Attribution Theory
Social Psychology In-lecture notes
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Heider (1958) – Naïve Psychology
- Common-sense (naïve) psychology and what can be learnt about social perception
- Human thinking – understand cause of behaviour and events to allow prediction and control over environment
- Heider believed we are intuitive armature psychologists who construct causal theories of human behaviour
- Key aspect of social perception – the way we infer out own and others motives
- For review – see Rozenstein (2008)
Attribution Theory
A theory about how we explain peoples' behaviour
Distinctions between:
- External attribution – outside events explain
- Internal attribution – internal factors explain
- Can relate to both what happens to people and their behaviour
- Attribution theory is about we go about making such attributions
- i.e. does the person or situation explain....?
Another way: Attribution
What causes attribution behaviour?
- Is it something within the person we observe i.e. their personality? = internal attribution -> we make a dispositional attribution
- Is it caused by something outside the person we observe i.e. their situation = external attribution -> we make a situational attribution
Correspondent Inference Theory (Jones and Davis, 1965)
- Jones and Davis described how an 'alert perceiver' might infer another's intentions and personal dispositions (personality traits, attitudes, etc.) from their behaviour.
- How we infer a person's behaviour corresponds to an underlying disposition (internal attribution)
This process involves:
Stage one: Assessing whether behaviour observed is intentional or not
Stage two: making a correspondent inference
- Social desirability
- Non-common effects
- We are more confident of our correspondent inferences foe behaviour that has important consequences for ourselves (hedonic relevance)
Supporting evidence:
- Newtson (1974)
- Jones and McGillis (1976)
Kelly's Covariation Model (1967)
How do we decide whether to make an internal/external attribution?
- Consensus
- Distinctiveness
- Consistency
Low Consensus, Low Distinctiveness, High Consistency = Internal Attribution
High Consensus, High Distinctiveness, High Consistency = Stimulus Attribution (Environmental cause)
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