Module 9: Social Psychology
Causal Attributions can be divided into two broad types — Situational Attributions and Dispositional Attributions
Situational Attributions: external to the person, such as their expectations, rewards, or punishments
Dispositional Attributions: focus on the person themselves, such as their traits, preferences, or other personal qualities
Fundamental Attribution Error: the assumption that people are in control of their own behavior
Just World Hypothesis: the belief that people get the outcomes they deserve
Our knowledge of the world is a blend of our own observations
Implicit Theories of Personality: the inferences we make about what a person is really like, and how they’re likely to behave in the future
Out-Group Homogeneity Effect: bias in the way that we think about other people
Stereotypes influence how the targets of those stereotypes act
Stereotype Threat: influences performance on tests
Actor-Observer Bias: attributing other people’s behavior to dispositional or internal factors, while attributing our own behavior to situational forces
The Actor-Observer Bias tends to be more pronounced in situations where the outcomes are negative
Self-Serving Bias: the tendency of an individual to take credit by making dispositional or internal attributions for positive outcomes, but situational or external attributions for negative outcomes
Attribution poses three main dimensions—Locus of Control: internal vs. external, Stability: stable vs. unstable, and Controllability: controllable vs. uncontrollable
Dehumanization is propped up by euphemistic jargon— terms include: final solution, special treatment, fallout problem, preemptive attack, free-fire zone, body count, ethnic cleansing, and collateral damage
More conformity is found in collectivist countries like Japan and China, than in individualistic countries like the US
Collectivist vs. Individualistic: place higher value on the goals of the group than on individual preferences
Multiple Bystanders = Diffusion of Responsibility, each bystander persuaded that someone else will respond to the emergency
In larger groups action is less likely only when the group members are strangers, whereas when group members are familiar with each other action is more encouraged
The key to crowd behavior is de-individuation, a state in which an individual in a group loses awareness of themselves as a separate individual