COB 202 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Fundamental Attribution Error, Stereotype, Social Identity Theory
Pg. 43-56: Self Concept & Complexity, Consistency, & Clarity
Complexity: the number of distinct & important roles or identities that people perceive about
themselves
Self-Concept: an individual’s self-beliefs & self-evaluations
Self Enhancement: a person’s inherent motivation to have a positive self-concept (and to have
others perceive him/ her favorably), such as being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and
important
Self-Verification: a person’s inherent motivation to confirm & maintain his/ her existing self-
concept
Self-Efficacy: a person’s belief that he/ she has the ability, motivation, correct role perception, &
favorable situation to complete a task successfully
Locus of Control: a person’s general belief about the amount of control he/ she has to complete
a task successfully
Social Identity Theory: a theory stating that people define themselves by the groups to which
they belong or have an emotional attachment
Perception: the process of receiving info about & making sense of the world around us
Selective attention: the process of attending to some info received by our senses & ignoring
other info
Confirmation Bias: the process of screening out information that is contrary to our values &
assumptions & to more readily accept confirming information
Categorical thinking: organizing people & objectives into preconceived categories that are
stored in our long term memory
Mental Models: knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, & predict the world
around us
Stereotyping: the process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social
category
Attribution Process: the perceptual process of deciding whether an observed behavior or event
is caused largely by internal or external factors
Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to attribute our favorable outcomes to internal factors & our
failures to external factors
Fundamental attribution error: the tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the
main cause of that person’s behavior
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: the perceptual process in which our expectations about another person
cause that person to act more consistently with those expectations
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Document Summary
43-56: self concept & complexity, consistency, & clarity. Complexity: the number of distinct & important roles or identities that people perceive about themselves. Self enhancement: a person"s inherent motivation to have a positive self-concept (and to have others perceive him/ her favorably), such as being competent, attractive, lucky, ethical, and important. Self-verification: a person"s inherent motivation to confirm & maintain his/ her existing self- concept. Self-efficacy: a person"s belief that he/ she has the ability, motivation, correct role perception, & favorable situation to complete a task successfully. Locus of control: a person"s general belief about the amount of control he/ she has to complete a task successfully. Social identity theory: a theory stating that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment. Perception: the process of receiving info about & making sense of the world around us.
