Attribution

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Attribution

• Interpreting and Explaining Behavior

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Explaining Behavior

• Social interactions allows us to make judgments
  about the causes of behavior.
• According to social psychologists we go about
  explaining behavior in predictable ways.
• Their principles form the basis of attribution
  theory
• Attribution Theory The theory that addresses the
  question of how people make judgments about the
  causes of behavior.

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Fritz Heider
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Fritz Heider

• Heider (1958) argued that a simple or naïve
  explanation for a given behavior attributes that
  behavior to either internal factors or external
  factors, but not both at the same time.
• Personal factors an internal attribution
• Situational factors an external attribution

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Harold Kelley
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3 Kinds of Information

• How do we decide whether to attribute a given
  behavior to causes inside or outside a person?
• (1967) Kelley argued that we rely on three kinds
  of information when trying to explain the causes
  of behavior in others.

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1. Distinctiveness

• How distinctive is the request?
• Low Distinctiveness usual the other person
• High Distinctiveness unusual me

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2. Consistency

• How consistent is the request being made over
  time?
• High Consistency regularly requests The other
  person
• Low Consistency Irregularly requests me
• High Distinctiveness corresponds with low
  consistency

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3. Consensus

• Is there a consensus of similar requests
  (behavior)?
• High Consensus similar behavior the other
  person
• Low Consensus dissimilar behavior me
• High Distinctiveness corresponds with low
  consistency, AND low consensus.
• And vice a versa

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Biases in Attribution
Attributions guesses Guesses are vulnerable to
biases.
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Biases
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Fundamental Attribution Error and Self-Serving
Bias

• The tendency to attribute the behavior of others
  to causes with in themselves. (Personal Factors)
• Actor-Observer Effect the tendency to explain
  the behavior of others as caused by internal
  factors (over estimate personal) and the
  corresponding tendency to attribute ones own
  behavior to external factors (under estimate
  situational).

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Defensive Attribution

• Self-Serving Bias The tendency to attribute
  personal failure to external factors and personal
  successes to internal factors.
• Just World Hypothesis Attribution error based
  on the assumption that bad things happened to bad
  people and good things happen to good people.

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Self-Serving Bias
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The Nature of Attitudes
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3 components

• Attitude Is a relatively stable organization of
• beliefs,
• feelings,
• and behavioral tendencies directed toward
  something or someone an the attitude object.

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Attitudes and Behavior
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• The relationship between attitudes and behavior
  is not always straight forward.
• Variables
• Strength of attitude
• Relevance of attitude
• Salience of attitude in a given situation

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Self-Monitoring

• The tendency to for an individual to observe the
  situation for cues about how to react.
• High vs. Low
• High Self-Monitors Observe the situation for
  cues about how they should react
• Low Self-Monitors Express and act on their
  attitudes with great consistency, showing little
  regard for situational constraints or clues.

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Attitude Development

• Parents Children rewarded with smiles and
  encouragement why they please their parents and
  punished with they displease them.

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Role Models
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Media
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Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice an intolerant, unfavorable, and rigid
  attitude toward a group of people.
• Discrimination An act or series of acts that
  denies opportunities and social esteem to an
  entire group of people or individual members of
  that group.

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• Ultimate Attribution Error The tendency to for a
  person to make internal attributions for another
  persons shortcomings and external attributions
  for their successes.
• i.e. Affirmative Action

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Racism

• Prejudice and discrimination directed at a
  particular racial group.
• A belief that members of certain racial or ethnic
  groups are innately inferior.
• Racists believe that intelligence, industry,
  morality, and other valued traits are
  biologically determined and therefore cannot be
  changed.
• Either/Or Thinking
• In Group vs. Out Group mentality

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Strategies for Reducing Prejudice and
Discrimination

• Recategorize Expand ones schema
• Controlled Processing mindfulness
• Improving Contact Between Groups
• 1. Groups must have equal status
• 2. People need to have one-on-one contact with
  members of another group.
• 3. Relations improve when groups come together to
  compete rather than compete
• 4. Social norms should encourage contact

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Sources of Prejudice

• Frustration-Aggression Theory The theory that
  under certain circumstances people who are
  frustrated in their goals turn their anger away
  from the proper, powerful target toward another,
  less powerful target that is safer to attack.

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Authoritarian Personality or Authoritarianism

• A personality pattern characterized by rigid
  conventionality, exaggerated respect for
  authority, and hostility toward those who defy
  societys norms.

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Cognitive Sources

• Oversimplification leads to stereotypes
  belief in a just world.
• Conformity peer pressure