1
Problem 7
Attribution
The process of assigning a cause to our own behaviour and that of others
Causal attribution
A conclusion about what caused a person’s behaviour
Two broad types
o Situational attributions
Attributions that explain someone’s behaviour in terms of circumstances rather than
aspects of the person (e.g. presence of rewards, punishment, weather)
o Dispositional attributions
Attributions that explain someone’s behaviour in terms of factors internal to the
person, such as traits or preferences (e.g. traits, personal qualities)
Which factors influence the first impression you make of someone?
Physical appearance
o People evaluate quickly & without conscious effort whether a face indicates that a person is
dominant/submissive or trustworthy/untrustworthy
o Adults with baby-faced features (e.g. round eyes, round cheeks, etc.) tend to be seen as warm,
kind naïve & submissive
Are first impressions correct?
Attribution process is subject to bias
People are cognitive miser or motivated tacticians
o Cognitive miser: characterise people using the least complex & demanding cognitions that are
able to produce generally adaptive behaviours
o Motivated tacticians: people have multiple cognitive strategies available which they choose
among on the basis of personal goals, motives & needs
Confirmation bias: the tendency to seek, interpret, create info that verifies existing beliefs
Self-fulfilling prophecy: process in which one’s expectations about a person eventually leads that
person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations
Theory of naive psychology (Heider, 1958)
Important to study psychological theories because they influence people’s everyday perceptions &
behaviours
Naive psychologists: model of social cognition that characterises people as using rational, scientific-like,
cause-effect analyses to understand the world
Based on three principles
1. People think their own behaviour is motivated
Look for reasons for other’s behaviours to discover their motives
2. Construct causal theories to predict & control the environment
Look for stable properties of the world
Try to discover personality traits or stable properties of situations that cause
behaviour
3. Differentiate between dispositional & situational factors
, 2
Theory of correspondent inference (Jones & Davis 1965)
By watching a person’s behaviour, we try to determine whether this behaviour is a consistent personal
trait of the actor
People like to make correspondent conclusions because a dispositional cause is a stable cause
○ Can predict people’s behaviour & have more control of own world
Five sources of information
1. Actor’s degree of choice: freely chosen behaviour is more informative about a person than forced
behaviour
2. Actor’s expectedness of behaviour: effects of behaviour that are relatively exclusive to that behaviour
rather than other behaviour
3. Socially undesirable behaviour: an action tells us more about a person when it goes against the norm
4. Hedonic relevance: we think that someone’s behaviour based on disposition is responsible for negative
affects for us rather than explaining it by situational factors
5. Personalism: when a person’s behaviour impacts us, we assume that the behaviour was intended &
personal
Study by Harris & Jones (1967)
○ American students making attributions for speeches made by other students
Make more correspondent inferences for freely chosen socially unpopular positions
Covariation model (Kelley’s, 1967)
People make attributions by using the covariation principle
○ In order for something to be the cause of a behaviour, it must be present when the behaviour
occurs & absent when it does not
People assign the cause of behaviour to the factor that covaries most closely with the behaviour
People asses three classes of information to make this decision
○ Consensus: how different people react so same stimulus
High consensus: everyone laughs at the comedian
Low consensus: only the boy laughs at the comedian
○ Distinctiveness: how the same person reacts to different stimuli
High distinctiveness: boy only laughs at one comedian
Low distinctiveness: boy laughs at all comedians
○ Consistency: what happen to same behaviour at another time/venue when the person & stimulus
remain the same)
Problem 7
Attribution
The process of assigning a cause to our own behaviour and that of others
Causal attribution
A conclusion about what caused a person’s behaviour
Two broad types
o Situational attributions
Attributions that explain someone’s behaviour in terms of circumstances rather than
aspects of the person (e.g. presence of rewards, punishment, weather)
o Dispositional attributions
Attributions that explain someone’s behaviour in terms of factors internal to the
person, such as traits or preferences (e.g. traits, personal qualities)
Which factors influence the first impression you make of someone?
Physical appearance
o People evaluate quickly & without conscious effort whether a face indicates that a person is
dominant/submissive or trustworthy/untrustworthy
o Adults with baby-faced features (e.g. round eyes, round cheeks, etc.) tend to be seen as warm,
kind naïve & submissive
Are first impressions correct?
Attribution process is subject to bias
People are cognitive miser or motivated tacticians
o Cognitive miser: characterise people using the least complex & demanding cognitions that are
able to produce generally adaptive behaviours
o Motivated tacticians: people have multiple cognitive strategies available which they choose
among on the basis of personal goals, motives & needs
Confirmation bias: the tendency to seek, interpret, create info that verifies existing beliefs
Self-fulfilling prophecy: process in which one’s expectations about a person eventually leads that
person to behave in ways that confirm those expectations
Theory of naive psychology (Heider, 1958)
Important to study psychological theories because they influence people’s everyday perceptions &
behaviours
Naive psychologists: model of social cognition that characterises people as using rational, scientific-like,
cause-effect analyses to understand the world
Based on three principles
1. People think their own behaviour is motivated
Look for reasons for other’s behaviours to discover their motives
2. Construct causal theories to predict & control the environment
Look for stable properties of the world
Try to discover personality traits or stable properties of situations that cause
behaviour
3. Differentiate between dispositional & situational factors
, 2
Theory of correspondent inference (Jones & Davis 1965)
By watching a person’s behaviour, we try to determine whether this behaviour is a consistent personal
trait of the actor
People like to make correspondent conclusions because a dispositional cause is a stable cause
○ Can predict people’s behaviour & have more control of own world
Five sources of information
1. Actor’s degree of choice: freely chosen behaviour is more informative about a person than forced
behaviour
2. Actor’s expectedness of behaviour: effects of behaviour that are relatively exclusive to that behaviour
rather than other behaviour
3. Socially undesirable behaviour: an action tells us more about a person when it goes against the norm
4. Hedonic relevance: we think that someone’s behaviour based on disposition is responsible for negative
affects for us rather than explaining it by situational factors
5. Personalism: when a person’s behaviour impacts us, we assume that the behaviour was intended &
personal
Study by Harris & Jones (1967)
○ American students making attributions for speeches made by other students
Make more correspondent inferences for freely chosen socially unpopular positions
Covariation model (Kelley’s, 1967)
People make attributions by using the covariation principle
○ In order for something to be the cause of a behaviour, it must be present when the behaviour
occurs & absent when it does not
People assign the cause of behaviour to the factor that covaries most closely with the behaviour
People asses three classes of information to make this decision
○ Consensus: how different people react so same stimulus
High consensus: everyone laughs at the comedian
Low consensus: only the boy laughs at the comedian
○ Distinctiveness: how the same person reacts to different stimuli
High distinctiveness: boy only laughs at one comedian
Low distinctiveness: boy laughs at all comedians
○ Consistency: what happen to same behaviour at another time/venue when the person & stimulus
remain the same)
