1. Social Psychology Unit 12 Attributions

2. Attribution Theory Attribution = explanation Attribution Theory Explain others behaviors by crediting the situation or the person’s disposition Dispositional – factors within the person (personality) Situational – factors outside the person (luck)

3. Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) Tendency to use a dispositional explanation without considering the situational factors “That guy cut me off because he is a jerk” – not that his wife could be in labor video

4. Attribution Bias Actor-Observer Bias Tendency to explain the behavior of others with dispositional attributes BUT use situational attitributes to explain our own behavior Two people in comparison Samantha watches her classmate stumble while giving a speech – “She’s a bad speech giver” BUT when Samantha stumbles in her own speech it was because she was distracted by a noise in the hallway.

5. Self-Serving Bias Tendency to attribute our successes to dispositional factors and our failures to situational factors. Only your own behavior and makes you look good. Jordan believes he aced the math test because he is smart but failed the history test because the teacher did not explain the material very well.

6. Self-Effacing Bias Tendency to attribute failures to dispositional factors and our successes to situational factors Modesty

7. False Consensus Effect Tendency for an individual to overestimate how many others act and think the way they do. You speed because because everyone else is speeding.

8. Individualist vs. Collectivist Individualist societies U.S. and Western Europe Self-serving bias and fundamental attribution error Collectivist societies Eastern Asia, Western Africa Self-effacing bias

9. Attitudes Change Central Route to Persuasion People focus on factual information, logical arguments, and a thoughtful analysis of details Peripheral Route to Persuasion People focus on emotional appeals and incidental cues Foot-in-the-door Phenomenon Complying with small request then leads to going along with a larger request video

10. Social Influence Study how other individuals’ thoughts and actions shape our own beliefs, feelings, and behaviors

11. Cognitive Dissonance Only occurs within an individual Tension is created when one holds two conflicting beliefs or if one’s beliefs and actions do not match Smoking Attitude or behavior change results because one is motivated to reduce the tension Leon Festinger -Festinger’s $1 or $20 Study Leon Festinger Video Song

12. Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo Stanford ‘72 Power of social roles and impact of situation Mock prison 2 wk experiment called off in 6 days Highly unethical video

13. Conformity Adoption of attitudes and behaviors shared by a particular group of people Asch Line Study Group size Unanimity Asch Experiment

14. Obedience Altering one’s behavior in response to a demand from an authority figure Stanley Milgram Shock Study With demand from authority figure, 65% of participants obey Video