1. Soc 319: Sociological Approaches to Social Psychology Tuesday February 24, 2009 Person Perception (cont’d) & Attribution Theory

2. IV. How are Impressions of Others Formed? A. Importance of positive and negative evaluations B. Models of integrating information 1. Averaging model 2. Additive model 3. Weighted average model C. The importance of first impressions 1. Primacy effect 2. Recency effect 3. Self-fulfilling prophecy

3. How would we obtain an overall assessment of our new roommate? Friendly +8 Good listener+5 Financially responsible+9 Additive Model:+22 Averaging Model: +7.3 Next, we incorporate a new piece of information: Intelligent+3 Additive Model:+25 Averaging Model:6.25 In the additive model, any new piece of positive information improves our overall assessment. In the averaging model a weak, positive piece of new information might lower our overall assessment.

4. What kind of football season did RU have in 2008? Fresno StateL 24-7 UNCL 44-12 NavyL 23-21 Morgan StateW 38-0 WVUL 24-17 CincinnatiL 13-10 UConnW 12-10 PittsburghW 54-34 SyracuseW 35-17 USFW 49-16 ArmyW 30-3 LouisvilleW 63-14 NC StateW 29-23

5. V. Implications for Policy and Practice Medicine Law enforcement Controversies over Amadou Diallo (2002); Sean Bell (2006) Education Media coverage of political and social issues

6. “The Police Officer’s Dilemma” (Correll et al., 2002)

8. I. Attribution Theory A. What is It? 1. Naïve scientist B. Dispositional vs. Situational Attributions 1. Subtractive Rule C. Covariation Principle (Kelley) 1. Three sources of behavior a. Actor b. Object c. Context

9. C. Kelly Covariation (cont’d) 2. Sources of information for making attribution a. Consensus b. Consistency c. Distinctiveness 3. Examples

10. Kelley’s Cube (e.g., McArthur, 1972) ConsensusDistinctivenessConsistencyAttribution Low Few people laughed Low Mary laughs at everyone High Mary always laughs at Joe Actor (86%) The laughter is due to traits of Mary. High Everyone laughed High Mary rarely laughs High Mary always laughs at Joe Object (61%) The laughter is due to Joe’s comedic skills. Low Few people laughed High Mary rarely laughs Low Mary rarely laughs at Joe Context (72%) The laughter reflects time/place. Is Joe the Comedian funny? Is Mary easily amused? Or is tonight a special event?

11. D. Sources of Bias in Making Attributions 1. Correspondence bias (Jones 1979) a. Explanations 2. Actor-observer effect (“You fell, I was pushed”) a. Explanations 3. Self-serving bias (“I’m good, you’re lucky”) a. Explanations

12. E. Attributions for Success and Failure 1. Dimensions a. Locus of control b. Stability 2. Combinations a. Internal/stable = Ability (your ability at logic & reasoning) b. Internal/unstable = Effort (how many hours you studied the LSAT guide) c. External/stable = Task difficulty (how difficult the test is) d. External/unstable = Luck

13. Attributions for Success and Failure Locus of Control InternalExternal StableAbilityTask difficulty UnstableEffortLuck Source: Weiner et al., 1972

14. F. Consequences of Success & Failure Attributions 1. Such attributions may affect subsequent achievement behaviors and motivation; future achievement expectancies; persistence at similar tasks; pride or shame felt following success or failure. a. Optimistic attribution style. Negative outcomes attributed external, unstable and specific causes; and positive outcomes to internal, stable, global causes. b. Pessimistic attribution style. Negative outcomes attributed to internal, stable, and global forces. (I’m a bad person); positive events in terms of external, unstable, and specific causes.