Deck 6: Section 2: Attribution Processes

Question 1

What is meant by a "misattribution effect"? How did researchers think this phenomenon might be helpful in a clinical setting? Were they correct?
a. Emotional reactions to threats can be reattributed to a less threatening source, thereby reducing anxiety.
b. Hoped that this would be a tool for clinical treatment of anxiety disorders.
c. Didn't work well - when people are experiencing anxiety/arousal, they often do a thorough search for potential causes Maslach, 1979).
d. People are more likely to attribute arousal to a negative source Marshall & Zimbardo, 1979).

Answer 1

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Question 2

Schachter's work proposes the idea that attributions for arousal are somewhat malleable, and that emotional reactions to threat have the potention to be reduced by reattributing the threat to a neutral or less threatening source. Was this misattribution predictions shown to be empirically supported? Provide reasons as to why or why not and describe what is necessary for misattribution effects to occur.
a. Misattribution effect not shown to be reliable or powerful enough to produce significant clinical applications.
b. Reasons: 1) people motivated to do a search of what is causing the state; 2) people more likely to attribute arousal to a negative source than a more positive or neutral on.
c. Necessary: 1) alternative source of arousal that is plausible, unambiguous and salient; 2) actual cause of arousal not obvious; 3) person must believe misattribution source to have more impact on arousal than it actually does.

Answer 2

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Question 3

What is meant by the "correspondence bias"? Give an example. What are some conditions that might exaggerate or mitigate this bias?
a. Attribution of behavior to dispositional causes without sufficiently taking situational influences into account.
b. Example: a harried mother looks at her watch, grabs her child by the hand, and starts to walk very quickly. When the child refuses to forward, the mother starts yelling. An observer assumes the mother is a fundamentally hostile, aggressive person and does not consider situational factors, such as time pressure, that may have contributed to the behavior.
c. More likely when an observer is cognitively busy.
d. Less likely when observer is accountable to others for judgments, for behavior of close others, under outcome dependency.

Answer 3

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Question 4

When people observe their own behavior, sometimes they infer dispositions about themselves, but sometimes they implicate the situation. What influences the type of attribution people make about themselves?

Question 5

Is the self-centered bias the same as a self-serving attributional bias? Discuss the similarities and differences.