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Terms in this set [16]
Introduction
Humans are social animals and have a need to understand why things happen, partly through how/why people behave in certain situations
Heider
Suggested that all people have a tendency to try to predict, understand, and explain human behavior, in terms of what causes people to behave in the ways that they do
Define Attribution
How people interpret and explain causal relationships in the social world and society.
Attribution theory
This was formalized in Heider's Attribution Theory [AT]. In this, it is proposed that people use inferences and knowledge from past events to explain human behavior
Two types of errors
Attributions can be broken down into two categories, situational and dispositional. Situational attribution is behavior attributed external factors such as luck, roles, laws. Dispositional attribution is behavior attributed to internal factors such as personality, beliefs, mood.
Introduce attribution errors
Psychologists have discovered that when attributing behavior, people can often make errors and biases
Define attribution error
A false assumption or distortion in judgement about the causes of our own or other people's behavior
The two types of attribution errors
Fundamental attribution error & self-serving bias
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to attribute another's behavior to dispositional qualities, rather than the situation itself.
Ross study
The aim was to see if student participants would make the FAE even when they knew all the actors were playing a role. Participants were randomly assigned the role of either game show host [asked to design their own questions], contestant [answered questions], or audience member [watched the game show]. After the game show, audience members ranked the intelligence of the hosts and contestants. Participants consistently ranked the host as the most intelligent, even though they knew they were randomly assigned this role and that they had written the questions.
Ross conclusion/connection
They failed to attribute the host's behavior to situational factors of the role they had been randomly assigned. Instead, they attributed his performance to dispositional factors [intelligence]. This study reflects and demonstrates that the FAE occurs because participants attributed the behavior and contestants to dispositional factors [intelligence] rather than situational facotrs [role]. They argued that the observers and contestants had ignored the fact that the questioners had an unfair situational advantage [compiled the questions] and had overestimated dispositional factors in making their judgements.
Ross limitations
Participants were all university students [listen to professors who ask questions and provide answers like the game show host and see them as authority figures, the belief that authority figures who ask questions are intelligent could be a learned response rather than an attribution error] and the sample is not representative [small school]
FAE evaluation
Can offer an explanation as to how things happen. They provide comfort in our lives and sometimes are correct, but often oversimplify things.
Self-serving bias
The tendency to attribute success to stable, dispositional factors and failures to temporary, situational facotrs
Lau & Russel
American football coaches and players tend to attribute wins to internal factors and losses to external factors
Explanations for SSB
Attributing success to internal factors puts ourselves in a positive light to others. Disassociating ourselves from failure protects self-esteem. Taking responsibility for success enhances self-esteem
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