PSYC 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Fundamental Attribution Error, Dispositional Attribution, Physical Attractiveness

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1010
• Professor: Jill Bee Rich

Document Summary

When we meet someone we start forming impressions right away. Verbal and non-verbal behaviours are used to form impressions. Our moods also play a part; when happy we usually have more positive impressions. Primacy effect is that our first impressions and judgements are more important than any others. Once a first impression is formed it provides a framework to how we interpret later information. Our expectations can influence the way others behave. Expectations may be based on: gender, age, racial group, social class, personality traits. When trying to explain why people behave the way they do, we make attributions we assign or attribute causes to explain the behaviour. We are particularly interested in the causes when behaviours are unexpected, or when actions are not socially desirable. We can make two types of attributions: situational attribution (external) we attribute the behaviour to some external cause or factor operating within the situation.