those surrounding us

Personality and Behavior

  • How well do personality traits predict behavior?

    • Personality traits: an internal state or disposition that

      • produces consistent behavior in different situations

      • is stable over time

    • people view each other in terms of personality, especially:

      • extraversion

      • agreeableness

      • conscientiousness

      • emotional stability (neuroticism)

      • openness

  • traits do not predict behavior as much as we think

    • Mischel (1968) - honesty

      • meta-analysis showed honesty correlation of 0.30

      • honest in one situation, but not another

    • hartstone & may (1928) - helpfulness

      • average correlation for each person - 0.23

      • Helped in one situation, but not another

Attribution Theory

  • how we explain other people’s behavior

  • make two types of attributions

    • internal: it is something about the person whose behavior we are explaining

    • external: it is something outside of the person whose behavior we are explaining

Kelly’s Covariation Model

  1. look at the characteristics of a particular behavior at a particular time

  2. compare it with what you know about previous related examples

  3. make either internal or external attribution

  • three pieces of important information

  1. consensus: how does the actor’s behavior toward a stimulus compare to other people’s behavior toward a stimulus?

  2. distinctiveness: how does the actor’s behavior toward a stimulus compare to the actor’s behavior toward other stimuli?

  3. consistency: is the actor’s behavior toward that stimulus always the same?

Kelley's Covariation Model Example

  • Why did Joe kick Fideo?

    • consensus: do other people also kick Fido?

      • yes = high consensus, no = low consensus

    • distinctiveness: does Joe kick only Fido, not other dogs?

      • yes = high distinctiveness, no = low distinctiveness

    • consistency: does Joe always kick Fido?

      • yes = high consistency, no = low consistency

Making Attributions

  • internal attribution - it's something about Joe

    • low consensus (no one else kicks Joe)

    • low distinctiveness (Joe kicks all dogs)

    • high consistency (Joe always kicks Fido)

  • external attribution - it’s something with Fido

    • high consensus (everyone kicks Fideo)

    • high distinctiveness (Joe kicks only Fido)

    • high consistency (Joe always kicks Fido)

Low Consistency

  • Unique occurrence is difficult to classify

  • external attribution made to the particular circumstance

    • a situational attribution

Fundamental Attribution Error

  • tendency to assume that people’s behavior matches their internal states

    • we expect that people’s values, beliefs, opinions, etc., will determine their behavior 

  • AND ignore the effect of situation or context 

    • more likely to commit the FAE for others’ behaviors than our own behaviors 

    • especially true when action is undesirable 

  • tendency is so strong, we may even see it where we should not 

    • Jones and Harris (1967)

      • participants read an essay that was pro- or anti- Castro

      • participants were told the writer either had or did not have a choice about which essay to write

      • participants asked to guess the writer's attitude toward Castro






FAE and Culture

  • Westerners and East Asia

    • show the FAE

  • East Asian more likely to take the situation into account as well 



Influences on the FAE

  • two step process to make attributions

    • assume behavior is due to something about the person 

    • correct for citation if necessary/able

  • perceptual salience → actor/observer difference 

    • things that we perceive influence our attribution 

  

Howard Dean and Actor/Observer

  • Camera on Dean

    • Mic amplified only his voice

    • Ignored situation around him 

  • Camera from audience 

    • Mic amplified his voice and the crowd

    • Includes situation around him 



FAE and First Impressions

  • FAE more commonly applied to those we don't know 

    • First impressions matter

  • first impressions formed very quickly 

    • “thin-slicing” research shows good accuracy of perceptions

    • experience a primary effect: what we learn first about someone impacts perceptions  

    • impressions last via belief perseverance 



FAE and the Self

  • make self-serving attributions: explanations for our behaviors that make us look good

    • my successes are due to internal, dispositional factors

    •  my failures are due to external, situational factors 



False Consensus

  • another way we feel good about the self

    • false consensus: the tendency to think our own choices and opinions are more common than they are 

      • common when the situation is ambiguous