4.1 Attribution Theory and Person Perception

Explain how attribution theory applies to behavior and mental processes.

• Attributions are how people explain behavior and mental processes of themselves and others. Dispositional attributions relate to internal qualities of others (such as intelligence or personality) while situational attributions relate to external circumstances that are experienced.
• People demonstrate a predictable pattern of attributions called explanatory style. Explanatory style is how people explain good and bad events in their lives and in the lives of others. Explanatory style can be optimistic or pessimistic.
• People are subject to biases in their attributions. Those biases include actor/ observer bias, fundamental attribution error, and self-serving bias, all of which can affect behavior and mental processes.

Explain how locus of control (internal and external) applies to behavior and mental processes.

Explain how person perception applies to behavior and mental processes. UNIT 4 Social Psychology and Personality

• People’s perception of how much they like something can be influenced by the mere exposure effect. The mere exposure effect occurs when people are exposed to a stimulus repeatedly over time, which causes them to like the stimulus more.
• People can behave in ways that elicit behaviors from others that confirm their beliefs or perceptions about themselves or others (selffulfilling prophecy).
• Social comparison is a type of person perception that occurs when people evaluate themselves based on comparisons to other members of society or social circles. Social comparison can be upward or downward. People often judge their own sense of deprivation relative to others (relative deprivation).