PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Trait Theory, Fundamental Attribution Error, Physical Attractiveness
Document Summary
Difficult to accurately attribute intentions to observed actions because for every observed behavior, there are many possible motivating factors. You make automatic judgments about people which will influence how you think, feel and behave toward the person. Jones & davis correspondent inference theory: you actively analyze a person"s behavior to make inferences based on: Helps to know if the individual chose to act in the observed in question (ex. someone choses to be on a certain side of the debate believes it) May have difficulty appreciating the role of degree of choice in a chosen behavior may develop strong emotional feelings for/against a movie actor who you assume is really that romantic or whatever characteristics in real life. Uncommon behavior gives us a lot more info than common behavior. If someone behaves in a way typical to what you would expect from them, you do not have any reason to infer an underlying cause to their behaviour.
