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Block 1 Unit 2 Social Cognition: Attribution Theory

1. Discuss person perception and social cognition. 

Person perception involves how individuals form overall impressions of others based on specific traits. Social cognition is how people make sense of information about individuals and how that information is stored and organised in memory. Early studies show that a single trait, such as "warm" vs. "cold", can drastically change overall perceptions of an individual.

2. Explain the additive and average model in person perception.

• The additive model proposes that we simply add together all the bits of information we have about a person to form a judgment.
• The averaging model suggests that we divide the acquired information by the number of traits and average them. The averaging model has been shown to make more accurate predictions. However, both models have limitations, such as the restriction to a finite set of traits and the neglect of the richness of social information.

3. Define Impression formation. 

Impression formation is the process by which we form overall views and opinions about other people, combining various pieces of information. This can be influenced by factors like central traits and order of information.

4. Define Attribution. 

Attribution is an individual's understanding of the reasons behind people's behaviours. It is the process of explaining the causes of events or actions, whether one's own or those of others.

5. How will you use attribution to explain the causes of behaviour? 

Attribution can be used to determine whether behaviour is due to the situation or to the disposition of the person being observed. Kelley suggested that we consider consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness to make this determination.

6. Explain errors in attribution. 

Errors in attribution include:

3. Implicit personality theory: The assumption that good traits are found together, and bad traits are found together.
4. Halo effect: The tendency to allow one positive trait to influence overall impression.
5. Fundamental attribution error: Overemphasising dispositional factors over situational factors.
6. Assumed similarity bias: The misperception of other people’s personalities if they are dissimilar to the rater.

7. What are the fundamental attribution errors? 

Fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to overemphasize dispositional factors (something about the person) and underestimate situational factors when explaining the causes of other people's behaviour.

8. What do you understand by stating “looking for the good in others”? 

"Looking for the good in others" reflects the person-positivity bias, where there is a tendency to rate individuals more favorably than groups.

9. Discuss the person-positivity bias. 

Person-positivity bias is the tendency to evaluate individuals more positively than groups, even if the groups are made up of individuals who are evaluated positively. This occurs because observers often develop a more positive regard for individuals who are being evaluated which they do not develop when rating groups of people.

10. What are the three sets of characteristics that can help in explanation? 

These characteristics are:

• Consensus: the degree to which other people react similarly in the same situation.
• Consistency: the degree to which the actor behaves the same way in other situations.
• Distinctiveness: the extent to which the same behaviour occurs in relation to other people or stimuli.

11. What are the four factors related attribution theory that influence motivation in education? 

The four factors are: ability, task difficulty, effort, and luck.

12. Discuss self handicapping in terms of attribution theory. 

Self-handicapping occurs when individuals create impediments that make good performance less likely in order to protect their sense of self-competence. If the person does poorly, the failure can be attributed to the impediment rather than lack of ability.

13. How do you use others to understand self? 

According to Festinger’s social comparison theory, we use social reality to satisfy the need for evaluating our abilities. We tend to compare ourselves to similar others in order to make relevant evaluations of our own skills.

14. Explain Bem’s Self Perception theory. 

Bem's Self-Perception Theory states that people come to know their own attitudes, emotions, and internal states by inferring them from observations of their own behaviour and the circumstances in which they occur. When internal cues are weak or ambiguous, individuals rely on external cues (their own behaviour) to infer their inner characteristics.

15. Compare the self perception theory and cognitive dissonance theory.

• Self-perception theory explains the creation of new self-knowledge following behaviour that does not conflict with clear initial self-views.
• Cognitive dissonance theory explains change in existing self-knowledge following freely chosen behaviour that does conflict with clear initial self-views. Self-perception theory provides an explanation for how self-knowledge develops, even when there is no inconsistency between prior beliefs and behaviour.

16. What do you mean by additive and averaging models?

• The additive model proposes we simply add together bits of information to form a judgement.
• The averaging model proposes we divide the acquired information by the number of traits and average them.

17. What do you mean by person perception? What is the role of schemas in person perception? 

Person perception is the way individuals focus on specific traits to form an overall impression of others. Schemas are organised bodies of information that allow us to organise and interpret information. Schemas related to personality traits are called prototypes.

18. Write a note on covariation principle proposed by Harold Kelly. 

The covariation principle suggests that the cause chosen to explain an effect is one that is present when the effect is present and absent when the effect is absent. Kelley also proposed considering consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness to make this determination.

19. “Individuals come to know their own attitudes, emotions and internal states by inferring them from observations of their own behavior and circumstances in which they occur.” Explain with reference to Bem’s self perception theory. 

This statement is the basis of Bem’s self-perception theory, which suggests that people infer their own internal states by observing their own behavior and the context in which it occurs.

20. What are the errors in attribution that people generally make in understanding other’s behaviour? 

Common errors include the fundamental attribution error (overemphasizing dispositional factors), the halo effect, and the assumed similarity bias.

21. What are the educational implications of Weiner’s attribution theory? Explain. 

According to attribution theory, students are more motivated when they attribute success to internal factors (like ability and effort) and failure to unstable factors they can control (such as lack of effort). The ideal is that students believe, "I succeeded because I am a competent person and worked hard". Teachers should help students believe that they can succeed through effort and should avoid making students feel that failure is due to their lack of ability.

22. What is cognitive algebra?

Cognitive algebra refers to models of impression formation. Two models of cognitive algebra are the additive model and the averaging model. The additive model suggests that we simply add together the bits of information we have about a person to form a judgment. The averaging model proposes that we calculate the average value of traits.

23. What are the factors that contribute to impression formation?

Several factors contribute to impression formation. Central traits play an unusually large role in determining a general impression and serve to organize the impression. The order of information also influences impressions; early information is weighted more heavily than later information, known as the primacy effect.

24. What are schemas? How do they hold our impressions together?

Schemas are organised bodies of information stored in memory. They represent how the social world operates and help us to categorise and interpret new information related to the schema. Schemas help us to organise impressions of others.

25. Define prototype and indicate their role in impression formation.

Prototypes are schemas that organise a group of personality traits into a meaningful personality type. They allow people to recall, recognize and categorize information about others, organize the social world around us, and plan behaviour in social interactions.

26. What are situational and dispositional causes?

Situational causes refer to external factors that may influence behaviour. In contrast, dispositional causes are internal factors that are related to the person’s characteristics, traits, or personality.

27. Elucidate the Covariation principle

The covariation principle suggests that an observer uses three specific types of causes to explain an effect: the actor, the entity, and the circumstances. To determine which cause is correct, one needs to consider consensus (how others react in the same situation), consistency (how the actor behaves in other situations), and distinctiveness (how the actor behaves toward other people or stimuli).

28. How will use behaviour to understand what others are like?

People use behaviour to understand others by observing and drawing inferences about what motivates behaviour through the process of attribution. People also tend to make assumptions about others based on their behaviour.

29. Discuss Halo effects.

Halo effects occur when an initial positive (or negative) trait is used to infer other uniformly positive (or negative) characteristics. This assumption that good traits are found together reflects an implicit personality theory.

30. What is meant by assuming consistency within a person?

Assuming consistency within a person refers to the tendency to assume that if someone has one positive trait, they will have other positive traits, or vice versa. This is related to the halo effect and is based on people's implicit personality theory.

31. How is assumption of similarity a bias?

The assumption of similarity bias occurs when people tend to assume that others are similar to themselves. This bias can lead to misperceptions of other people’s personalities if they are in fact dissimilar. This can lead to more accurate judgements when people are similar, not because the rater is astute, but simply because the other person is similar.

32. What are the circumstances in which students will be most persistent in academic tasks?

Students will be most persistent in academic tasks under these circumstances:

• If they attribute academic successes to internal, unstable factors that they control (e.g., effort), or internal, stable factors they have little control over, but which can be disrupted (e.g., ability disrupted by occasional bad luck).
• If they attribute failures to internal, unstable factors that they can control (e.g., effort).

33. What are the additional concepts related to attribution theory?

Additional concepts related to attribution theory include:

• Learning goals are set by individuals who seek to increase their competence. Those who emphasize learning goals are likely to seek challenges and respond to failure by increasing effort.
• Learned helplessness is the expectation that one's actions cannot lead to success, based on previous experience.
• Self-handicapping occurs when learners create impediments that make good performance less likely.

34. What is expectancy valence models? Give examples.

Expectancy-valence models state that a person’s motivation to achieve a goal depends on a combination of the value of that goal (its valence) and the person’s estimation of the likelihood of success. For example, a person will expend more effort when there is a moderate (rather than high or low) probability of success.

35. Why is it important to know our own emotions?

Knowing our own emotions is important because it helps us to understand our own behaviours, motivations, and reactions. Also, the way we identify our emotional states may be influenced by comparison with others. People use other people in order to evaluate the reasonableness of their own emotions and feelings.

36. Discuss Cognitive Dissonance theory in the context of Bem's Self Perception Theory

Cognitive dissonance theory assumes that people are motivated to maintain consistency between self-beliefs and experience an unpleasant state of dissonance when they hold two inconsistent beliefs about the self. In contrast, self-perception theory claims that people come to know their own attitudes, beliefs, and other internal states by inferring them from their own behaviour and the circumstances under which they occur. Self-perception theory does not assume that any motivational state (e.g., dissonance reduction) is necessary for change in self-knowledge. Self-perception theory claims that people can use their own behaviour to infer self-knowledge when the internal cues of prior beliefs are ambiguous or weak, whereas cognitive dissonance theory assumes that people adjust self-knowledge only when the internal cues of prior beliefs are clear and conflict with their freely chosen behaviour. Self-perception theory can explain the adjustment of self-knowledge under different conditions. Self-perception theory explains the creation of new self-knowledge following behaviour that does not conflict with clear initial self-views whereas cognitive dissonance explains change in existing self-knowledge following freely chosen behaviour that does conflict with clear initial self-views.