UCT T SOCIAL PSYCH QUESTIONS|VERIFIED
SOLUTIONS (100% CORRECT)!
where are our behavior intentions at? attitude predicts behavior.
1. normative beleif
2. motivation to comply
look at these two before taking action
•This theory argues that our attitudes don't predict our behaviour, but rather predicts our
behavioural intentions
•Our behavioural intent is caused by two factors: Attitudes and norms (i.e. the
expectations/thoughts/opinions/beliefs of those in our social world)
•EXAMPLE: I fall pregnant and my own attitudes towards terminating the pregnancy are pro-
choice [i.e. attitude]. But, my friends believe that abortion is immoral and wrong [i.e. norms].
•In terms of norms, it is our attitudes together with our subjective norms that play an integral
role in predicting our behavioural intentions
•Subjective norms involve two elements
1.Normative beliefs: What I think others will expect me to do. [From the above example, I think
that my friends would want me to not have an a - ✔✔• Theory of Reasoned Action: Fishbein
and Ajzen
• refers to the ways in which people identify causes for things happening the way that they did
- ✔✔• ATTRIBUTIONS
• Characteristics of a person are the cause
,• E.g. Their homework is late because they are lazy and couldn't care less about their
academics. - ✔✔• Dispositional factors: (ATTRIBUTIONS)
• Characteristics of a situation are the cause
• E.g. Their homework is late because their car must have broken down and they couldn't get to
campus on time.
• People are biased in their attributions
• Attributions are pervasive throughout social life - ✔✔External factors/Situational factors
(ATTRIBUTIONS)
Each theory focuses on different aspects of attributions and are complementary rather than
competing (i.e. the aims of each theory was not to disprove the other theories wrong, but
rather to add something to our understanding of attributions)
Each theory is concerned with how attributions should take place logically and not all of the
theories pay attentions to the role of motivations or emotions in determining how attributions
are made - ✔✔• The term 'Attribution Theory' is an umbrella for a number of
explanations/models that exist to explain how people make attributions;
• People are motivated to make sense of the world and know what causes things to happen
enables us to predict what will happen or how someone may behave and/or make judgements
about how we should or will act
• This theory is interested in causality (what made something happen) and responsibility
(what/who is responsible for something happening)
• Causality: There are internal (personal) and external (situational) causes
• Levels of responsibility:
• Responsibility by association (weakest level)
• E.g. Your friend's diver's license is revoked because they were drinking and driving. Their
parents blame you as you are the friend and should have made sure they did not drink and
,drive. You are not directly responsible, but are seen as responsible because of your association
to the events/person involved in the event.
• Causal responsibility
• E.g. The PSY2013F class performs poorly in their exam, because I did not expl - ✔✔•
COMMONSENSE PSYCHOLOGY - Fritz Heider
• The focus in this theory is on trying to explain why people make internal attributions
• This theory argues that people pay more attention to behaviour that is intentional (i.e. when
someone intended to do something, rather than behaviour that was thoughtless or accidental)
• This theory believes that we make internal attributions when we conclude that a person's
behaviour is related to their personality
• People make internal attributions under the following conditions:
• Choice: When we believe that the person's behaviour was freely chosen
• Expectedness of behaviour: When we expect a person to behave in a certain way, but they
don't, we often make internal attributions [E.g. My friend says he is vegan and I expect that he
won't eat meat, but then he does. I will more than likely make an internal attribution about his
character, because he did not behave in the way expected]
• Effects of someone's behaviour: If t - ✔✔CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE (Edward Jones &
Keith Davis)
• Extends on Correspondent Inference theory
• Individuals make attributions by assessing the following factors:
• Distinctiveness = the extent to which the individual behaves in the same way in the same
situation
• Consistency = the extent to which the individual behaves in similar situations
• Consensus = the extent to which other people in a similar situation behave
• EXAMPLE: I am watching a horror movie and hide under the blanket every time there is a
frightening moment in the movie. In order for you to be able to make an internal attribution
about me, you would need to consider: Do I always hide under the blanket when a frightening
moment happens [distinctiveness]? Do I hide under the blanket when watching all horror movie
[consistency]? Are other people hiding under their blankets during the horror movie
, [consensus]? If I hide every time a frightening thing happens and I do this in all horror movies,
but no one - ✔✔• COVARIATION MODEL (Harold Kelley)
• Weiner studied the relationship between emotions and attributions most extensively, and
also researched the link cross-culturally (i.e. in different cultural and social contexts)
• What he found was that people assess how far they have succeeded and/or failed, which
leads to negative or positive emotions (e.g. Feelings of pride for succeeding and feeling of
shame when failing)
• There are tree bases for making attributions to failures and success:
• Locus: Internal or external (i.e. the perception of the cause as being internal or external to the
person)
• E.g. If I pass my driver's test and I believe it is because I studied hard, this would mean I see
the cause as being internal and, therefore, feel a sense of pride in my achievement.
• Stable or unstable (i.e. does the cause change over time or remain the same?)
• E.g. I believe that I failed my driver's test because I had a Psychology essay due that took up -
✔✔• ATTRIBUTIONS AND EMOTIONS - Bernard Weiner (1980, 1986):
• People in individualistic cultures, where the focus is on individual success and goals (e.g. USA)
tend to make dispositional (internal) attributions
• E.g. Attributing the reason for a person not having a job due to not working hard enough,
having no ambition, and being lazy.
• People in collectivist cultures (e.g. India) tend to make external or situational attributions
• E.g. Attributing the reason for a person not having a job due to lack of employment
opportunities and education that is expensive and the person coming from a family that has
very little money. - ✔✔• Where do attributions come from?
• Culture
• There are differences in how individual people make attributions, even when they exist in the
same social or cultural context. Therefore, personality must play some part in how we make
attributions - ✔✔• Where do attributions come from?
• PERSONALITY
SOLUTIONS (100% CORRECT)!
where are our behavior intentions at? attitude predicts behavior.
1. normative beleif
2. motivation to comply
look at these two before taking action
•This theory argues that our attitudes don't predict our behaviour, but rather predicts our
behavioural intentions
•Our behavioural intent is caused by two factors: Attitudes and norms (i.e. the
expectations/thoughts/opinions/beliefs of those in our social world)
•EXAMPLE: I fall pregnant and my own attitudes towards terminating the pregnancy are pro-
choice [i.e. attitude]. But, my friends believe that abortion is immoral and wrong [i.e. norms].
•In terms of norms, it is our attitudes together with our subjective norms that play an integral
role in predicting our behavioural intentions
•Subjective norms involve two elements
1.Normative beliefs: What I think others will expect me to do. [From the above example, I think
that my friends would want me to not have an a - ✔✔• Theory of Reasoned Action: Fishbein
and Ajzen
• refers to the ways in which people identify causes for things happening the way that they did
- ✔✔• ATTRIBUTIONS
• Characteristics of a person are the cause
,• E.g. Their homework is late because they are lazy and couldn't care less about their
academics. - ✔✔• Dispositional factors: (ATTRIBUTIONS)
• Characteristics of a situation are the cause
• E.g. Their homework is late because their car must have broken down and they couldn't get to
campus on time.
• People are biased in their attributions
• Attributions are pervasive throughout social life - ✔✔External factors/Situational factors
(ATTRIBUTIONS)
Each theory focuses on different aspects of attributions and are complementary rather than
competing (i.e. the aims of each theory was not to disprove the other theories wrong, but
rather to add something to our understanding of attributions)
Each theory is concerned with how attributions should take place logically and not all of the
theories pay attentions to the role of motivations or emotions in determining how attributions
are made - ✔✔• The term 'Attribution Theory' is an umbrella for a number of
explanations/models that exist to explain how people make attributions;
• People are motivated to make sense of the world and know what causes things to happen
enables us to predict what will happen or how someone may behave and/or make judgements
about how we should or will act
• This theory is interested in causality (what made something happen) and responsibility
(what/who is responsible for something happening)
• Causality: There are internal (personal) and external (situational) causes
• Levels of responsibility:
• Responsibility by association (weakest level)
• E.g. Your friend's diver's license is revoked because they were drinking and driving. Their
parents blame you as you are the friend and should have made sure they did not drink and
,drive. You are not directly responsible, but are seen as responsible because of your association
to the events/person involved in the event.
• Causal responsibility
• E.g. The PSY2013F class performs poorly in their exam, because I did not expl - ✔✔•
COMMONSENSE PSYCHOLOGY - Fritz Heider
• The focus in this theory is on trying to explain why people make internal attributions
• This theory argues that people pay more attention to behaviour that is intentional (i.e. when
someone intended to do something, rather than behaviour that was thoughtless or accidental)
• This theory believes that we make internal attributions when we conclude that a person's
behaviour is related to their personality
• People make internal attributions under the following conditions:
• Choice: When we believe that the person's behaviour was freely chosen
• Expectedness of behaviour: When we expect a person to behave in a certain way, but they
don't, we often make internal attributions [E.g. My friend says he is vegan and I expect that he
won't eat meat, but then he does. I will more than likely make an internal attribution about his
character, because he did not behave in the way expected]
• Effects of someone's behaviour: If t - ✔✔CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE (Edward Jones &
Keith Davis)
• Extends on Correspondent Inference theory
• Individuals make attributions by assessing the following factors:
• Distinctiveness = the extent to which the individual behaves in the same way in the same
situation
• Consistency = the extent to which the individual behaves in similar situations
• Consensus = the extent to which other people in a similar situation behave
• EXAMPLE: I am watching a horror movie and hide under the blanket every time there is a
frightening moment in the movie. In order for you to be able to make an internal attribution
about me, you would need to consider: Do I always hide under the blanket when a frightening
moment happens [distinctiveness]? Do I hide under the blanket when watching all horror movie
[consistency]? Are other people hiding under their blankets during the horror movie
, [consensus]? If I hide every time a frightening thing happens and I do this in all horror movies,
but no one - ✔✔• COVARIATION MODEL (Harold Kelley)
• Weiner studied the relationship between emotions and attributions most extensively, and
also researched the link cross-culturally (i.e. in different cultural and social contexts)
• What he found was that people assess how far they have succeeded and/or failed, which
leads to negative or positive emotions (e.g. Feelings of pride for succeeding and feeling of
shame when failing)
• There are tree bases for making attributions to failures and success:
• Locus: Internal or external (i.e. the perception of the cause as being internal or external to the
person)
• E.g. If I pass my driver's test and I believe it is because I studied hard, this would mean I see
the cause as being internal and, therefore, feel a sense of pride in my achievement.
• Stable or unstable (i.e. does the cause change over time or remain the same?)
• E.g. I believe that I failed my driver's test because I had a Psychology essay due that took up -
✔✔• ATTRIBUTIONS AND EMOTIONS - Bernard Weiner (1980, 1986):
• People in individualistic cultures, where the focus is on individual success and goals (e.g. USA)
tend to make dispositional (internal) attributions
• E.g. Attributing the reason for a person not having a job due to not working hard enough,
having no ambition, and being lazy.
• People in collectivist cultures (e.g. India) tend to make external or situational attributions
• E.g. Attributing the reason for a person not having a job due to lack of employment
opportunities and education that is expensive and the person coming from a family that has
very little money. - ✔✔• Where do attributions come from?
• Culture
• There are differences in how individual people make attributions, even when they exist in the
same social or cultural context. Therefore, personality must play some part in how we make
attributions - ✔✔• Where do attributions come from?
• PERSONALITY
