Topic 4.1 Notes – Attribution Theory and Person Perception

What Attributions Are

An attribution is your explanation for a behavior, outcome, or even a mental process. If someone seems nervous, you might explain it by saying they are shy, or by saying the room is stressful.

There are two core types:

• Dispositional attribution means the cause is inside the person.
  • This includes traits, motives, attitudes, intelligence, effort, and emotional tendencies.
  • Example: “She did well because she is hardworking.”
• Situational attribution means the cause is outside the person.
  • This includes social pressure, luck, task difficulty, authority, other people, and circumstances.
  • Example: “She did well because the test was easy.”

Most behavior comes from both person and situation. AP questions love this point. A good score might reflect both hard work and an easy test. Attribution theory, linked to Fritz Heider, asks which cause people emphasize.

Patterns in How People Explain Events

Explanatory style

Your explanatory style is your usual way of explaining good and bad events. It is a pattern, not just one excuse.

It uses three dimensions:

• Internal vs. external
  Did I cause it, or did the situation?
• Stable vs. unstable
  Will this cause last, or can it change?
• Global vs. specific
  Does this affect many parts of life, or just this one area?

Optimistic explanatory style

An optimistic explanatory style treats bad events as temporary, limited, and changeable. Good events are more likely to be tied to lasting strengths.

• Bad grade → “I didn’t study the right way this time.”
• This style tends to support persistence and resilience.

Pessimistic explanatory style

A pessimistic explanatory style treats bad events as internal, stable, and global. Good events get brushed off as luck or something temporary.

• Bad grade → “I’m just bad at school.”
• This style can lower motivation and increase discouragement.

Locus of control

Locus of control is broader than one attribution. It is your general belief about what determines outcomes in life. The name to know is Julian Rotter.

A dispositional attribution is one explanation for one event. An internal locus of control is a general worldview.

Attribution Biases You Must Distinguish

Fundamental attribution error

The fundamental attribution error means overestimating dispositional causes and underestimating situational causes for other people’s behavior.

• “He cut me off because he’s rude.”
• You may ignore traffic, stress, or road conditions.

The classic study is Jones and Harris. People read essays and still inferred the writer’s true attitude even when the writer was assigned a position.

Actor-observer bias

The actor-observer bias compares self vs. others.

• Your behavior → more situational
  “I was late because of traffic.”
• Other person’s similar behavior → more dispositional
  “She was late because she’s irresponsible.”

Self-serving bias

The self-serving bias means:

• success → internal cause
• failure → external cause

Example: “I aced it because I’m smart” versus “I failed because the test was unfair.” This often protects self-esteem.

Cultural influence on attribution

• Individualist cultures tend to focus more on personal traits and responsibility.
• Collectivist cultures tend to notice context, roles, and relationships more.

How We Form Impressions of Ourselves and Others

Mere exposure effect

The mere exposure effect means repeated exposure increases liking, especially for neutral things. A common explanation is processing fluency, which means familiar things feel easier for your brain to process.

Research name to know: Robert Zajonc.

Mere exposure effect

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A self-fulfilling prophecy happens when an expectation helps cause the outcome.

1. An expectation forms.
2. That expectation changes behavior.
3. The behavior affects others or the situation.
4. The outcome confirms the original expectation.

Think of it as a loop. Beliefs shape actions, actions affect other people, and their responses can end up reinforcing the original belief.

Example: a teacher expects strong performance, gives more attention and challenge, and the student improves. That links to Rosenthal and Jacobson.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Social comparison

Social comparison means judging yourself by comparing yourself to others. The key name is Leon Festinger.

• Upward comparison means comparing to someone better off or more skilled.
  • Can inspire you or discourage you.
• Downward comparison means comparing to someone worse off.
  • Can comfort you or make you complacent.

Why Person Perception Matters

Relative deprivation means feeling deprived compared with a relevant person or group. It is about comparison, not just actual conditions. You can feel unfairly disadvantaged even if your situation has not objectively changed.

These ideas affect relationships, self-esteem, motivation, expectations, and judgment. A useful chain is this:

person or event → attribution → bias or explanatory pattern → expectation → behavior

A few AP traps show up a lot:

• Dispositional attribution does not equal internal locus of control.
• Situational attribution does not equal external locus of control in every case.
• An accurate prediction is not a self-fulfilling prophecy unless the expectation helped produce the outcome.