IB Psychology HL - SCLOA - Discuss 2 Attribution Errors

coined by Ross (1977)

refers to the biased tendency to explain other people’s behaviour as due to stable dispositional factors

rather than situational factors

the more serious the consequences of the behaviour, the more likely we are to attribute it to disposition

Main studies:

Ross et al. (1977)

Jones and Harris (1967)

humans are social animals

so they’re more likely to focus on other beings rather than the environment

assuming that behaviour is caused by personality gives the impression that people are predictable – and we derive comfort from this

with regard to semantics, the words used makes it easier to focus on people rather than situations

when talking of ‘aggression’, one assumes it refers to behaviour or a person rather than a situation

this assumption is an example of linguistic FAE

set up a mock quiz

randomly assigned college students to be either ‘questioners’ (i.e. create questions based on their own knowledge of a subject) or ‘answerers’

asked everyone taking part to rate the 2 groups

control: a group of observers were also asked to rate the groups

‘questioners’ were typically rated as having better general knowledge than ‘answerers’

by both the answerers and observers

despite not actually answering any questions themselves

observers paid no attention to the fact that it was a mock quiz

instead chose to assume that the behaviour reflected a dispositional factor (that questioners had more general knowledge)

sophisticated methodology

questioners could make up their own questions; this was known by all participants

sampling bias: all participants were university students

low ecological validity

participants read essays about Fidel Castro’s rule in Cuba by fellow students

essays took a stance (supportive/critical) on Fidel Castro

participants were asked what they thought the writers really felt about Castro
2 conditions:

choice: participants were told essay writers could choose their own stance

no choice: participants were told essay writers were assigned a stance

participants in both conditions assumed the essays reflected the real opinions of their writers

despite a potential explanation (no choice condition), participants still opted for an internal cause over an external one

clear IV and DV, shows determinism

- sampling bias: participants were all university students

Gilbert and Malone (1995):

two-step attribution process

- step 1: unconscious processing, assumed to be dispositional causes

- step 2: more controlled and conscious processing, considering situational factors

according to Gilbert and Maline (1995) we usually don’t proceed to step 2

e. g. if we’re not preoccupied/mentally lazy = enough cognitive resources to proceed

e. g. if we believe that dispositional is the right explanation

collectivist cultures:

emphasizes an individual’s social relationships (e.g. family, social status)

hence, less FAE

individualistic cultures:

emphasizes the individual as the primary cause of action (i.e. you are the cause of your success or failure)

hence, more FAE

Main study: Norenzayan et al. (2002)

gave 2 types of info to Korean and American participants:

dispositional only: both made dispositional attributions

situational + dispositional: Koreans took both into account while Americans focused on dispositional

this indicates how attribution styles may differ between cultures

lots of empirical evidence

- helped us understand common errors we make when attempting to explain surrounding events

culture-specific: too much focus on individualism

most of the empirical evidence comes from laboratory experiments (low ecological validity)

sample bias: most FAE studies are made up of student participants

coined by Ross (1977)

tendency people have to explain their own successful behaviour as due to disposition

and tendency to explain less successful behaviour as due to situational factors

Main study: Johnson et al. (1964)

to maintain self-esteem

so as not to succumb to depression

Abramson et al. (1989): depressed people often attribute success to external events, and failure to internal causes

thus the fact that depressed people don’t have SSB contributes to their depression

People typically expect to succeed and correlate success with their own effort to exaggerate the amount of„ control they have

participants taught children simple math problems

the children were taught in a very simple way to isolate the variable of ‘teaching Maths’

children then took a test

test sheets were altered to either show high score or low score

when participants saw high scores, they explained it as showing their abilities as teachers

but when participants saw low scores, they explained it as showing the pupil’s lack of ability

but this effect has not always been found with experienced teachers

experienced teachers tend to be more confident and more able to criticize themselves

thus they were less likely to try to protect their self-esteem

Strengths

laboratory experiment: strict control over variables

clear IV and DV to establish clear determinism

Limitations

laboratory experiment: lacks ecological validity, artificial environment

sample bias: participants all psych students

cultures appear to influence attribution styles

SSB is arguably closer linked to individualistic societies

Main study: Kashima and Triandis (1986)

showed unfamiliar slides to American and Japanese students and asked them to memorize the details

students were asked to evaluate their performance

Americans were more likely to attribute success to dispositional, and failure to situational

Japanese tended to explain failure with dispositional

Japanese exhibited a ‘modesty bias’ – a cultural variation of the SSB

explains why people (mostly individualistic) tend to explain successes as dispositional and failures as situational

empirical support

culturally biased to individualistic

- cannot explain the modesty bias present in certain cultures

differs in:

theoretical explanations of those errors

the strengths and weakness

similar:

approaches of research supporting these theoretical claims (both lab)

role of culture in each attribution error (individualist = more bias)

both errors in attribution: they propose flaws in attribution theory and how people explain behaviour