Exam 5: Social Attribution: Explaining Behavior

Darby consistently attributes her failures to stable, global, and internal causes.Briana accounts for her failures by citing unstable, specific, external causes.According to research on explanatory style, Darby is likely to

____________ theory deals with how people assign causes to the events around them and the effects that these explanations have.

Consensus information refers to whether a specific person generally acts the same way in similar situations.

Which of the following questions reflects what attribution theories seek to explain?

Jim meets Tina for coffee and asks, "Would you be my date for the Sigma Chi formal dance?" She smiles and says, "That's so nice of you, but I've already got plans." Jim then thinks to himself, "I'll never find a date for this formal." Given this information, you can conclude that Jim's response reflects a(n)____________ explanatory style.

Explanatory style is assessed along the three dimensions of internal/external, global/specific, and stable/unstable.

Christine decided, at the last minute, to try a new route to work.On her drive in, she hit a deep pothole, causing one of her car tires to go flat.According to research on counterfactual reasoning, her decision to try a new route ____________ the likelihood that she engaged in counterfactual reasoning.

Several mountain climbers were trapped on Mount Everest during a blinding snowstorm.Many climbers died on the mountain.However, one climber made it all the way back to base camp.Unfortunately, though, he collapsed and died mere yards away from the safety of his tent.Because this climber came so close to saving himself, ____________ is particularly likely to occur in response to this climber's death.

The Westlake Hills Little League team just lost a game.According to research on attribution biases, right after the game, the Westlake Hills coach is likely to say,

Many people think that victims of domestic abuse and rape are responsible for their fates.This disturbing tendency is most closely related to

The ____________ holds that people have a tendency to believe that another person's behavior is due to his or her disposition rather than the situation in which that person finds him- or herself.

The covariation principle characterizes attribution as a quick and simple process that focuses primarily on single instances of behavior.

Hector plays golf every Saturday.His wife Alicia notices that after a winning round, Hector tends to play with the kids.After a losing round, he tends to watch television by himself.According to ____________, over time, Alicia is likely to conclude that Hector's golf games can exert a causal effect on his behavior at home.

According to Dan Gilbert and his research on the attributional process, the first stage entails making ____________ that are ____________.The adjustment stage entails making ____________ that are ____________.

According to ____________, our confidence that a particular cause is responsible for a given outcome is reduced if there are other plausible causes that might have produced it.

According to social psychological research on covariation information, which condition should prompt the highest expectations about the TechnoCool dance club? When

Studies have shown that students with a pessimistic explanatory style tend to get better grades, because they try harder to avoid failure.

People often mistakenly believe that actors are similar to the characters they play on television programs or in films.This tendency is best explained by

An American soldier is captured and tortured by enemy forces.The enemy then releases a videotape of the soldier proclaiming a deep hatred for America.According to the discounting principle, Americans who later view this videotape are likely to explain the soldier's proclamations in terms of ______________ causes.

The fundamental attribution error refers to people's tendency to jump to situational attributions for behaviors, without considering dispositional factors.