PSYC1111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Fundamental Attribution Error
Social Cognition -> mind phenomenon as we interact socially!
dissonance theories -> Heider and Felsiger!•
!
!
Attribution Theory!
making attributes!•
attributes we are making are about other people's behavior or our own behavior!•
what is the reason for that behavior!◦
attribute to behavior some underlying motive or aspect of personality -> give meaning and ◦
try to explain!
making attribution is our #1 social activity!•
talk about people, what they do and what it means!◦
give accounting for people's activities!◦
!
attribution transcends social behavior and goes into political behavior!•
giving a poor person money, government aid!◦
some say yes and others say no, i work hard for money and they should work too!◦
these have to do with attributions as to why the person is poor!•
some believe they are poor because they are LAZY -> problem with them!◦
others believe they are poor because of the CONDITIONS -> society!◦
depending on which train of attribution you go on, determines the way you vote!•
!
!
what should be the penalty for child sexual abuse?!•
have a behavior -> execution, long prison sentence!◦
be forgiving, etc.!‣
a disproportionate number of people who are abused as children grow up to be child abusers!•
a disproportionate number of people who abuse children were abused themselves as children!•
relationship there!◦
!
!
how much are you going to blame them in terms of punishment !•
reach 2 different conclusions about how much to blame or punish!◦
1) they have uncontrolled instincts -> amoral personality!‣
2) they had some childhood experiences -> have to consider situation!‣
attributions we make about why they did this influences the blame we are willing to prescribe !•
!
!
Attribution Theory!
we are terrible at making attributions, we make many errors when trying to do this!•
social psychologists have taken all of our errors when we make attributions!•
looked at fundamental attribution error ◦
!
2 General Kinds of Attributions we make about people!
%1) dispositional -> some trait or tendency led to this activity!
%2) situational -> circumstances they find themselves in
Fundamental Attributional Error!
when making attributions about other people as opposed to ourselves we are more likely •
to favor dispositional vs. situational attributions!
