PV Process of inference-making is one of making sense and imposing order and predictability on our experiences We do this in several ways: Deductive Schema-driven inferences Category ‘familiar’ Automatic processing Inductive Naïve epistemology Category ‘unfamiliar’ Controlled processing

PV Describes how we arrive at decisions about the cause of people’s behavior and why we arrive at specific decisions - Process of naïve epistemology Attributions are causal explanations for an event They suggest how and why something happened and who or what was responsible naturally this results in a ‘causal account’ that influences subsequent decision making

PV  Actor/Observer Bias otherwise known as the “Fundamental Attribution Error” Actors emphasize situational features in their accounts of their behavior Observers tend to explain Actor behavior as largely due to something ‘dispositional’ of the Actor Perceptual Account of the bias due to differences in the “perceptual field” of actors and observers Actor behavior ‘engulfs’ the Observer

PV  False-Consensus Bias Tendency to see our behavior as more representative than it actually is Conversely, we view people’s behavior that is different than ours as less common than it actually is Perceptual and ego defense explanations One of the most notable examples is the possibly apocryphal quip by The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael, who reportedly said she couldn't believe Nixon had won since no one she knew had voted for him.

How unusual is the person who disagrees with us?

PV  Self-serving Bias People claim responsibility for success and avoid blame for failure individuals offer more dispositional accounts for success and more situational accounts for failure ‘Midas touch’ Benefectance ego enhancement and ego defense

Ego Enhancement Claiming credit for success Ego Defense Refusing blame for failure vs.

PV Continuum reflecting information- processing/perceptual accounts versus self- esteem/ego accounts PerceptualMotivated Actor/observerFalse consensusSelf-serving

PV Much of decision making involves locating the cause of responsibility in order to facilitate decision making. Consistency Consensus Distinctiveness Schemas  stereotypes Observed Behavior Information Cues AttributionsDecisions Decision Constraints Policy Resources

Incident A patient had recently returned from surgery after a prostatectomy. Nurse Connaly (R.N.) checked this patient’s condition and found him to be doing satisfactorily. However, she failed to tape down a catheter as requested in written order by the patient’s surgeon. The untaped catheter was discovered by the surgeon and he reported this incident to you. The patient had suffered no ill effects. Work History Nurse Connaly has been on the job for 3 months and this is the first time she has made an error of this type, failing to complete a physician’s order. Her performance on other tasks has generally been error free. Other R.N.s on this unit have made similar errors relating to the completion of physicians’ orders and this type of behavior has occurred on several occasions in the last year. EFFECTIVE – EFFICIENT – ENDURING - ENDEARING

Task/Role/Project New SalesX-SellingCSRAccounts New SalesX-SellingCSRAccounts Person Pam 3 2 Person Pam3 2 Tom Sue Ray Observation Period 1 Observation Period 3 Task/Role/Project New SalesX-SellingCSRAccounts New SalesX-SellingCSRAccounts Person Pam2 2 Person Pam 33 Tom Sue Ray Observation Period 2 Observation Period 4 Fails to meet ≤ 3; meets ≥ 4; exceeds ≥ 6

PV

pv From: Michael R. Cunningham. The Sociobiology of Beauty, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology Is beauty in the eye of the beholder or is it universal? Cross-species standards Symmetry as signal of reproductive health Neonate features Mature Features Expressive Features

pv

PV  An associational network that organizes our  Attention, Processing, and Recall of information  Deductive theory of how the world works  Spawns hypotheses and suggests credible tests of hypotheses  Several Forms that schema take  Stereotypes (group) Jim – glasses – geek  Prototypes (person) Roosevelt – great president ( which one & which achievements ?)  Scripts (event) Interview script (interviewer or interviewee) scene 1: pre-contact activities scene 2: greeting & establish rapport scene 3: ask job-related questions scene 4: answer job-related questions scene 5: disengagement

PV PINK VIOLENCE  Encounters may be schema-congruent or schema-incongruent  i.e., category ‘familiars’ or ‘unfamiliars’ automaticcontrolled  automatic versus controlled information-processing  Bad Romance (Gaga or Tiger?)  Hollywood (Movies or Politics, Hope versus Despair?)Hollywood  Pumped up KicksPumped up Kicks  Viking Kittens Viking Kittens

PV  Reflect processes that organize and interpret our world  Attributions as a naïve epistemology  Schemas as theories of the world  hypothesis confirmation bias  hypothesis disconfirmation and controlled processing  The source of many prejudices (prejudgments) we have of others and the things we encounter  adaptive but potentially dysfunctional