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Person Perception and Attribution — Previous Year Questions

📊 Topic Overview​

MetricValue
Total Appearances21 (7.5% of all questions)
Priority🔴 HIGH — appears in 11 of 14 years
Section DistributionSec A: 10
Most Repeated QuestionAttribution errors / attribution theory (10 times)
ProbabilityVery High

🎯 Must-Know Concepts​

  1. Person perception — definition, determinants, and impressions formation
  2. Attribution theory — Heider's naive psychology
  3. Kelley's covariation model (ANOVA model) — consensus, consistency, distinctiveness
  4. Jones and Davis's correspondent inference theory
  5. Attribution errors: FAE, actor-observer bias, self-serving bias
  6. Schemas and prototypes in impression formation

🔥 Most Repeated Question: Attribution Errors and Attribution Theory (10 appearances)​

Appeared in: 2011-Dec, 2012-June, 2014-June, 2016-June, 2017-Dec, 2019-June, 2019-Dec, 2020-June, 2020-Dec, 2023-June, 2023-Dec

Answer (Section A — ~450 words):​

Attribution is the process by which people explain the causes of behaviour — their own and others'. Heider (1958), the founder of attribution theory, distinguished between internal attributions (behaviour caused by the actor's stable dispositions — ability, personality) and external attributions (behaviour caused by situational factors — luck, task difficulty, social pressure).

Kelley's Covariation Model (1967) Harold Kelley extended attribution theory by proposing that people function as naive scientists, using covariation information to make causal inferences. They examine three dimensions:

Consensus: Do others behave the same way in this situation? (High consensus → external attribution) Consistency: Does this person always behave this way in this situation? (High consistency → internal or external depending on other factors) Distinctiveness: Does this person behave differently in other situations? (High distinctiveness → external attribution; Low distinctiveness → internal attribution)

Example: If Sarah laughs at the comedian (low consensus — others don't laugh; high consistency — Sarah always laughs at this comedian; low distinctiveness — Sarah laughs at everything), an internal attribution is made: Sarah has a particular sense of humour.

Jones and Davis's Correspondent Inference Theory (1965) When observing others' behaviour, we infer their dispositions correspond to their actions. We are most confident in dispositional attributions when: behaviour is freely chosen, has few non-common effects, is socially undesirable, and is low in social desirability. Hedonic relevance (behaviour affects us personally) and personalism (behaviour seems intended to affect us) increase confidence in dispositional attributions.

Attribution Errors:

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) — Ross (1977): The pervasive tendency to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when explaining others' behaviour. The quiz show study demonstrated that observers rated questioners as more knowledgeable even when role assignment was random. FAE reflects figure-ground perception: the person is the salient figure; the situation is ground.

Actor-Observer Bias: Actors are more likely to make external attributions for their own behaviour; observers make internal attributions for the same behaviour. This asymmetry occurs because actors are more aware of situational constraints on their behaviour, while observers focus on the actor.

Self-Serving Bias: People attribute success to internal causes (ability, effort) and failure to external causes (bad luck, unfair task). This protects self-esteem. Cultural variation exists — collectivistic cultures show less self-serving bias.

Just World Bias: People believe that the world is fair and victims deserve their fate. This attribution error reduces anxiety about one's own vulnerability but leads to blaming victims.

In conclusion, attribution processes are subject to systematic biases reflecting cognitive, motivational, and perceptual factors. Awareness of these biases is essential for fair interpersonal judgements, clinical assessment, and social justice.

📝 Other Questions​

Define person perception and discuss its determinants (Section B — ~250 words)​

Person perception refers to the cognitive and social processes by which we form impressions of other people — their traits, emotions, intentions, and character. It is the foundation of all social interaction.

Determinants of Person Perception:

Physical Appearance: First impressions are heavily influenced by physical appearance — attractiveness, age, race, clothing. These activate stereotypes and schemas that colour subsequent perception.

Non-verbal Cues: Facial expressions, body language, eye contact, posture, and tone of voice provide rapid information about others' emotional states and intentions.

Implicit Personality Theories: People have lay theories about which traits cluster together (e.g., intelligent people are also curious and creative). These halo effects lead to inferences beyond the available evidence.

Schemas and Prototypes: Social schemas — organised knowledge structures about types of people or social situations — speed up person perception but introduce biases. Person prototypes (the most representative member of a category) influence categorisation.

Situational Context: The same behaviour is interpreted differently in different situational contexts. Context shapes meaning.

Primacy and Recency Effects: Asch (1946) demonstrated that first-presented traits (primacy) have disproportionate influence on final impressions — negative information early produces negative impressions. Recency effects occur when information is presented rapidly and the final items are most memorable.

Cognitive Algebra (Anderson): People combine information about others through weighted averaging — each trait is weighted by its importance and the overall impression is the weighted average.

🧠 Memory Aids​

Kelley's Covariation (CCD): Consensus + Consistency + Distinctiveness → attribution

Attribution Errors (FASS-J): FAE, Actor-observer, Self-serving, Social desirability, Just World

📚 Related Content​

✅ Self-Assessment​

  1. What three dimensions does Kelley's covariation model use to determine attribution?
  2. What is the fundamental attribution error, and why does it occur?
  3. How does the actor-observer bias differ from the self-serving bias?
  4. What factors increase confidence in correspondent inferences (Jones and Davis)?
  5. Explain the primacy effect in impression formation with Asch's evidence.

💡 Exam Tips​

  • Section A: Heider's naive psychology → Kelley's model (explain all three dimensions with example) → Jones-Davis → errors (FAE, actor-observer, self-serving) → conclusion.
  • The covariation model table (consensus/consistency/distinctiveness combinations) earns full marks in Section B — prepare it.
  • FAE is the most tested error — always explain it clearly with the quiz show study example.