Talking about Chapter 4 today. Some confusion about what material we’ve already covered and what we have not yet covered.
On the bright side, my textbook came in the mail today. Seems to be brand new. I like it. Way cheaper to buy through Amazon, good book condition, didn’t take too long to arrive.
Talking about social perception and social identity.
Personal identity is the characteristics that define an individual. Social identity is the groups to which that person belong and associates with.
Social perception is the process of gathering and interpreting data about others to gain an understanding of them.
Attribution is the process by which individual attempt to understand each others motivations and actions. Often takes place through correspondent inferences; inferences about someone which correspond to observed behavior. If a person falls off a ladder, concluding he is clumsy is a correspondent inference.
Causal attribution is attempting to understand people by understanding the causes of their behavior. These causes can be internal or external. Knowing whether an action is internally caused matters a lot for correctly assessing and motivating that person.
Kelley’s Theory of Causal Attribution is an approach suggesting the people will believe others’ actions to be based on internal or external factors based on three types of information: consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness. Each event is evaluated by these three factors.
- Consensus is the extent to which other people in the same situation react the same way.
- Consistency is the extent to which the person reacts to this situation the same way each time it occurs.
- Distinctiveness is the extent to which the person reacts to other situations in the same way as to this situation
If all three characteristics are high, the problem is probably externally caused. If one or more characteristics are low, it may be an internal problem.
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior occurring as a result of experience.
Operant Conditioning is the form of learning in which people associate the consequences of their actions with the actions themselves. Behavior modification falls under operant conditioning. Behaviors with good consequences will be acquired. Behaviors with bad consequences will be eliminated.
When dealing with operant behavior situations, it’s important the the behavior be repeated and the consequences be consistent. Inconsistency muddles the message and kills your effectiveness.