PSCH 312 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Attribution Bias, Construals
Document Summary
Tendency to perceive ourselves as competent, morally good and innocent, deserving and worthy. Self-serving attributions: we make explanations for our successes that credit internal, dispositional factors while our explanations for our failures blame external, situational factors. We take credit for positive outcomes and avoid blame for negative outcomes. By definition only of people can be above average, but most of us see ourselves as above average on many dimensions. Muhammad ali effect: i"m better (not smarter) than others . Grounded somewhat in reality- because need to be accurate. If good things happen to bad people or bad things happen to good people, it creates a psychological tension. Can result in internal attributions for people who experience negative outcomes. We go to extremes to make external attributions for our failures. Do something in advance that could explain away any potential failure. **self-handicapping means to hinder your own performance in advance of a competition or test.
