Social Thinking and Social Influence
Social thinking
● Social psychology can be defined as the scientific study of how people
think about, influence, and relate to one another.
● According to attribution theory, people explain behavior by crediting either
the situation or the person's disposition.
● An attribution is a mental process people use to explain their behavior and
the behavior of others.
○ Example: A 4-year old is having a tantrum in a restaurant. The
father explains his behavior is because he is stubborn. The mother
replies that he might simply be tired. Both explanations are
examples of an attribution.
● Dispositional attribution is attributing a person’s behavior to their
personality
○ Example: A seventeen-year-old crashed his parents’ car into a tree
on a rainy, windy day. His parents assumed that the accident was
caused by his inept driving skills and tendency to take his eyes off
the road when checking his phone.
● Situational attribution involves attributing a person’s behavior to the current
situation.
○ Example: Your boss concluded that her assistant was late for work
because he was caught in heavy traffic.
● A fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers to
underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of
personal dispositions on another's behavior.
○ Example: Your friend is late for your court time to play pickleball.
You think he is late because he is inconsiderate and selfish, when
in fact he was late because his car wouldn’t start, and he had to
have it jump-started.
● Attitudes are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to
respond in particular ways to objects, people, and events.
Social thinking
● Social psychology can be defined as the scientific study of how people
think about, influence, and relate to one another.
● According to attribution theory, people explain behavior by crediting either
the situation or the person's disposition.
● An attribution is a mental process people use to explain their behavior and
the behavior of others.
○ Example: A 4-year old is having a tantrum in a restaurant. The
father explains his behavior is because he is stubborn. The mother
replies that he might simply be tired. Both explanations are
examples of an attribution.
● Dispositional attribution is attributing a person’s behavior to their
personality
○ Example: A seventeen-year-old crashed his parents’ car into a tree
on a rainy, windy day. His parents assumed that the accident was
caused by his inept driving skills and tendency to take his eyes off
the road when checking his phone.
● Situational attribution involves attributing a person’s behavior to the current
situation.
○ Example: Your boss concluded that her assistant was late for work
because he was caught in heavy traffic.
● A fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers to
underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of
personal dispositions on another's behavior.
○ Example: Your friend is late for your court time to play pickleball.
You think he is late because he is inconsiderate and selfish, when
in fact he was late because his car wouldn’t start, and he had to
have it jump-started.
● Attitudes are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to
respond in particular ways to objects, people, and events.
