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SOCIAL COGNITION

SOCIAL COGNITION. How we process information about other people and draw conclusions about them. ATTRIBUTION. Attibution = giving reasons for why things happen Foundations of attribution theories :

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SOCIAL COGNITION

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  1. SOCIAL COGNITION Howweprocessinformationaboutotherpeople and drawconclusionsaboutthem

  2. ATTRIBUTION • Attibution = givingreasons for whythingshappen • Foundations of attributiontheories: Heider 1944: need to makesense of the social world need to developideas and theoriesabout the causesunderlyingbehaviour - causesarelyingeitherwithin the person (adispositionalattribution) orwithin the situation (a situationalattribution)

  3. DIFFEFENT ATTRIBUTION THEORIES • Based on Heider’sview • Notalternativesbutdifferentinsights to the attributionprocess • Correspondentinferencetheory • Jones and David 1965 • Attributionprocess: Decidingwhether action is deliberateornot Ifyes, matching of a behaviourwith a personalcharacteristic: correspondentinference

  4. Wepreferstablecauses  Weneed to judgewhether an action is intentional  Wemakedistinctionbetweendispositional and situationalattributions • Threemajorfactorsaffectingwhether a dispositionalattribution is made • Principle of non-commoneffects • Personalism • Hedonicrelevance

  5. According to Jones and Davis wehavetendencyto • assumethatactionsaredeliberate • Makedispositionalattributions • Evaluation: • Canonlybeapplied to actionsinterpreted as deliberate • Evidenceagainstthisview: • Guimond and Palmer 1990 (A-Level p.183)

  6. 2) Kelley’scovariationmodel 1967;1973 Whenmakingjudgement on whethercauses for someone’sbehaviouraredispositional of situationalwe look for threekinds of causalinformation: a) consensus: the extent to whichotherpeoplebehave the sameway b) distinctiveness: the extent to whichonebehaves the sameway in comparablesituations c) consistency: the extent to whichone’sbehaviour is stableovertime

  7. Lowconsensus + lowdistinctiveness + highconsistency =>dispositionalattribution • Anyothercombination => situationalattribution • Evaluation of the theory: • Studysupporting the model: • McArthur 1972 (p.185) • Problems: • Peopledon’tseem to useallthreesources of informationequally (Major 1980) • Peoplemayuseotherkinds of informationwhenmakingattributions (Garland et al.1975) • Notthatmucheffort is alwaysput to attribution

  8. Kelleydevelopedhismodel (1972): Whenthereisn’tinformationaboutconcensus, distinctiveness and consistencyweusecausalschemata = general conceptions a person hasabouthowcertainkinds of causesinteract to produce a specifickind of effect • Differentcausalschemata: • Multiplesufficientcauses • Discountingprinciple(whenhaving a reason to believethatoneexplanation is morelikely)  tendency to situationalattribution • Whenbehaviour is ’in role’ wetend to makesituationalattributions • Multiplenecessarycauses

  9. Syllabus: THE LEARNING OUTCOME RELATED TO THE THEORIES OF ATTRIBUTION: Describe the role of situational and dispositionalfactors in explainingbehaviour “Describe: Give a detailed account.” WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT THIS TOPIC FOR NEXT LESSON!

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