PSYB10H3 Chapter 5: Ch.5, 4/e, Social Psychology
Document Summary
Chapter 5: social attribution: explaining behavior: attribution theory- the study of how people understand the causes of events. Causal attribution- construal process people use to explain both their own and other"s behaviors. Explanatory style: causal explanation has an effect on your emotional state, person"s habitual way of explaining events. Rules that help us understand the past, illuminate the present, and predict the future. Internal vs. external = is the cause telling us something characteristic and informative of the. Self-serving attributional bias- attribute failure to external and attribute success to internal: motivated by the desire to maintain self-esteem but this can be hard to tell. Fundamental attribution error- tendency to attribute people"s behavior to elements of their character or personality and not situation: causes. Actor-observer difference: culture and causal attribution. Cultural differences: westerners = consider absolute, non-westerners = consider context attribution error. Asians more like to attribute behavior to situation even though they are likely to make a fundamental.
