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PSY 331 Exam 2 Questions And Answers
|Latest 2025 | Guaranteed Pass.
Attribution theory( the study of how people understand the causes of events) - Answer✔the
theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's
disposition Fritz and Heider-People are Quasi scientist or lay psychologists they try link events
to something about the person
internal (dispositional) attribution - Answer✔attributing one's behavior to his or her
personality; for example, attributing a child's hostility to their aggressive personality ( or that
when your friend doesn't hear you in the cafe and ignores you and you think it's because they
are a jerk and that was the cause of their behavior not the noise of the cafe.)
external (situational) attribution - Answer✔attributing cause to something external to the
person or the self for example being in a loud cafeteria and calling for someone and them not
responding and realizing that they're not a jerk but that it's too loud and they cannot hear you.
causal attribution - Answer✔The construal process people use to explain their own and others
behavior ( student gives long winded response and we attribute the teachers encouragement
as trying to get a higher rating or encourage student participation) linking an event to a cause,
such as inferring that a personality trait is responsible for a behavior
explanatory style - Answer✔A person's characteristic way of explaining his experiences.
Consistently attributing bad experiences to internal, global, and stable causes may increase
vulnerability to depression and would be a pessimistic and maladaptive style while an adaptive
style would would make an external , specific and unstable leading them to brush it off and
keep moving forward
Explanatory styles (attributions made by happy and unhappy couples) - Answer✔
pessimistic explanatory style - Answer✔Accounting for negative events or situations with
internal, stable, and global explanations while the opposite for good situations external,
unstable. specific
1
, ©THEBRIGHT 2024/2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 10:15AM A+
optimistic explanatory style - Answer✔accounting for negative events or situations with
external, unstable, and specific explanations while the opposite for good situations internal,
stable and global
attributions about controllability - Answer✔An individual's attributional style has a powerful
effect on that person's long-term outcomes thinking they can succeed or improve because they
didn't try hard enough gives people hope and improves academic success in the future when a
person offers an excuse and it's something that was out of their control people make external
and more sympathetic attributions
distinctiveness (Kelley's Covariation Model) - Answer✔what an individual does across situations
is their behavior distinctive novel or unique or is it the same across all situations flirty lady at
office flirts with every guy at the office low vs she only flirts with him high (something about
him)
Consistency (Kelley's Covariation Model) - Answer✔What the individual does in the same
situation across different occasions
Kelley's Covariation Model - Answer✔a theory that states that to form an attribution about
what caused a person's behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or
absence of possible causal factors and whether the behavior occurs we look at 3 pieces of key
information consistency , distinctiveness and consensus the flirty example of the co worker also
applebees example
Kelley's Covariation internal - Answer✔she flirts with every guy, no one else flirts with him , she
flirts with him every time so its not the guy its her
Kelley's covariation external - Answer✔Everyone flirts with him( consensus) , she flirts with him
everyday(consistency) , and she only flirts with him not other guys(distinctiveness)
situational attribution kellys model - Answer✔attribution to factors external to an actor, such as
the task, other people, or luck when consistency , distinctiveness and consensus are all high
dispositional attribution kelly model - Answer✔when consensus is low and distinctiveness is
low but consistency is high
discounting principle - Answer✔the idea that people should assign reduced weight to a
particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced it for example
thinking that a person is actually present from a job interview because we know people are on
their best behavior in such an interview and most people would act accordingly
augmentation principle - Answer✔Greater weight is given to a particular cause of behavior if
there are other potential causes that would normally produce the opposite outcome the idea
that people should assign greater weight to a particular cause of behavior if other causes are
2
PSY 331 Exam 2 Questions And Answers
|Latest 2025 | Guaranteed Pass.
Attribution theory( the study of how people understand the causes of events) - Answer✔the
theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's
disposition Fritz and Heider-People are Quasi scientist or lay psychologists they try link events
to something about the person
internal (dispositional) attribution - Answer✔attributing one's behavior to his or her
personality; for example, attributing a child's hostility to their aggressive personality ( or that
when your friend doesn't hear you in the cafe and ignores you and you think it's because they
are a jerk and that was the cause of their behavior not the noise of the cafe.)
external (situational) attribution - Answer✔attributing cause to something external to the
person or the self for example being in a loud cafeteria and calling for someone and them not
responding and realizing that they're not a jerk but that it's too loud and they cannot hear you.
causal attribution - Answer✔The construal process people use to explain their own and others
behavior ( student gives long winded response and we attribute the teachers encouragement
as trying to get a higher rating or encourage student participation) linking an event to a cause,
such as inferring that a personality trait is responsible for a behavior
explanatory style - Answer✔A person's characteristic way of explaining his experiences.
Consistently attributing bad experiences to internal, global, and stable causes may increase
vulnerability to depression and would be a pessimistic and maladaptive style while an adaptive
style would would make an external , specific and unstable leading them to brush it off and
keep moving forward
Explanatory styles (attributions made by happy and unhappy couples) - Answer✔
pessimistic explanatory style - Answer✔Accounting for negative events or situations with
internal, stable, and global explanations while the opposite for good situations external,
unstable. specific
1
, ©THEBRIGHT 2024/2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 10:15AM A+
optimistic explanatory style - Answer✔accounting for negative events or situations with
external, unstable, and specific explanations while the opposite for good situations internal,
stable and global
attributions about controllability - Answer✔An individual's attributional style has a powerful
effect on that person's long-term outcomes thinking they can succeed or improve because they
didn't try hard enough gives people hope and improves academic success in the future when a
person offers an excuse and it's something that was out of their control people make external
and more sympathetic attributions
distinctiveness (Kelley's Covariation Model) - Answer✔what an individual does across situations
is their behavior distinctive novel or unique or is it the same across all situations flirty lady at
office flirts with every guy at the office low vs she only flirts with him high (something about
him)
Consistency (Kelley's Covariation Model) - Answer✔What the individual does in the same
situation across different occasions
Kelley's Covariation Model - Answer✔a theory that states that to form an attribution about
what caused a person's behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence or
absence of possible causal factors and whether the behavior occurs we look at 3 pieces of key
information consistency , distinctiveness and consensus the flirty example of the co worker also
applebees example
Kelley's Covariation internal - Answer✔she flirts with every guy, no one else flirts with him , she
flirts with him every time so its not the guy its her
Kelley's covariation external - Answer✔Everyone flirts with him( consensus) , she flirts with him
everyday(consistency) , and she only flirts with him not other guys(distinctiveness)
situational attribution kellys model - Answer✔attribution to factors external to an actor, such as
the task, other people, or luck when consistency , distinctiveness and consensus are all high
dispositional attribution kelly model - Answer✔when consensus is low and distinctiveness is
low but consistency is high
discounting principle - Answer✔the idea that people should assign reduced weight to a
particular cause of behavior if other plausible causes might have produced it for example
thinking that a person is actually present from a job interview because we know people are on
their best behavior in such an interview and most people would act accordingly
augmentation principle - Answer✔Greater weight is given to a particular cause of behavior if
there are other potential causes that would normally produce the opposite outcome the idea
that people should assign greater weight to a particular cause of behavior if other causes are
2
