Attribution Theory Quiz for AP Psychology

📚 Quick Study Guide: Attribution Theory

• 🤔 Attribution Theory: Explains how we infer the causes of others' behavior and our own.
• 👨‍🔬 Fritz Heider: Pioneer of attribution theory, proposing internal vs. external causes.
• 🧠 Dispositional (Internal) Attribution: Behavior is due to a person's traits, abilities, or feelings (e.g., "She's smart").
• 🌍 Situational (External) Attribution: Behavior is due to environmental factors or circumstances (e.g., "The test was easy").
• 🚨 Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): Overestimating dispositional and underestimating situational factors when explaining others' behavior.
• 🎭 Actor-Observer Bias: Attributing our own behavior to situational factors, but others' behavior to dispositional factors.
• 🏆 Self-Serving Bias: Attributing our successes to internal factors and our failures to external factors.
• ⚖️ Just-World Hypothesis: The belief that people get what they deserve; good things happen to good people, bad things to bad people.
• 📊 Covariation Model (Kelley): Explains when people make internal/external attributions based on three factors:
  • 👥 Consensus: Do others behave similarly in this situation? (High = external, Low = internal)
  • 🎯 Distinctiveness: Does this person behave differently in other situations? (High = external, Low = internal)
  • 🔄 Consistency: Does this person behave similarly every time in this situation? (High = internal/external, Low = uncertain)

📝 Practice Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

1. Which concept describes our tendency to explain someone else's behavior by overestimating their personality traits and underestimating situational influences?

• A) Self-serving bias
• B) Actor-observer bias
• C) Fundamental Attribution Error
• D) Just-world hypothesis

2. A student aces a test and says, "I studied really hard and I'm smart!" When they fail a test, they say, "The teacher made the test too difficult." This illustrates:

• A) Fundamental Attribution Error
• B) Just-world hypothesis
• C) Self-serving bias
• D) Dispositional attribution

3. According to Harold Kelley's covariation model, if many people act the same way in a given situation (high consensus), you are more likely to make a(n):

• A) Dispositional attribution
• B) Situational attribution
• C) Stable attribution
• D) Unstable attribution

4. A teacher observes a student consistently arriving late to class. The teacher immediately assumes the student is lazy and irresponsible. This is an example of:

• A) Self-serving bias
• B) Actor-observer bias
• C) Situational attribution
• D) Fundamental Attribution Error

5. When you trip and fall, you blame the uneven sidewalk. When you see someone else trip and fall, you think they are clumsy. This best exemplifies:

• A) Just-world hypothesis
• B) Actor-observer bias
• C) Self-serving bias
• D) Fundamental Attribution Error

6. Which of the following is an example of a dispositional attribution?

• A) "The traffic was terrible, so I was late."
• B) "She helped me because she is a kind person."
• C) "I failed the exam because the questions were unfair."
• D) "He won the lottery because he was lucky."

7. The belief that victims of misfortune deserve what happens to them is known as the:

• A) Self-serving bias
• B) Fundamental Attribution Error
• C) Just-world hypothesis
• D) Actor-observer bias