Social Psychology

Social Cognition

• How we perceive, interpret and predict social behavior:

I. Social Attributions:-How do we explain behavior?

-WHY DID SHE DO WHAT SHE JUST DID?

We have a need to understand the world around us especially if it is confusing

Attribution theory

• Franz Heider (1958): to the extent to which a person’s behavior (ourselves or someone else’s) is caused either by the person or circumstances:

• Dispositional (internal) Person themselves is responsible for his or her behavior – their traits, abilities, personality…made them do it

• Situational (external)Environmental, other people, situation made them do it

•

Howard Kelley’s model of attribution – What makes us make certain attributions?

• Consistency – does s/he always act like this?Extent to which a person behaves the same way in a given situation on different occasions - same over time

• Distinctiveness - will s/he act this way in another situation?the extent to which a person behaves the same way across different situations – or is it unique to the specific entity that is the target

• Consensus – does everyone act like this?Whether other people in the same situation tend to respond

like the person

Weiner’s Attributional Dimensions:how do we understand our successes and our failures

• Internal-external dimension• Stable-unstable dimension• Controllable-uncontrollable dimension

– Use these to make excuses • Success: internal, stable, controllable• Failure: external, unstable, uncontrollable

Fundamental attribution error

• bias to attribute other people’s behavior to dispositional, internal personal factors while underestimating the effects of external, situational factors

INTERNAL external

Example:• Ethnic neighborhoods with crime and poverty• When one fails to get a job,

Fundamental attribution error

Actor observer bias– tendency of observers to make dispositional attributions for the behavior of others but to

make situational attributions for their own behavior when they are the actors

– When you are the: Actor=>situational– Observer => dispositional

• Examples:• When I don’t know how to do my job, it is due to lack

of training (the situation).• When you don’t know how to do the job, it is

incompetence (dispositional).

• When I come to the meeting unprepared and late, it isbecause something came up or traffic was bad (situational).

• When you come unprepared and late, it is due to lackof interest in the job (dispositional)

Actor observer bias

Self-serving bias

• Tendency to make dispositional attributions for one’s successes or positive behaviors and situational attributions for one’s negative behaviors or failures

(individualistic cultures)– Success= dispositional– Failure = situational

Self-serving bias

“When I win, it is skill” “When I lose, it is bad luck”

Self-effacing bias

• There are those people who:Blame ourselves for our failures - attributing them to internal personal causes while downplaying our successes by attributing them to external, situational causes

– collectivistic cultures“When I win, it is good luck” “When I lose, I wasn’t trying”