PSYC-105 FA4 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Fundamental Attribution Error, Dispositional Attribution, Cognitive Miser

• School: American University
• Department: PSYC - PSYCHOLOGY
• Course: PSYC-105 FA4
• Professor: Laura Duval

Document Summary

Social psychology- the scientific study of how we think about, influence and relate to one another. Attribution-trying to infer the cases of our own or someone else"s behavior. Internal (dispositional attribution)- attributing behavior to a stable, internal characteristic of the person; this is the type of person this individual is. External (situational attribution)- attributing behavior to some aspect of the situation that the behavior took place in; this behavior has more to do with the circumstances rather than the individual. Fundamental attribution error- the tendency to explain others" actions in terms of dispositional (internal) rather than more appropriate situational (external) causes (usually more prone in western culture) Actor-observer effect: tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes but the behavior of others mainly to dispositional causes. Social cognition- the study of how people interpret, analyze, remember and use information about the social world.