up:: [[Social Psychology MOC]] Tags:: #🌱 # Social Attribution Causal attribution is people's specific [[Construal|construals]] explaining a situation. ### Explanatory styles Peoples tendency on how to causally attribute things. They can be separated by internal/external, stable/unstable, and global/specific. ###### What combination makes up the pessimistic explanatory style? Internal/stable/global. ###### What combination makes up the optimistic explanatory style? External/unstable/specific. The explanatory style I like to use is [[Rational optimism]]. Generally those with a more optimistic explanatory style tend to see situations as more under their control and responsibility meaning they see it in their power to change their situation. This reminds me that [[We are always responsible]]. ### Explaining Attribution and Behavior As stated in my note on [[Situationism]], [[Your situation plays a larger role than personality in how you act]]. And yet we [[We tend to overestimate how much personality plays a role in behavior compared to situation]]. [[Covariance principle]]. ### Discounting, Augmentation, and Counterfactual Thinking ###### What is the [[Discounting principle]]? If there are a variety of outside circumstances that could cause someone to act in a way we are more likely to discount their behavior to the situation rather than personality. For example, someone acting polite and happy during a job interview. ###### What is the [[Augmentation principle]]? If someone continues to act with a certain behavior despite many situational factors that discourage that behavior we have greater (augmented) confidence that person's actions reflect what that person is really like. ###### What is [[Counterfactual thinking]]? Thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened if things occurred differently. ###### What is emotional amplification and what are its connections to tragedy? [[Emotional amplification]] is humans tendency to amplify the emotional effect of something that almost happened most notably with time and distance. The more we see an event as a tragedy the more emotional amplification we feel. For example, someone dying after surviving a plane crash .5 miles from the hospital. ### Culture and Socioeconomic Status in Social Attribution ###### How do Westerner's and Easterner's differ in their tendencies for social attribution? Generally, westerner's are more likely to attribute a behavior or outcome to dispositional factors compared to Easterner's who are more likely to attribute it to situational factors. ###### How do lower class and upper class differ in tendencies for social attribution? Generally lower class people tend to attribute behaviors and outcomes more toward situational factors. Like Easterner's they tend to be more interdependent which maybe isn't as necessary in higher classes. ### Social Attribution Theory [[Social Attribution Theory]] Related: ___ # Resources