Attribution Theory and Perception

Attribution Theory

• Explains how people interpret and explain the causes of behavior.

• Helps recognize thought processes and biases.

Dispositional vs. Situational Attribution

• Dispositional Attribution:

  • Internal factors such as personality, intelligence, and attitude.

• Situational Attribution:

  • External factors such as environmental conditions or world events.

• Example:

  • Friend fails a test:
    • Situational: "They might have been sick, or the test was too hard."
    • Dispositional: "They must have been lazy and not studied enough."

Self-Serving Bias

• Tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.
• Protects self-esteem but can prevent learning from mistakes.

Actor-Observer Bias

• Use situational attribution for your own actions but dispositional attribution for others' actions.
• Example:
  • Late to work:
    • Self: "Traffic was bad" (situational).
    • Others: "They are lazy and disorganized" (dispositional).

Fundamental Attribution Error

• Overemphasizing internal factors when judging others' behaviors while underestimating situational factors.

Explanatory Style

• How an individual explains or rationalizes events.

Optimistic Explanatory Style

• Explains bad events as temporary and due to external factors (situational).
• Credits positive outcomes to internal factors (dispositional).
• Example:
  • High grade: "I studied well."
  • Poor grade: "The test was unusually difficult."

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

• Explains bad events as permanent and due to internal factors (dispositional).
• Attributes positive events to situational factors.
• Example:
  • Good grade: "I got lucky."
  • Bad grade: "I'm not smart enough."
• Example:
  • Optimistic: Not getting a text back means the person is busy.
  • Pessimistic: Not getting a text back means the person hates them, and they will die alone.

Locus of Control

• Belief about who or what has power over life events.

External Locus of Control

• Belief that outside factors or situational factors determine outcomes.
• Can lead to learned helplessness.
• May cause heightened stress or relaxation by accepting lack of control.
• Example: Failing a test because "The teacher hates me."

Internal Locus of Control

• Belief that actions directly affect outcomes.
• Results in taking more initiative and effort.
• Individuals take responsibility and try to improve after negative outcomes.
• Higher self-efficacy and reduced helplessness.
• Example: Failing a test and adjusting study habits for the next one.

Person Perception

• How individuals form impressions of other people.

Mere Exposure Effect

• Repeated exposure to a stimulus increases liking for it.
• Humans tend to like familiarity.
• If a person dislikes something the opposite can occur, and it will intensify that dislike.
• Advertisers use this effect to make products familiar.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• A person's expectations influence their behavior, causing those expectations to come true.
• Can impact relationships, achievements, and self-esteem.
• Example:
  • Believing a classmate is mean leads to standoffish behavior, reinforcing the belief.
  • Believing one is a bad test-taker leads to not studying and failing the test.

Social Comparison

• Evaluating oneself by comparing circumstances, skills, abilities, and characteristics to others.
• Influences self-perception and life satisfaction.

Upward Comparison

• Comparing oneself to someone better off.
• Can be motivating but may cause feelings of inadequacy.

Downward Comparison

• Comparing oneself to someone worse off.
• Can improve self-esteem but reduce motivation.

Relative Deprivation

• Feeling of missing out on resources or being worse off than others.
• Not about meeting basic needs but about comparing situations to a reference group.
• Example:
  • Getting a new phone but feeling less satisfied when friends have a newer model.