Chat with AIExam 6: Section 2: Attribution Processes
What is meant by the "correspondence bias"? Give an example. What are some conditions that might exaggerate or mitigate this bias?
(34) 
Verifieda. Attribution of behavior to dispositional causes without sufficiently taking situational influences into account.
b. Example: a harried mother looks at her watch, grabs her child by the hand, and starts to walk very quickly. When the child refuses to forward, the mother starts yelling. An observer assumes the mother is a fundamentally hostile, aggressive person and does not consider situational factors, such as time pressure, that may have contributed to the behavior.
c. More likely when an observer is cognitively busy.
d. Less likely when observer is accountable to others for judgments, for behavior of close others, under outcome dependency.
When people observe their own behavior, sometimes they infer dispositions about themselves, but sometimes they implicate the situation. What influences the type of attribution people make about themselves?
(41) 
Answered by Examlex AI CopilotThe type of attribution people make about themselves—whether they infer dispositions (internal attributions) or implicate the situation (external attributions)—is influenced by several factors. Understanding these factors can help explain why people interpret their own behavior in different ways under different circumstances. Here are some key influences:
1. **Consistency**: If a behavior is consistent over time, people are more likely to make a dispositional attribution. For example, if someone always gets nervous before public speaking, they might conclude that they are a nervous person.
2. **Distinctiveness**: If a behavior is unique to a particular situation, people are more likely to make a situational attribution. For instance, if someone only gets angry when they are in traffic, they might attribute their anger to the situation (heavy traffic) rather than to an internal disposition (being an angry person).
3. **Consensus**: If other people are behaving in the same way in the same situation, individuals are more likely to make a situational attribution. For example, if everyone in a class fails a test, a student is likely to blame the difficulty of the test rather than their own ability.
4. **Cognitive Processes**: Self-serving bias is a cognitive process where individuals attribute their successes to internal factors and their failures to external factors. This bias helps maintain self-esteem.
5. **Culture**: Individualistic cultures, which emphasize personal achievement and autonomy, are more likely to make dispositional attributions. In contrast, collectivistic cultures, which emphasize group harmony and interdependence, are more likely to make situational attributions.
6. **Motivation and Emotion**: People's current needs, goals, and emotions can influence their attributions. For example, if someone is motivated to see themselves in a positive light, they might attribute their good deeds to their character and their mistakes to the situation.
7. **Perceptual Salience**: The focus of a person's attention at the time of the behavior can influence attribution. If the individual is highly aware of the situational factors, they may be more likely to attribute their behavior to the situation.
8. **Past Experiences and Knowledge**: Personal history and learned knowledge can shape how people interpret their behavior. If someone has learned that their mood is affected by the weather, they might attribute a bad mood to a rainy day.
9. **Social and Environmental Cues**: Feedback from others and environmental cues can also influence self-attribution. For example, if others praise someone for being helpful in a situation, the person may be more likely to attribute that behavior to their own disposition.
10. **Psychological State**: Mental health and cognitive biases can affect self-attribution. For instance, individuals with depression may be more likely to attribute failures to internal, stable, and global factors due to a cognitive style known as depressive attributional style.
In summary, the attributions people make about their own behavior are complex and influenced by a variety of factors, including the context of the behavior, cultural norms, cognitive biases, and personal motivations. Understanding these factors can provide insight into why people sometimes see their actions as a reflection of their character and other times as a response to the situation.
Schachter's work proposes the idea that attributions for arousal are somewhat malleable, and that emotional reactions to threat have the potention to be reduced by reattributing the threat to a neutral or less threatening source. Was this misattribution predictions shown to be empirically supported? Provide reasons as to why or why not and describe what is necessary for misattribution effects to occur.
(39) Verifieda. Misattribution effect not shown to be reliable or powerful enough to produce significant clinical applications.
b. Reasons: 1) people motivated to do a search of what is causing the state; 2) people more likely to attribute arousal to a negative source than a more positive or neutral on.
c. Necessary: 1) alternative source of arousal that is plausible, unambiguous and salient; 2) actual cause of arousal not obvious; 3) person must believe misattribution source to have more impact on arousal than it actually does.
Is the self-centered bias the same as a self-serving attributional bias? Discuss the similarities and differences.
(30) What is meant by a "misattribution effect"? How did researchers think this phenomenon might be helpful in a clinical setting? Were they correct?
(37) 
Filters
- Essay(0)
- Multiple Choice(0)
- Short Answer(0)
- True False(0)
- Matching(0)