1. Honors Psychology: Unit 2: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Lesson: ATTRIBUTION THEORY
Instructions for double entry daily commentary / warm up:
Open binder to section for this unit; find & label your template.
COLUMN ONE: IDENTIFY facts, information, and evidence.
COLUMN TWO: INTERPRET the document. React, ask questions, etc.
I see… / It looks like…/ According to the article…
I think…/ I feel… / I wonder…

2. Regarding Unit 1 Test Overall, it was solid:
6 As & Bs; 7 Cs; 4 Ds; 4 yet to take / finish the test
Median MC score: 16/25 on MC section
Mean FRQ score: 2.3/8
High: 6 points earned (two people)
Many had good responses but didn’t earn points b/c terms were not clearly used, even though it seemed clear that you knew what you were talking about.
You MUST apply the required terms to earn the point for them, and must make sure the reader knows that you know which term your describing / applying

3. Learning Goals this Lesson:
Honors Psychology: Unit 2: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Lesson: ATTRIBUTION THEORY
UPCOMING DEADLINES:
PT 1.3: Experiments: Mon 9/19
Progress Report: Monday
Unit 1 Test: Wednesday 9/20
Review Packet: 9/18
Assigned Reading (SEE LESSON MAP)
LESSON 1: Myers (by Friday)
LESSON 2: Myers (By Monday)
LESSON 3: Myers (By 9/26)
LESSON 4: Myers (by 9/27)
LESSON 5: Myers ,
By 9/29
Essential Question:
­­­What psychological factors allow people to justify their own bad behaviors?
Learning Goals this Lesson:
I can apply attribution theory to explain motives (eg: self-serving bias, fundamental attribution error)
Discuss attitude formation and change, including persuasion strategies and cognitive dissonance
Lesson Plan:
Daily Commentary

4. Lesson 2.1 Essential Question: Performance Task
What psychological factors allow people to justify their own bad behavior?
Performance Task
Students create & perform skits to demonstrate one of the following concepts:
Fundamental Attribution Error; Actor-observer bias; foot in the door phenomenon; cognitive dissonance; internal vs. external locus of control.

5. Focuses in Social Psychology
“We cannot live for ourselves alone.”
Herman Melville
Social psychology scientifically studies how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
OBJECTIVE 1| Describe the three main focuses of social psychology.

6. Social Thinking
Does his absenteeism signify illness, laziness, or a stressful work atmosphere?
Was the horror of 9/11 the work of crazed evil people or ordinary people corrupted by life events?
Social thinking involves thinking about others, especially when they engage in doing things that are unexpected.

7. Attributing Behavior: The Person / Situation controversy
Attribution Theory: Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior. Two possible explanations:
Situational – the person did this b/c of their situation
Dispositional: the person did this b/c that’s the kind of person they are
OBJECTIVE 2| Contrast dispositional and situational attributions, and explain how the fundamental attribution error can affect our analysis of behavior.
Fritz Heider

9. Attribution: the Person / Situation Controversy
A teacher may wonder whether a child’s hostility reflects an aggressive personality (dispositional attribution) or is a reaction to stress or abuse (a situational attribution).
Dispositions are enduring personality traits. So, if Joe is a quiet, shy, and introverted child, he is likely to be like that in a number of situations.

10. Person / Situation Controversy: Examples
Self-serving bias
We choose to remember and emphasize information about ourselves that makes us look/feel better than we are
Why did I ace the test?
I am awesome
Why did I fail the test?
The teacher did a bad job

11. Person / Situation Controversy: Examples
Actor/observer bias
If WE are the actor doing something, we claim our good deeds are b/c we are GOOD PEOPLE
But our BAD deeds are b/c we were put in a bad situation
We are less likely to acknowledge situational factors that may influence bad behaviors we OBSERVE in others
This is an also example of…
fundamental attribution error

12. Fundamental Attribution Error
Our tendency to overestimate the impact of personal disposition and underestimate the impact of the situations in analyzing the behaviors of other people

13. Effects of Attribution
How we explain someone’s behavior affects how we react to it.

15. Internal v. External Locus of Control
Internal Locus
Personal decision-making determines what happens in a person’s life
I am responsible for everything
EXTERNAL LOCUS
Situational factors determine everything
It’s not my fault

16. Dispositional (internal) or Situational (external)?
They won only because the best athletes on the Central State’s teams were out with injuries – talk about good fortune.
External (situational)
They won because they have some of the best talent in the country.
Internal (dispositional)
Anybody could win this region; the competition is so far below average in comparison to the rest of the country.
They won because they put in a great deal of effort and practice.

17. With your partner: Brainstorm examples of: Dispositional attribution
Situational attribution
Fundamental attribution error
Submit examples using the google form provided in classroom.

18. To summarize…
Fundamental Attribution Error – underestimating situational influences when evaluating the behavior of someone else.
He swerved into my lane because he is a jerk.
Actor-observer bias – attributing others’ behaviors to disposition but your own behaviors (even the same behaviors) to situational factors.
Example: He swerved into my lane because he is a jerk, but I swerved into the next lane because I was trying to avoid an animal in the road.
Self-serving bias – crediting your own successes to disposition, but attributing your own failures to situation.
Example: I won the game because I’m talented.
I failed the test because the questions were unfair.

19. So our attitudes influence our actions…or/and/sometimes actions influence attitudes?
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort caused by holding two contradictory beliefs or performing an action contradictory to our beliefs.

20. Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance theory states that we are motivated to reduce this uncomfortable feeling by changing our beliefs to match our actions.
The dissonance (uncomfortable feeling) is less if we feel that we were forced to perform the action. Thus, the larger the pressure used to elicit the overt behavior, the smaller the tendency to change opinion.
Theory developed by LEON FESTINGER
Example: how do we justify cheating in a game:

21. Cognitive Dissonance
Our ability to justify holding two conflicting ideas at the same time
DISSONANCE is uncomfortable: we don’t like it, so we modify our thought processes to reduce our discomfort
Theory developed by LEON FESTINGER
Example: how do we justify cheating in a game:

22. Cognitive Dissonance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y17YaZRRvY

24. Left Column: GIVE an example of the FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR.
Honors Psychology: Unit 2: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Lesson: ATTRIBUTION THEORY
Instructions for double entry daily commentary / warm up:
Open binder to section for this unit; find & label your template.
COLUMN ONE: IDENTIFY facts, information, and evidence.
COLUMN TWO: INTERPRET the document. React, ask questions, etc.
I see… / It looks like…/ According to the article…
I think…/ I feel… / I wonder…
Left Column: GIVE an example of the FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR.
RIGHT COLUMN: GIVE an example that demonstrates the effect of cognitive dissonance.

25. Learning Goals this Lesson:
Honors Psychology: Unit 2: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Lesson: ATTRIBUTION THEORY
UPCOMING DEADLINES:
PT 1.3: Experiments: Mon 9/19
Progress Report: Monday
Unit 1 Test: Wednesday 9/20
Review Packet: 9/18
Assigned Reading (SEE LESSON MAP)
LESSON 1: Myers (by Friday)
LESSON 2: Myers (By Monday)
LESSON 3: Myers (By 9/26)
LESSON 4: Myers (by 9/27)
LESSON 5: Myers ,
By 9/29
Essential Question:
­­­What psychological factors allow people to justify their own bad behaviors?
Learning Goals this Lesson:
I can apply attribution theory to explain motives (eg: self-serving bias, fundamental attribution error)
Discuss attitude formation and change, including persuasion strategies and cognitive dissonance
Lesson Plan:
Daily Commentary

26. Period 2: Regarding Unit 1 Test
Room to improve:
4 As & Bs; 5 Cs; 2 Ds; 3 Fs
Median MC score: 16/25 on MC section
Median FRQ score: 4.25/8
Many had good responses but didn’t earn points b/c terms were not clearly used, even though it seemed clear that you knew what you were talking about.
You MUST apply the required terms to earn the point for them, and must make sure the reader knows that you know which term your describing / applying

27. Independent Variable: Dependent Variable: Random Assignment:
Hypothesis: Wintergreen Altoids leave breath smelling more minty-fresh than Peppermint Altoids:
Independent Variable:
Dependent Variable:
Random Assignment:
Control Group:
Experiment Group:
Placebo:
Operational Definition:
Double-Blind-Procedure:

28. “foot-in-the-door”
What do we mean by this common expression?

29. Small Request – Large Request
In the Korean War, Chinese communists solicited cooperation from US army prisoners by asking them to carry out small errands. By complying to small errands they were likely to comply to larger ones.
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

30. Role Playing Affects Attitudes
Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes.
Originally published in the New Yorker
Phillip G. Zimbardo, Inc.

31. The Stanford Prison Experiment

32. The Stanford Prison Experiment
15 MINUTES TO RESEARCH: Explore the website:
10 MINUTES TO RESPOND, REFLECT, & SHARE OUT:
Using the assigned document in google classroom, answer these questions:
What were the goals of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
How did Zimbardo set up the experiment?
What controls did Zimbardo put in place?
Describe the initial results of the experiment?
In what ways did the experiment go wrong?
Specifically describe the ethical issues involved in this experiment?
What power does giving someone a specific role to play in a relationship have on influencing their behavior?

33. Lesson 2.1 Essential Question: Performance Task
What psychological factors allow people to justify their own bad behavior?
Performance Task
Students create & perform skits to demonstrate one of the following concepts:
Double Blind procedure
Fundamental Attribution Error;
Actor-observer bias;
foot in the door phenomenon;
cognitive dissonance;
internal vs. external locus of control.

34. PT Skits! 
Task: Develop a skit that demonstrates one of social psychology concept.
You have 7 minutes to develop your concept.
Do not use term in the skit (like taboo)
All students must have a role
Counts as a grade based on clarity, performance, and the ability of the class to identify the concept
SEE RUBRIC on LESSON MAP

35. Skit Rubric: See Lesson Map1 2 3 4
Skit Preparation
Teacher provides plan for skit; OR 2+ members of group struggle to explain concepts.
Students try to plan but need significant assistance. Skit concept not fully understood by all students.
Student planning is collaborative or efficient. Skit concept fits assigned concept & students have a general understanding.
Students planning is collaborative & efficient; skit has a clear concept that fits the assigned concept; each student shows a clear understanding
Skit Performance
Performance is not professional, or is difficult to understand. Skit difficult to interpret
3+ students have assigned roles. With clarifying questions or explanations, observers interpret skit.
Students have assigned roles and perform them. Several observers easily interpret the skit.
Each student has a role and performs it well; observers easily interpret the skit based on the clues it provides.

36. Skits!  Assigned Groups & Concepts:
DOUBLE BLIND PROCEDURE (b/c we are confused)
Kevin, Daniel, Jada, Ryan
Cognitive dissonance
Alazar, Futrell, Kelbi, Eluardo
Fundamental attribution error
Adrian, Zee, Juliana, Cheryl, Gloria
actor observer bias
Tyree, Rodney, Matthew, Nakia
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
Neisha, Angela, Jamie, Daniel, Tremia
Internal v. external locus of control
Bryson, Elizabeth, Makaela,

37. Skits!  Assigned Groups & Concepts:
DOUBLE BLIND PROCEDURE (b/c we are confused)
Xitlalli, Cailyn, Sumayah, Makayla
Cognitive dissonance
Tyler, Isaiah, Bri, Asia, Tykia
Fundamental attribution error
Court, Keyonna, Mia, Skylar
actor observer bias
Seraiyah, Caleb, Zakiyyah, Alyssa
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
Victoria, Marionna, Genesis, Maya
Internal v. external locus of control
Tahj, Juliya, Niya, Jalen, Sterling

38. Skit Rubric: See Lesson Map1 2 3 4
Skit Preparation
Teacher provides plan for skit; OR 2+ members of group struggle to explain concepts.
Students try to plan but need significant assistance. Skit concept not fully understood by all students.
Student planning is collaborative or efficient. Skit concept fits assigned concept & students have a general understanding.
Students planning is collaborative & efficient; skit has a clear concept that fits the assigned concept; each student shows a clear understanding
Skit Performance
Performance is not professional, or is difficult to understand. Skit difficult to interpret
3+ students have assigned roles. With clarifying questions or explanations, observers interpret skit.
Students have assigned roles and perform them. Several observers easily interpret the skit.
Each student has a role and performs it well; observers easily interpret the skit based on the clues it provides.