Psychology 2720A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Covariance, Fundamental Attribution Error, Dispositional Attribution

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2720A/B
• Professor: Rachel Calogero

Document Summary

The study of how ppl make judgements about others & the info used to make these judgements. 2 key social cognitive processes; causal attribution & impression formation. Causal attributions: process of assigning a cause to an event/behaviour. Guide our behaviour, feelings, assignment of blame/reward. Helps us make sense of events that make up our everyday lives. Example - 2 triangles & circle > we are prone to over relying on intentions as explanations. Naiive scientist approach: ordinary ppl are rational, scienti c thinkers who make causal attributions using similar processes as scientists. Internal attribution = something within person make dispositional attribution. External attribution = caused by something we observe make situational attribution. Correspondent inference theory: correspondence inferencce is made if; Actor had free choice, behaviour was normal/expected & actor intended the action to achieve some thing. Ppl attempt to infer whether a persons action os caused by internal dispositions.