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ATTRIBUTIONS & VALUESATTRIBUTION THEORY:• TYPES OF ATTRIBUTIONS• FUNCTIONS• FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR

Cultural and motivational factors• ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS• ROOTS OF THESE BIASES

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ON ATTRIBUTIONAL PROCESSES:• LOCUS OF CONTROL• RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM• LOCUS, STABILITY AND CONTROLLABILITY

Emotional effects• ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLES

Pessimism, OptimismDifferentiating ‘optimism’ from ‘positive

illusions’VALUES • Schwartz’s classification

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ATTRIBUTION:

- finding, giving, explaining the cause of events

- very important type of cognition

- influenced by beliefs about the social world (e.g., power of context vs. internal factors)

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…… Are we at the mercy of external forces or are the results of our actions under our own control?

Whose fault?

Whose merits?

control, blame, fate, freedom

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How much do you tend to agree/disagree with these statements?

There's no sense planning a lot - if something good is going to happen, it will.

The really good things that happen to me are mostly luck.

I am responsible for my own success.

I can do just about anything I really set my mind to.

Most of my problems are due to bad breaks.

I have little control over the bad things that happen to me.

My misfortunes are the result of mistakes I have made.

I am responsible for my failures.

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“ We take the stand that there are always some alternative constructions available to choose among in dealing with the world. No one needs to paint himself into a corner; no one needs to be completely hemmed in by circumstances; no one needs to be the victim of his biography. We call this philosophical position constructive alternativism.”

George Kelly (1955). "A Theory of personality."

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“Further, when you are powerless, you don’t just speak differently. A lot of you don’t speak. Your speech is not just differently articulated, it is silenced. Eliminated, gone. You aren’t just deprived of a language with which to articulate your distinctiveness, although you are; you are deprived of a life out of which articulation might come.”

Catherine MacKinnon (1987). “Difference and Dominance”

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BASIC FACTS ABOUT ATTRIBUTIONS

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ATTRIBUTION THEORY: Studies the psychological processes behind how people ascribe causes to events (self and others).Nisbett & Ross (1991). The person and the situation.

2 TYPES OF ATTRIBUTIONS:

•Internal/Personal (cause is within the actor: personality, mood, ability, effort, wishes)

•External/Situational(cause is outside the actor: other people, luck, pressure, $$$, weather)

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What functions do attributions serve?

help predict & control environment

help determine self/other thoughts, feelings, & behaviors

influence expectations for future

impact on own performance

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When do we make attributions?

unexpected e.g., driver runs a traffic light

negative e.g., bad test grade

events with uncertain causes e.g., date doesn’t call in weeks

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FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR (FAE)

Tendency for people (in Western cultures) to underestimate situational influences & overestimate person influences on others’ behavior.

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FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR & CULTURE

IndividualisticIndividualistic cultures focus on individual freedom, autonomy, & choice fosters tendency to make person attributions

(i.e., commit the FAE)

CollectivisticCollectivistic cultures focus on group memberships & conformity to group norms fosters tendency to make situation attributions

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Question for the class:

What factors (philosophy, religion, politics, economy) could be behind these

cultural differences between US/Northern Europe and the rest of the

world?

(Triandis, 1986)

14Type

Internal vs.

ExternalAttributions

SportsLOW COMPLEXITY

EditorialsHIGH COMPLEXITY

2.60

-.09

-1.22

-2.50

FAE & CULTURELee, Hallahan, Herzog (1996)

U.S.

Hong Kong

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FAE & MOTIVATIONLee & Hallahan (1998)

SituationalAttributions

Intended Career

Pre-med Pre-law

Doctor VignetteLawyer Vignette.20

-.14-.21

.18

-.05.03

Neither

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ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS (AOB)

Tendency to attribute one’s own Tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to situational causes & behavior to situational causes & others’ behavior to person causes.others’ behavior to person causes.

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Some Cognitive & Motivational Roots of FAE & AOB:

Perceptual Salience as observer, person doing behavior is most salient as actor, situation is most salient

People are Cognitive Misers generally less effort to make IA than to search for possible Eas

Self-Esteem Concerns allow people to feel good about themselves or their groups

People Seek a Coherent Understanding of the World by making IAs of others’ behavior we impose stability their behavior & thus a sense of prediction & control

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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ON ATTRIBUTION

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LOCUS OF CONTROL (Rotter, 1966)

• External Locus: describes people who believe that fate, luck, or outside forces are responsible for what happens to them.

• Internal Locus: describes people who believe that ability, effort, or their own actions determine what happens to them.

Locus of control influences which forces we hold responsible for our successes and failures --> great influence on our motivation, expectations, self-esteem, risk-taking behavior, and even on the actual outcome of our actions.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCEHEALTH-RELATED BEHAVIORSOCIAL ACTIVISM

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Illustrative Items from Rotter’s

Internal-External Locus of Control Scale

Many of the unhappy things in people's lives are due partly to bad luck.People's misfortunes result from the mistakes they make.

One of the major reasons we have wars is that people don't take enough interestin politics.There will always be wars, no matter how hard people try to prevent them.

Sometimes I can't understand how teachers arrive at the grades they give.There is a direct connection between how hard I study and the grades I get.

The average citizen can have an influence in government decisions.This world is run by the few people in power and there isn't much the little guycan do about it.

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ORIGINS AND DYNAMICS OF LOCUS OF CONTROL?(Bandura, 1977)

1 Beliefs affect behavior and environment 2 Behavior influences environment and beliefs 3 Environment influences behavior and beliefs

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POSSIBLE CAUSES OF ACHIEVEMENT OUTCOMES ACCORDING TO LOCUS, STABILITY AND

CONTROLLABILITY(Weiner, 1979)

INTERNAL EXTERNAL

CONTROLLABILITY Stable Unstable Stable Unstable Controllable

Typical effort exerted

Temporary effort exerted (for this particular task)

Some forms of teacher bias

Unusual help from others

Uncontrollable Ability Mood Task difficulty Luck

EXAMPLE: Doing well/bad in Org Chemistry

Newest dimension GLOBALITY

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Table 8.4: EMOTIONAL EFFECTS OF CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION

ATTRIBUTIONDIMENSION

OUTCOME Success, positive Failure, negative

Internal Pride, self-esteem Low self-esteem, depressionGuilt (if temporary and/or controllable)Shame (if enduring and/or controllable)

External Gratitude (especially if controllable) Resignation

Note: Only study this part of the table

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ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLES (Peterson & Seligman, 1984)

Optimistic: Failure is attributed to external, unstable, and specific causes and success to internal, stable, global causes.Pessimistic: Failure is attributed to internal, stable, global causes and success to external, unstable, and specific causes.

Is optimism always healthy?

• Taylor & Brown (1988): “illusions of control and unrealistic optimism are associated with (+) mental health; realism may be a sign of depression”

•Colvin & Block (1994): “need to differentiate between healthy optimism (viewing new, uncertain events in a positive light) from positive illusions (viewing events in a positive light even when facts don’t support that view)

Is pessimism always unhealthy?‘Defensive pessimism’ (Noren & Cantor, 1986)

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POWER: Social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. (social power,authority, wealth, preserving my public image)ACHIEVEMENT: Personal success through demonstrating competence according to socialstandards. (successful, capable, ambitious, influential)HEDONISM: Pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself. (pleasure, enjoying life, self-indulgent)STIMULATION: Excitement, novelty, and challenge in life. (daring, a varied life, an exciting life)SELF-DIRECTION: Independent thought and action-choosing, creating, exploring. (creativity,freedom, independent, curious, choosing own goals)UNIVERSALISM: Understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protection for the welfare of allpeople and for nature. (broadminded, wisdom, social justice, equality, a world at peace, a world ofbeauty, unity with nature, protecting the environment)BENEVOLENCE: Preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is infrequent personal contact. (helpful, honest, forgiving, loyal, responsible)TRADITION: Respect, commitment and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditionalculture or religion provide the self. (humble, accepting my portion in life, devout, respect fortradition, moderate)CONFORMITY: Restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others andviolate social expectations or norms. (politeness, obedient, self-discipline, honoring parents andelders)SECURITY: Safety, harmony and stability of society, of relationships, and of self. (family security,national security, social order, clean, reciprocation of favors)

VALUES (Schwartz, 1992)

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Self-direction

Stimulation

Power

Security

Conformity

Tradition

Hedonism

Achievement

Universalism Benevolence

Self enhancement

Self transcendence

Op

enn

ess

to c

han

geC

onservation

VALUES (Schwartz, 1992)