Attribution Theory: how people explain behavior and thoughts of self and others
- Dispositional attributions relate to internal qualities (e.g. intelligence, personality)
- Situational attributions relate to external circumstances
Patterns and Errors
- Fundamental Attribution Error: blame other's disposition (neglecting external factors)
- Explanatory Style: optimistic vs pessimistic
- Self-Serving Bias: success is me (disposition), failure is external factors
- Actor-Observer Bias: the combination of self-serving and FAE
- Just-World Hypothesis/Phenomenon: blaming the victim (actor-observer bias)
- False-Consensus Bias/Effect: assuming that everyone else share your viewpoint
- Confirmation Bias: only use information that support your viewpoint, ignoring counterevidence
- Halo Effect: when you like A, you assume A has a bunch of good qualities with no evidence; e.g. attractive people get unjustified good impression on their personal qualities
Locus of control:
- Internal: "I am in control, hard work will be rewarded"
- External: "there's nothing I can do, what happens is due to luck/fate"
Person Perception
- Mere-Exposure Effect: liking a stimulus more simply because of being repeatedly exposed to it - commercial, girl/boy next door
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: you behavior makes your assumption come true (e.g. teacher praises A because they like A, which makes A more likely to become the kind of person they like; peers hate B because of a stereotype, and B responds negatively, which fulfills the stereotype)
- Social Comparison (upward/downward): we judge ourselves relative to others (relative deprivation)