theories of social psychology Year 12 social psychology.

2 theories. Attribution theory. Cognitive dissonance theory.

Attribution theory. Heider (1958) = originator of attribution theory. Developed to explain how people infer the reasons behind the behaviour of others. If we infer something about the person – their attitude, personality etc is responsible for the behaviour we call this an internal or dispositional attribution. If we conclude that some external cause – peer pressure or threat etc is responsible for the behaviour we call this an external or situational attribution.

Attribution bias. Attribution bias = systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and others' behaviours. Types Fundamental attribution error. Self serving bias.

Attribution bias Fundamental attribution error. Heider noted that we usually take an individuals behaviour at face value and o not sufficiently consider the surrounding circumstances = we favour a dispositional attribution for the behaviour. Self serving bias making attributions about the behaviour of others, also make attributions about our own behaviour (both dispositional or situational) Supporting research suggest that we distort the facts and make it situational attributions to maintain self esteem Again can be dispositional – “I bought the bag because I really needed it” or situational “I bought the bag because the shop assistant pressured me into it”.

Kelley (1973). Kelley (1973) further developed attribution theory, conducted research helped to reveal the specific mechanisms underlying the process of making attributions. Kelly’s covariation model allows us make judgement on a person’s behaviour because we have had multiple observations of the behaviour. Kelley believed that there were three types of causal information which influenced our judgments.

Kelley (1973) Consensus: The extent to which other people behave in the same way. There is high consensus when most people behave consistent with a given action/actor. Low consensus is when not many people behave in this way. Consistency: The extent to which a person usually behaves in a given way. There is high consistency when a person almost always behaves in a certain way. Low consistency is when a person almost never behaves like this. Distinctiveness: The extent to which an actor's behavior in one situation is different from his/her behavior in other situations. There is high distinctiveness when an actor does not behave this way in most situations. Low distinctiveness is when an actor does usually behave in a particular way in most situations.

Kelley (1973) Kelley proposed that people are more likely to make dispositional attributions when consensus is low (most other people don't behave in the same way), consistency is high (a person behaves this way across most situations), distinctiveness is low (a person's behaviour is not unique to this situation). Alternatively, situational attributions are more likely reached when consensus is high, consistency is high, distinctiveness is high.

Kelley Example Another example - imagine you are a student in a class and one day your professor walks in wearing multicoloured sweater(odd looking).we try to predict, what compelled him to wear it. According to co-variation model. 1) Consensus- Is everyone wearing the same type of sweater or is it only your professor. if its only your professor you're likely to begin to make an internal dispositional attribution. So the cause of behavior is uniquely to do with professor and not situation. 2)Consistency- Is this the first time your professor has worn this sweater, or does he do it every week. if he wear it every week you are going to be more inclined to male a dispositional attribution. And if he wears it only this week then you might think he's having only a temporary fashion crisis or any external attribution (broke down of washing machine and this is only one sweater he left with). 3)Distinctiveness-Does your professor wears this sweater in different classes? If you think so you are more inclined to make a dispositional attribution that your professor has chronic fashion problem.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory. Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition). Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance).