Phenomenology - 2
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Social Perception and Attribution
Impression Formation Vs. Attribution
Often used interchangeably
Generally:
- Attribution: attributing causes to people's behaviour
- Impression formation: the impressions we form of people based what we attribute their behaviour to
Where It All Began
Heider (1958)
• People as naïve scientists
– Forming hypotheses about people and testing them
– What can we attribute causes of behaviour to?
Person vs Situation
McArthur (1972)
• To make sense of the world
• Gain control over social environments
Classic Theories of Attribution
Aimed to examine when we make a 'person' and when we make a 'situation' attribution
Classic theories:
- Co-variation theory
- Correspondent inference theory
Correspondent inference theory: Jones & Davis (1965)
"Correspondence" definition:
"correspondence refers to the extent to that the act and the underlying characteristic are similarly described by the inference" (Jones & Davis, 1965, p. 223)
To what extent can we say that a behaviour 'corresponds' to what the actor is like as a person?
We should only make these inferences when:
- Behaviour is unusual given the situation
- Behaviour is out of role
- There are no situational explanations
If we can find something in the situation that explains their behaviour – then we shouldn't attribute their behaviour to factors of their personality
Classic Evidence: The Job Role Study (Jones, Davis & Gergen, 1961)
PPTs read ideal descriptions of job roles for:
- Submariner: 'other directed' (affiliative)
- Astronaut: 'self-directed' (independent)
PPTs asked to judge to what extent interviewees on interview tape
- Affiliative
- Independent
Other directed – job applicant= other directed/affiliative >> so what? Judged only moderately affiliative --- job applicant = independent --- judged extremely independent ---- out of role behaviour tells us more about what a person is like than in-role behaviour
Correspondent Inference Theory: Summary
If someone acts out of role, or more extreme than the average, we should assume that they behaviour corresponds to their personality
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Psychology
Non-FictionI'm a struggling Psychology student with a lot of time on my hands and this is one of the ways I've been trying to make myself study. Lets hope it works. (This is the real, boring psychology with the essays and the sources and the diagrams, not the...
