ATTRIBUTION

WARM-UP GAME

Write 5 questions that are based on your own

knowledge?

(Examples: Who played catcher for the Boston Red

Sox in 2004? What college did Mr. Hausman attend?

What is the TuHS Cross-Country Record?)

WARM-UP QUESTIONS

Describe a time when you or a team of yours had a big victory/success in your life. Why did this happen?

Describe a time when you or a team of yours had a big loss/defeat/failure in your life. Why did this happen?

Now consider… Compare the reasons behind each of these events? Are they

they same? Different? Do these reasons hold true for most examples?

2/4/2104

LEARNING OUTCOMES

SC.2.A. Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors

in explaining behaviour.

SC.2.B. Discuss two errors in attributions.

Note…The studies that we will discuss today will help answer

both of these learning outcomes. You should make a note of this

and do not say that you do not have studies to answer either of

these standards.

SOCIAL COGNITION

How we process information in a social

world.

We take information in, make quick

judgments, and behave according to those

decisions.

ATTRIBUTION

The process of interpreting and explaining

the causes of behaviors and events in the

social world.

How we decide why a person does what they do.

Humans have a need to understand why something

happens.

Social Cognition We do this all the time!

TRY THIS…

How do you attribute The Bieb’s tirades?

SITUATIONAL VS. DISPOSITIONAL

Situational Dispositional

External

environments cause

people to act the

way they do. Example: I wrote a bad

essay because I didn’t

get the prompt I wanted.

Internal characteristics

cause people to act the

way they do.

Example: I wrote a bad

essay because I decided not

to study.

YOUR INSTRUCTIONS: GROUP A

Imagine that you got a speeding ticket driving

to school. Explain why this might have

happened.

YOUR INSTRUCTIONS: GROUP B

Imagine a classmate of yours gets a speeding

ticket while driving to school. Explain why this

might have happened.

ACTOR-OBSERVER EFFECT

People tend to make an attribution about

behavior depending on whether they are

performing the it themselves or observing

somebody else do it.

Behavior of self: Situational Factors

Behavior of others: Dispositional Factors

Do we agree with this idea?

ERRORS IN ATTRIBUTION

We make mistakes with our attributions all the

time!

How can this impact our lives?

SC.2.B. Discuss two errors in attributions (the

studies for this standard also can be used for

SC.2.A.)

ERROR OF ATTRIBUTION #1:

FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION

ERRORWhen people overestimate the role of

dispositional factors in an individual’s

behaviors and underestimate situational

factors.

OUR GAME SHOW

Who did you score as being more intelligent?

Why did you do this?

ROSS ET AL. (1977)

Aim: To determine if an assigned social role would

affect the judgment of that person

Method:

Created an experiment where participants were either assigned the

role of host, contestant, or audience member.

Host created questions based on their own knowledge.

If the answer was not correct, the host provided the answer.

After the game audience members ranked the intelligence of the host

versus the contestants.

ROSS ET AL. (1977)

FINDINGS/CONCLUSIONS

Findings: The host was consistently ranked as

having higher intelligence by the audience.

Conclusion: The audience were looking for

dispositional factors of the participants and not

the situational factors…Fundamental

Attribution Error!

Critical Thinking: Ecological validity?

Representative sample? Role of authority

figure? Applications?

SUEDFELD (2003)

Aim: To determine how Holocaust survivors use attribution to explain their survival.

Method: Gave a survey to Holocaust survivors asking them to explain the reasons that they survived. Compared this with a control group.

Findings:

Conclusion: Holocaust survivors had a more accurate picture of what happened and the reason why they survived. FAE in play for Control group.

Survivors Control

Dispositional 34% 71%

Situational 91% 51%

EVALUATION OF FAE

Strengths of FAE Limitations of FAE

• Promotes understanding

of a common error that

people make.

• Supported by many

research studies

• May be culturally biased

towards individualism

• Research is generally

done in labs using

college students.

ERROR OF ATTRIBUTION #2:

SELF-SERVING BIAS

When people take credit for their success,

attributing them to dispositional factors, and

disassociate themselves from their failures,

attributing them to situational factors.

Did this happen in your warm-up question?

Self-Handicapping-Individuals who expect to fail

openly make situational attributions before

attempting the task.

LAU AND RUSSEL (1980)

Aim: To determine if college football coaches displayed SSB.

Method: Examined sports pages in current print and archives to study whether football coaches would display a self-serving bias.

Findings/Conclusions: Football coaches attribute victories to dispositional factors- hard work and the talent of the team- and explain failures to situational factors – weather, refs, injuries.

SELF-SERVING BIAS

Do you agree with this theory?

Why would we do this? What would it

accomplish for us?

KASHIMA AND TRIANDIS (1986)

Aim: To Determine if SSB is a culturally universal trait

Method: Asked students from different cultures (America and Japan) to try to remember information from slides of unfamiliar countries.

Findings: American Students: Success attributed to ability.

Japanese Students: Failure Attributed to ability.

Conclusion: Culture led students to engage in different types of attribution.

This is called the Modesty Bias

EVALUATION OF SSD

Strengths of SSB Limitations of SSB

Explains why some people

(mostly from individualistic

cultures) explain their

failures as being caused by

situational factors

The theory is culturally

biased. It does not explain

modesty bias.

ERRORS IN ATTRIBUTION SKITS

In pairs, you will create a short skit that represents one of the

three errors in attribution.

Create a naturalistic situation where errors in attribution could occur

Clearly demonstrate your error in action

Class will attempt to guess which error of attribution you are showing.