Question

MCAT Psychology Tutorial: Attribution & Prejudice

Answer 1

\({\bf{Attribution:}}\) the process by which one associate causes with behaviors or situations
- correspondent influence theory: people interpret the behavior of others as being caused by inherent personality characteristics and use their behavior to predict future actions
the criteria used are:
> degree of choice (how much a person seems to have control over their actions)
> the negative consequences of a choice (how much that person's actions negatively affects others)
> how unusual the actions are

if actions are voluntary, harmful, and unusual, they are attributed strongly to innate personality characteristics not external circumstances

- fundamental attribution error: people judge themselves by their cognitions and judge others by their innate personality traits even when environmental factors may be more relevant
> collectivist cultures seem less susceptible to this idea

- hindsight bias: using present knowledge to judge another's past actions
- self-serving bias: attributing one's own success to internal factors rather than external

\({\bf{Errors~in~Judging~Others:}}\)
- selective perception: only paying attention to information that seems personally relevant
- projection: judging others based on one's own characteristics
- stereotyping: judging others based on what group they belong to
- inference: jumping to a conclusion about others without sufficient information
- impressions: only using early, superficial information to judge others
- halo effect: judging others based on one characteristic, assuming they have similar characteristics as well (ex. if somebody is beautiful they must also be nice/good)
- perceptual set: judging an individual based on the characteristics of a similar individual

Answer 2

\({\bf{Prejudice:}}\) judging an individual based on what characteristics may be shared by others in their group
- bias: preference towards a certain idea

Causes:
- scapegoating (blaming another group for societal problems)
- need for superiority (characterizing another group as inferior helps one's own group feel superior)
- conformity/groupthink (people will adopt prejudiced opinions to fit in with their group)
- larger economic/sociopolitical problems
- authoritarian personalities/leadership (people who are easily swayed by prejudiced opinions/individuals; people who seek to impose their own prejudiced values on others)
- conflict theory: the powerful/privileged groups spreads prejudice against other groups to maintain their position of power

\({\bf{Expressions~of~Prejudice:}}\)
- can be explicit(overt) or implicit (covert)
- explicit prejudice is on the decline (mainly because expressing prejudice overtly has social consequences) but covert prejudice is still a major problem
- dominative prejudice: actions of prejudice where the individual is aware they are being prejudiced
- aversive prejudice: actions of prejudice from people who believe prejudice is wrong

four types of aversive prejudice:
- symbolic: blaming an oppressed group for their situation, under the assumption that every group has equality of opportunity
- subtle: actions of prejudice that may not be blatantly immoral or illegal but still have negative effects on that group
- ambivalent: prejudice stemming from both positive and negative feelings about a group, stems from cognitive dissonance
- benevolent: prejudice stemming from positive ideas about a group (by universally characterizing a group as good they are still working under the assumption that individuals of this group are the same)

Answer 3

\({\bf{Stereotypes:}}\) assumptions about how an individual should behave based on their group
> when individuals do not act according to a stereotype, their behavior is instead attributed to external circumstances ("oh he's one of the good ones, he isn't like them because _________")
> stereotype threat: an individual is worried when his behavior will simply re-affirm a negative stereotype about his group
> self-fulfilling prophecy: negative expectations on an individual can cause one to behave poorly

Answer 4

Anyway, that's the end of my tutorial, I hope it was a helpful resource. Source material is the 2nd Edition Barron's Prep book for the new MCAT