forming impressions

Forming Impressions

ATTRIBUTION THEORIES

Term	Definition
Kelley’s covariation theory	Suggests that a person behaviour is due to an individual’s disposition or situation
Consensus	How others behave in the situation
Distinctiveness	How a person behaves in other situations
Consistency	How this person behaves in this same situation at other times
Disposition	Internal factors ex. Morals, habits
Situation	External factors ex. time of day
Correspondent inference theory	You actively analyze a person’s behaviour to make inferences based on 3 variables: degree of choice, expectation, and the intended consequences of the behaviour
Degree of choice	The amount of freedom an actor had in choosing their opinion or behaviour
Expectation	Considers how typical a particular behaviour is for a given actor
Intended consequence	The goals + motivations of an actor that shape their behaviour

ATTRIBUTION ERRORS

Term	Definition
Fundamental attribution error	Tendency to over-value dispositional factors for the observes behaviours of others while under-valuing situational factors; the tendency to believe that what ppl do reflects who they are
Actor-observer effect	You as the actor are better aware of situational influences to your OWN behaviour
Culture	A factor that influences if a person is more likely to attribute a behaviour as a cause of situational factors or dispositional factors
Less	Ppl from collectivist societies are _____ likely to make the fundamental attribution error
Self-serving bias	You identify dispositional causes for your successes, but situational causes for your failures; success to dispositional factors, failure to situational factors
Above average effect	Bias in your perception may lead you to think you are above avg. on many things that may be important to you

COGNITIVE HEURISTICS

Term	Definition
Representativeness heuristic	You classify ppl by considering how well their behaviour fits w a certain prototype
Availability heuristic	Making judgements based on the info readily available to you

RELATIONSHIPS

Term	Definition
Factors of attractiveness	Proximity, familiarity, physical attractiveness, other’s opinion of us
Physical distance	How far apart individuals are
Functional distance	Depends on how often individuals interact
Anticipate	Ppl tend to like those that they __________ interacting with
Familiarity	Faces that are more familiar are more attractive
Exposure effects	Tendency to feel more positive towards things that are familiar
Clifford & Hatfield	Attractive children were judged as more intelligent than unattractive children
Halo Effect	Tendency for ppl to attribute more positive characteristics to those that they already have positive impressions of
Aronson & Linder	Highest ratings went to ppl who disliked the participant initially, but later became positive
Walster	Study showed that women who had their self-esteem lowered were more likely to rate a male who had asked them on a date as more attractive than those who had their self-esteem heightened