Casual Attribution

• Casual attribution concerns how people explain the causes of behavior

Attribution Basics

• Fritz Heider studied attribution
• Internal attribution explains behavior as a result of personal characteristics
• External attribution explains behavior as a result of situational factors

Covariation Model

• Harold Kelley's model
• In the absence of sufficient data, people tend to make internal attributions
• Consistency refers to whether a person usually behaves in a certain way in a given situation
• High consistency means they frequently act that way
• Low consistency means there's no perceived pattern
• With low consistency, attributing the behavior is difficult and typically leads to an external attribution
• Consensus reflects whether other people behave similarly in that situation
• High consensus means most people behave that way
• Low consensus means not many people behave that way
• Distinctiveness refers to whether the person's behavior occurs only in this situation or in many
• High distinctiveness means they don't behave this way in other situations
• Low distinctiveness means they behave this way in many other situations
• High consistency but low consensus and distinctiveness prompts internal attributions

Two-Step Attribution Process by Gilbert

• Characterization involves making an automatic internal attribution
• Correction entails considering situational factors and is controlled
• Correction isn't always possible due to cognitive load or distractions
• Considering situational factors doesn't guarantee an external attribution

Fundamental Attribution Error

• The tendency to overestimate internal factors' importance while underestimating external factors' influence on behavior
• The Jones and Harris experiment involved judging personality based on writing
• Independent variable: chosen vs assigned position
• Dependent variable: estimate of writer's true attitude
• Assigned people struggled writing against their true beliefs

Nonverbal Communication

• Feelings are communicated through expressions
• Darwin believed facial expressions are universal to all species
• Expressions include anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, fear, and surprise
• Paul and Walker studied the South Fore tribe where the tribe matched stories with emotional content to facial expressions with high accuracy
• Some cultural differences exist in how expressions are categorized
• Research indicates pride is expressed cross-culturally
• Pride is typically expressed by a smile and tall, proud chest
• Tracy and David studied pride and shame at the Olympic Games
• Pride was consistent, shame was associated with losing in almost all cultures
• Athletes from individualistic cultures tend suppress shame due to it being considered negative
• Decoding happens quickest when the person is looking at you
• Display rules, which dictate what emotions people should show, depend on culture
• Japanese norms encourage people cover negative expressions
• Americans dislike men showing emotions but want this in women
• Eye contact is another nonverbal cue, where people grow suspicious if not looked in the eye
• The use of personal space can also be a nonverbal cue
• Deviations of "norms spacing" depends on culture
• Americans typically prefer a few feet of space around them, but some cultures may stand closer

Forming First Impressions

• First impressions are formed based on slight cues
• Examples include cleanliness and messiness
• Displaying no photos at work may signal a desire to separate from home/work
• People with baby faces are often perceived as naive, warm, and submissive
• Nalini refers to impressions as thin slicing
• College students form impressions of their professors
• Students then watched filmed of their professor
• Showed silent videos of their professor to other students
• These students had to rate the professors
• The students who didn't know the professors beforehand, rated them on how confident and active they were.
• Correlation existed between thin sliced impressions to students who spent an entire semester with the teacher
• Positive initial descriptions such as intelligent and kind often lead lead to a more positive impression
• Initial conclusions endure, even when they shouldn't, because of belief perseverance

Casual Attribution

• Founded by Fritz Heider
• Internal actions are a result of the person
• External actions are a result of the situation
• Internal attributions are preferred for positive behaviors
• External attributions are preferred for when evaluating people viewed in a negative light
• Covariation Model explains someone's behavior using:
• Consensus info, or how other people act in the same situation
• Distinctiveness, or how a person responds to stimuli, and
• Consistency, or frequency of observed behavior
• External attribution exists if consensus and distinctiveness are high
• Studies reveals consensus is relied upon less than the other two as it is harder to demonstrate

Fundamental Attribution Error

• Rosa Parks Day is intended to honor her and serves as a leave a seat open in her memory
• People who sat on the seat only sat because they didn't see the sign
• People made the wrong attribution assuming it was racism when they really just didn't catch that it sign
• The Edward Jones explored this concept though asking people to read a study about support for or against Fidel Castro:
• Participants were asked to guess how the author really felt about the issue
• People were told what position to take, yet people believed they held those opinions
• This overlooked the role of the situation, or assignment of the writing
• This occurs when people don't have the full situation or how those involved fully interpreted it
• Perceptual salience pertains to the seeming importance of information at which people's focus

Self-Serving Attributions

• Getting an A on a test is attributed to smartness, a B is the test had
• People credit themselves for success with internal attributions and attribute losses to external causes
• This maintains self-esteem
• Bad things happen to bad people which makes people feel better

The Bias Blind Spot

• It is the tendency for people to think that others are more susceptible to attributional biases
• Participants described as tenders to think a certain way, but never labeled it bias
• Most participants believed they weren't likely too influenced by being a "tender", unlike other average Americans

Culture and Social Perception

• North America emphasizes individual autonomy/individual traits
• East Asia stresses group autonomy and comes from Confucian ideas

Holistic vs Analytical Thinking

• Experiment involved a cartoon with a facial expression placed with people around it who had different or same expressions
• Americans- the other faces didn't affect the results
• Japanese- other faces around affected their interpretation

Origins and Nature of the Self-Concept

• Species showing the existence/sense of self:
• Put a spot on animals faces then put in front of a mirror, once they woke up, they touched the spot
• Doing this to humans, sense of self is showed at around 18-24 months old
• People emphasize psychological things rather than physical traits as they mature
• Cultural influences can impact sense of self

Cultural Differences in Sense of Self

• Western cultures show an independent view of oneself
• For example assumptions that if a Princess of Japan got married she was forced into such a marriage
• Asian/non-western cultures show an interdependent view of oneself
• Questionnaires demonstrated how independent people viewed themselves
• The study showed people in China viewing themselves as interdependent while people in West are independent

Functions of the Self

• Help self knowledge
• Self control- to make plans/ decisions
• Impression management- to present to other people
• To build self esteem

Self-Knowledge

• Looking inward about your thoughts, feelings, motives through introspection
• Can't always decipher the reason for the behaviors

Self Awareness Theory

• Comparing our current behavior to internal standards/values to judge ourselves
• Trying to change behaviors to fit the standards
• High schoolsers asked about what they were thinking about- the more stated about themselves meant the more bad moods too
• People escape negative state of awareness by trying not to look at themselves, drinking, eating, etc

Self Focus

• To continue what is successful, focus on keeping out of trouble by reminding what is right and wrong
• People can only tell so much
• Peoples explanations go beyond what is actually understood
• Students were asked what influenced mood with weather, sleep etc..
• People were relying thoughts about how sleep predicts mood

Observing Our Own Behavior

• Self-perception theory describes how we have a crush because we have been texting a person a lot or just our behavior
• We base our actions on how we observe them
• We infer what emotions happen like infer what type of person someon is

Explore casual attribution in psychology, including internal and external attribution. Learn about Fritz Heider's work and Harold Kelley's covariation model. Understand consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness in determining the causes of behavior.