INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION &
ATTRIBUTION
Attribution theories:
describe psychological operations that
lead us to make Situational or
Dispositional
interpretations
of
behaviour
describe how people think about each
other
Fritz Heider 1953

Phenomenological causality – how ordinary
people understand cause & effect & the errors
they make in doing so.
social perception – how we explain own actions
& those of others
 Esp.

Analogy from gestalt analysis of visual
perception: misperceive actions, because
confuse figure (actor)/ground (social situation)
Anticipated social constructionism:

explanations we use to explain the world are both
products of the way they ‘structure the world’ and at the
same time contribute to that structuring.

We don’t respond to how world actually works but to our
perception of it

can only develop psychological theories about the way
people act if we have access to explanatory framework
within which they operate.
The Logic of Attribution
Kurt Lewin – attributional/Lewinian equation
B=S+D
(behaviour) = (situation) + (disposition)
dynamic relation between attributional
elements = core logic of attribution theories
Discounting principle: (Kelley 1972)
Do not conclude unique predisposition to act if
behaviour is exactly what situation demands: Ignore
nondiagnostic behaviour
Do we obey this rule?
Correspondence Bias: 1967 Jones & Harris (proCastro essays) tendency to conclude person has a
disposition that corresponds to behaviour even
when behaviour attributable to situation
Fundamental Attribution Error
Ross 1977
Causes:
1.
wanting dispositions  sense of control (emphasis on
individuality)
 powers of prediction (function as a theory)
overestimation of D
2. misunderstanding situations
 situation invisible (Ross, Amabile,
Steinmetz 1977)  psychological construal of situation
inadequate (Sherman 1980)
underestimation of S
3.
misperceiving behaviour
seeing behaviour complex inferential process
helping/cheating not actions but action
identifications
factors determining accuracy:
expectations Rosenhan 1973 (pseudopatients),
perceptual assimiliation (Bruner 1957)
Trope 1986
2 stage model of attribution
Identification ►
What is actor doing?
it?
Attribution
Why is actor doing
(*information about situational constraints
can increase accuracy of attributions =
prevent underestimation of S,
But can also can decrease accuracy of
identifications = overestimate B)
4.
failing to use information
how we use what we know
automaticity
Quattrone 1982:
First make dispositional
inferences, then change those to Situational
ones
Attribution = series of sequential operations
anchoring heuristic Tversky & Kahneman 1974
Gilbert, Pelham & Krull 1988
3-stage model
Identification
►
Attribution
Automatic dispositional inference
▼
Effortful situation correction
tested using divided attention technique
cognitively
busy
Subjects
made
dispositional inferences (automatic) and
did not correct those inferences (effortful )
to take account of situation
INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION
Any mental event, an attribution, can change the world and
then be affected by the world it changed
We change the behaviour of those we analyse
Attributional errors
Snowball effect - final nature of event strongly influenced
by minor changes in antecedent conditions
sensitive dependence on initial conditions
final judgements about others = v sensitive to small
changes in initial impressions
3 mechanisms
Matching reactions: Synder, Tanke & Berscheid 1977
 Providing opportunities: Rosenthal & Jacobson 1968;
Harris & Rosenthal 1985; Fail to provide opportunities to
repudiate suspicions, create special opportunity to confirm;
Snyder & Swann 1978 Leading questions
Hypothesis –confirming bias
 Setting norms: emperor’s new clothes Baumeister, Hutton
& Tice 1989

Perceiver-induced constraints
I cause you to act in certain ways and then conclude that you
are predisposed to those actions
Co-variation problem Ichheiser 1949
No information about how people behave in our absence, (i.e.,
misunderstanding situations)
Self-regulation problem
Impression management, strategic self-presentation
Goffman 1959 (i.e., failing to use information)
Critique & Reading
 We
have induced, not just observed,
behaviour.
 We cannot separate ourselves from the social
worlds we are appraising.
Reading
Relevant material in Hogg & Vaughan
Also

Langdridge, D. & Butt, T. (2004) The fundamental attribution error: A
phenomenological critique. British Journal of Social Psychology,
43(3), 357-69.

Reynolds, B. & Karraker, K. (2003) A Big Five model of disposition
and situation interaction: why a ''helpful'' person may not always
behave helpfully. New Ideas in Psychology, 21(1), 1-13.