PSYCH 160 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Explanatory Style, Longitudinal Study, Agreeableness
Document Summary
Causal attribution: the construal process people use to explain behavior. The attributions we make can greatly a ect our thoughts, feelings, + behavior. Attributing a bad grade to a lack of ability withdrawal + unhappiness. Attributing a bad grade to a lack of e ort more vigorous attempts to study harder and more e ectively in the future. Explanatory style: a person"s habitual way of explaining events. Researchers ask participants to imagine 6 good events + 6 bad events that may happen to them + to provide a likely cause for each. The participants then say whether each cause: is due to something about them or something about other people or circumstances (internal/external) Internal cause implicates the self ( there i go again ) External cause doesn"t ( that was the pickiest set of questions : will be present again in the future or not (stable/unstable) Stable cause: things will never change ( i"m not good at this )
