiencing.

Dispositional Attribution

Attributing behavior to internal characteristics of the individual.

Situational Attribution

Attributing behavior to external factors or situations.

Optimistic Explanatory Style

Attributes good events to internal, stable, global causes and bad events to external, unstable, specific causes.

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Attributes good events to external, unstable, specific causes and bad events to internal, stable, global causes.

Actor-Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to situational factors while attributing others' actions to dispositional factors.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on others while underestimating situational influences.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute success to internal factors and failures to external factors.

Locus of Control

The extent to which individuals believe they can control events that affect them.

Internal Locus of Control

The belief that one’s own actions significantly influence outcomes.

External Locus of Control

The belief that external forces or luck determine life outcomes.

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon where repeated exposure to a stimulus increases one’s preference for it.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

When beliefs or perceptions lead to behaviors that confirm those beliefs.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself to someone better off, which can inspire improvement but may threaten self-esteem.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing oneself to someone worse off, which can boost self-esteem but may reduce motivation.

Relative Deprivation

The feeling of being deprived of something one believes they deserve based on social comparisons.

Behavioral Attribution

The process of assigning reasons for whether behaviors are due to internal or external causes.

Explanatory Style

A person’s characteristic way of interpreting events, especially regarding successes and failures.

Influence of Biases

Common cognitive biases can distort how people perceive themselves and others.

Social Evaluation

The process of determining one’s own worth or status based on comparisons with others.

Impact of Repeated Exposure

Increases familiarity and liking for people or concepts over time.

Teacher Expectations

A teacher’s beliefs about a student's abilities can significantly impact the student’s performance.

Confidence and Performance

Self-fulfilling prophecies can either enhance or undermine confidence and performance in social settings.

Social Interaction Outcomes

Perceptions formed through social comparisons can affect relationships and satisfaction with life.

Behavior Interpretation

The manner in which we derive meaning from the behaviors of ourselves and others.

Satisfaction with Circumstances

How individuals perceive and feel about their life situations, influenced by social comparisons.