AP® Psychology review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/psych/units/4/4-1)
Unit 4 · Topic 4.1
4.1 Attribution Theory and Person Perception
Attribution is how you explain why people (including you) act the way they do: because of who they are, or because of the situation they're in. Your explanations follow predictable patterns and biases, and they're shaped by how much control you feel you have, how familiar something is, and who you compare yourself to. These ideas show up constantly in exam scenarios about everyday social life.
Key terms
- dispositional vs. situational attribution
- fundamental attribution error
- self-serving bias
- locus of control
- self-fulfilling prophecy
- social comparison
Two kinds of explanations
An attribution is an explanation for behavior. A dispositional attribution points to something inside the person, like personality, intelligence or effort: 'She's late because she's careless.' A situational attribution points to outside circumstances: 'She's late because the bus broke down.'
People also have an explanatory style, a habitual way of explaining good and bad events. Someone with an optimistic style tends to see bad events as temporary, limited to one area and not entirely their fault ('I bombed this quiz because I didn't sleep'). Someone with a pessimistic style tends to see bad events as permanent, affecting everything and caused by themselves ('I'm just bad at school'). A pessimistic style has been linked to giving up more easily and to depression.
Biases in attribution
Your explanations aren't neutral. Three biases come up again and again, and the exam expects you to tell them apart.
| Bias | What happens | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamental attribution error | When judging others, you overestimate personality and underestimate the situation | A driver cuts you off and you decide he's a jerk, not that he might be rushing to the hospital |
| Actor-observer bias | You explain your own actions by the situation but others' identical actions by their personality | When you snap at a friend, you were stressed; when your friend snaps at you, they're rude |
| Self-serving bias | You take credit for successes (dispositional) and blame failures on the situation | 'I aced the test because I'm smart, but I failed the last one because the questions were unfair' |
Locus of control
Locus of control, a concept from Julian Rotter, is how much you believe you control what happens to you. With an internal locus of control, you believe your own effort and choices drive outcomes: 'If I study, I'll do well.' With an external locus of control, you believe outside forces like luck, fate or powerful people decide outcomes: 'It doesn't matter how much I study; the teacher doesn't like me.'
On average, people with a more internal locus of control tend to work harder toward goals, cope better with stress and report better health and achievement. This is a correlation, though, so it doesn't prove that an internal locus causes those outcomes.
Person perception
Person perception is how you form impressions of yourself and others. The mere exposure effect is the tendency to like something more the more often you've been exposed to it. A song you disliked at first can grow on you after hearing it on the radio for weeks, and you may feel warmer toward classmates you simply see every day.
A self-fulfilling prophecy happens when a belief leads you to act in ways that make the belief come true. If a coach believes a player is talented, the coach may give extra attention and feedback, and the player improves, 'confirming' the coach's belief. A classic classroom study by Rosenthal and Jacobson found that teachers' raised expectations were linked to gains for some students, though later researchers debated how large the effect was.
Social comparison is judging yourself by comparing yourself with others. Upward social comparison (comparing with people who are doing better) can motivate you but can also lower your mood. Downward social comparison (comparing with people doing worse) can make you feel better about yourself. Relative deprivation is the sense that you have less than you deserve, judged against the people around you rather than an absolute standard. A student earning a B might feel worse in a class full of A's than in a class full of C's.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Naming the attribution bias
After her soccer team wins, Maya tells reporters, 'We won because we trained harder than anyone.' After the next game, a loss, she says, 'The referee made terrible calls all night.' Which bias is Maya showing, and why isn't it the fundamental attribution error?
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Look at whose behavior is being explained. Maya is explaining outcomes for her own team, not judging someone else.
- Step 2: Check the pattern. The success is credited to something internal (training, effort). The failure is blamed on something external (the referee).
- Step 3: That pattern, credit for success and outside blame for failure, defines the self-serving bias.
- Step 4: The fundamental attribution error is about explaining other people's behavior by their personality while ignoring their situation. Maya isn't judging another person's character, so it doesn't fit.
Answer: Self-serving bias: Maya makes a dispositional attribution for her team's success and a situational one for its failure. The fundamental attribution error applies to judgments about others, not about yourself.
- Example 2
Locus of control in a scenario
Two students fail the same chemistry test. Andre says, 'I need to change how I study, so I'll start doing practice problems every night.' Lena says, 'That teacher writes impossible tests. Nothing I do will matter.' Explain how locus of control could affect what each student does next.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Define the concept: locus of control is the belief about whether outcomes depend on your own actions (internal) or on outside forces (external).
- Step 2: Andre links the result to his own study habits, which shows an internal locus of control. Because he believes his actions matter, he's likely to change his behavior and keep trying.
- Step 3: Lena links the result to the teacher and says effort won't help, which shows an external locus of control. Because she believes outcomes are out of her hands, she's less likely to change her study habits.
- Step 4: Tie it to behavior: the belief predicts different actions, which is what the question asks for.
Answer: Andre shows an internal locus of control and is likely to study differently and persist; Lena shows an external locus of control and is likely to put in less effort, since she believes her actions won't change the outcome.
Common mistakes
- Confusing the fundamental attribution error with the actor-observer bias. The fundamental attribution error is only about judging others; the actor-observer bias compares how you explain your own behavior with how you explain someone else's.
- Calling any self-flattering statement the self-serving bias. The key is the split: success explained by internal causes and failure explained by external causes.
- Mixing up locus of control with attribution. Locus of control is a general belief about your control over your life; attribution is an explanation of a specific behavior.
- Thinking upward social comparison always feels good because it 'aims higher.' It can motivate, but it often lowers self-esteem; downward comparison usually boosts mood.
On the exam
- Expect short scenarios that ask you to name and explain the bias. Point to the specific words that show a dispositional or situational explanation.
- When a free-response part asks you to 'explain how' a concept applies, define it in your own words and then connect it to a specific action or thought in the scenario.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 4.1 Attribution Theory and Person Perception. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Students read a short essay strongly supporting a later start time for high school. Half of the students were randomly assigned to be told that the writer chose which side to argue. The other half were told that a debate coach assigned the writer to argue that side.
Afterward, students rated how much they thought the writer personally supported a later start time, on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very strongly). The mean rating was 6.1 when students were told the writer chose the side, and 5.2 when they were told the coach assigned it.
Hypothetical experiment
Students who were told the coach assigned the side still rated the writer well above the middle of the scale. This finding best illustrates
What is the dependent variable in this study?
When Carmen gets an A on a chemistry test, she says it's because she's good at science. When she gets a D on the next test, she says the questions were unfair and the room was too noisy. Carmen's explanations best illustrate
Dev rarely studies because he believes his grades depend mostly on luck and on whether his teachers like him. Dev's belief reflects
0 of 4 answered