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🧠 Attribution Theory
Dispositional vs. Situational Attributions
We often seek to explain behaviors, attributing them to either dispositional or situational
factors.
Dispositional attributions:
“Are internal factors like a person's intelligence, attitude, or personality.”
Situational attributions:
“Are external environmental factors that impact behavior, such as weather or
world events.”
Example:
Scenario
Attribution Type
Explanation
Friend fails a test
Situational
"They might have been sick" or "The questions were too hard."
Friend fails a test
Dispositional
"They must have been lazy and not studied enough."
Core Concepts of Attribution Theory
“Attribution theory explains how people interpret and explain the causes of behaviors.”
Highlights the importance of internal and external factors.
Can shed light on our own biases.
Self-Serving Bias
Generally, we focus on the positive when reflecting on our own behaviors.
When we succeed, we attribute it to internal factors.
When we fail, we attribute it to external factors.
“Self-serving bias helps protect self-esteem but can prevent learning from mistakes.”
Actor-Observer Bias
We use different attributions for our own actions versus others' actions.
For our own actions, we use situational attributions (e.g., blaming traffic for being
late).
For others' actions, we use dispositional attributions (e.g., thinking someone is
lazy for being late).
Fundamental Attribution Error
“The tendency to overemphasize internal factors when judging others' behaviors while
underestimating situational factors.”
👓 Explanatory Style
A person's explanatory style impacts how they explain events.
Optimistic Explanatory Style
Explains bad events as temporary problems, focusing on external/situational
factors.
Credits positive outcomes to internal/dispositional attributes.
Example:
Scenario
Attribution
High grade on test
Attributed to how they studied.
Poor grade on test
Attributed to the test being unusually difficult or not feeling well.
Pessimistic Explanatory Style
Explains bad events as permanent, focusing on internal/dispositional factors.
Attributes positive events to external/situational factors.
Example:
Scenario
Attribution
Good grade on test
Attributed to luck or the test being easy.
Bad grade on test
Attributed to not being smart enough.
First Date Example:
Optimistic: No text back is brushed off as the person being busy.
Pessimistic: No text back is interpreted as the person hating them.
🧲 Locus of Control
“Locus of control is about who or what an individual believes has power over the events in
their life”
External Locus of Control
Belief that outside/situational factors determine outcomes.
Can lead to learned helplessness.
“This can cause an individual to assume their actions do not make a
difference, so why even try”
May experience heightened stress or anxiety, or increased relaxation by
accepting lack of control.
Example:
Failing a test and saying, "I failed because the teacher hates me."
Internal Locus of Control
Belief that their actions directly affect outcomes.
Results in taking more initiative.
More likely to keep putting in effort, even with challenges.
Take responsibility for negative outcomes and try to improve.
Tend to have higher self-efficacy and reduced feelings of helplessness.
Example:
Failing a test and responding by saying that they just need to adjust their study
habits and prepare more for the next test.
👀 Person Perception
Mere Exposure Effect
“The mere exposure effect occurs when an individual is repeatedly exposed to a stimulus
resulting in the individual to like the stimulus more and more over time.”
Shows that humans tend to like familiarity.
Gravitate towards familiar things over unfamiliar ones.
🧠 Perception Study Guide
🖼️ Mere Exposure Effect
The mere exposure effect explains that people tend to develop a preference for things or
people that are more familiar to them than others.
“The mere exposure effect means that the more you're exposed to something, the more
you tend to like it.”
Repeated exposure can lead to familiarity and liking.
However, if a person strongly dislikes something, repeated exposure may intensify
their dislike.
Advertisers leverage the mere-exposure effect by repeatedly running the same ads to familiarize
consumers with their product.
🤯 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
The self-fulfilling prophecy is a phenomenon where a person's expectations influence their
behavior in a way that causes those expectations to come true.
“The self-fulfilling prophecy is when your expectations influence your behavior to cause
those expectations to come true.”
This can create a cycle impacting relationships, achievements, and self-esteem.
Example:
If you believe a classmate is mean, you may act distant. This causes them to respond similarly,
reinforcing your initial perception.
The self-fulfilling prophecy can also cause people to behave in ways that confirm their
perceptions about themselves.
Example:
If you believe you're a bad test taker, you might not study, leading to a poor exam performance,
which confirms your belief.
⚖️ Social Comparison
Humans constantly evaluate themselves by comparing their circumstances, skills, abilities, and
internal characteristics to others. This influences self-perception and life satisfaction.
Types of Social Comparisons
Comparison
Type
Definition
Effect
Upward
Comparing oneself to
Can motivate improvement, but if the gap feels too large,
someone believed to be
it can lead to feelings of inadequacy and discouragement.
better off.
Downward
Comparing oneself to
Can improve one's own feelings about their situation, but
someone believed to be
may reduce motivation to improve if the person feels
worse off.
they are already doing better.
😞 Relative Deprivation
Relative deprivation is the feeling of missing out on resources or opportunities, or feeling worse
off than others.
“Relative deprivation is the feeling that you are missing out on resources, opportunities, or
are generally worse off than others.”
It's about comparing your situation to others, not just meeting basic needs.
Example:
Getting a new phone and being excited, but then feeling less satisfied when you see your friends
have newer models.
Friends are the reference group, which is the group of people you are comparing
yourself to.