PSYC 2000 Chapter : Chaper 12 Part 2
Document Summary
Social cognition: the mental processes people use to make sense of the world around them. Process of inferring the causes of mental states, behaviors, and events which occur to ourselves. External attributions - e. g. , behavior is due to the situation, the boss yelled at me because this is april 15th and his taxes are not done. ". Internal attributions - e. g. , behavior reflects the person, the boss yells at everyone. Weiner (1980, 1986, 1994) found that people often focus on what they think is the stability underlying the causes for behavior. Fundamental attribution error - refers to observers" bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others" behavior. Overestimate internal factors (i. e. , blame people) more than external factors (i. e. , circumstances). Self-serving bias - tendency to attribute one"s successes to personal factors and one"s failures to situational factors. Attitudes - attitudes are positive and negative evaluations of objects of thought.
