1. Answer questions when you see them. What are the factors we attribute to a late arriving date?

2. Attribution How people interpret and explain causal relationships in the social world Situational Factors: something to do with external factors Dispositional Factors: something to do with personal (internal) factors

3. Fundamental Attribution Error Why do students assume their teachers know everything?  Fundamental Attribution Error (Handout p. 105 “Research in Psychology”)  Overestimate the role of dispositional factors in an individual’s behaviour

4. Self-Serving Bias (SSB) Lau & Russel (1980) When a sports team loses, what excuses do they provide?

5. When a sports team wins, to what do they attribute victory?

6. Greenberg et al. (1982)  Boosts self-esteem when we attribute success to dispositional factors  Protection of self-esteem when failures are beyond our control

7. Self-Serving Bias (SSB) Miller & Ross (1975)  Expectation  Of success: attribute it to skill & ability  Of failure: attribute it to situational factors  If we expect to do well and fail we attribute it to situational factors  If we expect to fail, but are successful we attribute it to dispositional factors  However, those who suffer from depression tend to make more dispositional attributions to make themselves feel worse

8. Read Pages 107-109 Be sure to read the empirical research sections You may work in groups of up to 4 people. A sociocultural cognition learning outcome states the following: Discuss two errors in attribution. Use the information from the PowerPoint and your reading to create an outline or diagram that would help you answer a 22 point essay question. You will turn this in by the end of class.

9. Social Identity Theory (SIT) Most important element: explanation of how we are not one ‘personal self’ but in fact have several ‘selves’ that correspond to the groups to which we belong.  Our social identity is the self-concept drawn from the groups we are members of  Once we are members of a group that becomes the in-group and we differentiate from the out group  ie, a connection to a sports team

10. Social Categorization Henri Tajfel When someone belongs or is placed in a group  They see this as their “in-group” and all others as the “out- group”  This leads to group favouritism and discrimination of the out group  Self-esteem is maintained by social comparison  Benefits of belonging to the in-group vs the out-group

11. Cialdini et al (1976) Tendency to wear more of your teams clothing after a win vs after a loss Tajfel (1978) calls this “positive distinctiveness”

12. Tajfel et al (1971) Kandinsky vs Klee experiment (page 107) Tajfel et al. (1971) Assigned randomly to a group supposedly based on liking either artist  More likely to identify with their in-group, even if they did not know them beforehand

13. Limitations of SIT 1. Describes but does not accurately predict behaviour 2. Using the theory alone is reductionist It does not discuss environmental impact on “self”

14. “Be a Thinker” Many schools make use of pep rallies in order to get their students “psyched up” days before an upcoming sporting event. At a pep rally, students cheer and praise the members of their own team and they mock or criticize the members of the other team. Do you think pep rallies are effective? Why or why not? Use your knowledge about the Social Identity Theory to help guide your response.