Basic Attribution Processes

Naive psychologist: people use rational, scientific-like, cause-effect analyses to better understand the world.

Heider's three principles:

1. Our own behaviour is motived rather than random thus we look for the causes and reasons of other people's behaviour and uncover their motives.
2. In order to predict and control the environment, we seek stable and enduring properties of the world around us. (Personality traits and enduring abilities in people, or stable properties of situations)
3. When attributing causal factors, a difference between personal (internal attribution) and environmental (external attribution) factors are made.

Jones and Davis's theory of correspondent inference

Correspondent inference: the causal attribution of behaviour to an underlying disposition or personality trait

Five sources of information are drawn upon in order to make a correspondent inference:

1. Freely chosen behaviour is more indicative of a disposition
2. Non-common effects (effects of behaviour that are relatively exclusive to that behaviour rather than other behaviours. Outcome bias (the belief that the individual intended to produce the outcome of a behaviour)
3. Socially desirable behaviour are likely controlled by norms so socially undesirable behaviour provides a basis for making a correspondent inference
4. Confident correspondent inferences are made when the consequences are personally significant (hedonic relevance)
5. Confident correspondent inferences are made when the behaviour is personally beneficial or harmful (personalism)

Kelley's covariation model

Covariation model: people assign cause of behaviour to the factor that covaries most closely with the behaviour.

People decide whether or not to attribute a behaviour to internal dispositions (e.g. personality) or external environmental factors (e.g. time constraint). The three classes of information required to make this decision are:

1. Consistency information [Always (high consistency) versus sometimes (low consistency)]
2. Distinctiveness information [Always (low distinctiveness) versus specific/situational (high distinctiveness)]
3. Consensus information [Everyone behaves likes this (high consensus) versus the individual only (low consensus)]

Discount: when there is not a consistent relationship between variables a third factor is sort to be the cause.

Causal schemata: beliefs or preconceptions (based on previous experience and knowledge) about the way certain types of cause interact in order to produce an effect.