PS470 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Social Cognition
Document Summary
Approach that dominated social psychology in the 1970s. Term actually encompasses multiple theories and studies focused on how people attribute the causes of events and behaviours. Theory and research derived from book by heider (1958) where he characterized people as. Correspondent inference theory (jones & davis, 1965) derived from heider"s discounting principle (confidence in any cause is diminished to the extent that other causes are plausible) People will make fewer trait inferences about someone whose socially appropriate behaviour can be explained by their personality and by social norms than about someone who"s socially inappropriate behaviour can be explained only by their personality. Inferences about a job applicant"s traits were stronger when the candidate behaved in a manner contrary to assumed job-seeking norms. Derived from heider"s covariation principle which states that people explain events in terms of things that are present when the event occurs but absent when it does not. The proper cause becomes evident through a mental covariance analysis.
