Narratives spun by past explanations of events set us up for further success or failure. Self-fulfilling prophecies occur when we act on our previous attributions (explanations) of events. I.e., "I failed the last test so I am stupid and it isn't worth studying for the next test because I'll fail anyways"; fails next test; "See I told you I would fail."

Self-fulfilling prophecies

An optimistic explanatory style is characterized by a tendency to attribute bad events to outside forces rather than personal faults. Individuals with this style typically expect that negative occurrences will have limited, short-term consequences.

Optimistic Explanatory Style

A pessimistic explanatory style is characterized by a tendency to blame oneself for negative events. Individuals with this style typically expect that bad events will result in long-term negative consequences that broadly affect many aspects of their lives.

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Archival research can involve complex measurement and analysis of historical qualitative data. In one study, researchers examined the relationship between optimism and health by analyzing open-ended questionnaires about wartime experiences completed by college students in the 1940s. They used content analysis to extract an explanatory style score for each participant, and then assessed the statistical relationship between these early optimism scores and archival measures of the men’s health at age 60, finding a positive correlation (Pearson’s $$r = +.25$$).

Example of Archival Research: Optimism and Health

Which of the following best describes an individual with a pessimistic explanatory style?

Explanatory style refers to an individual's habitual way of explaining the bad events that happen to them. People with a more pessimistic explanatory style tend to blame themselves and expect long-term negative consequences that affect many aspects of their lives. In contrast, those with a more optimistic explanatory style tend to blame outside forces and expect limited negative consequences.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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- The fundamental attribution error
- Explanatory style
- Self-serving biases

Influences on attributions (explanations)

The brain can compress a sequence of actions into an automatic routine.  The sequence is converted after a series of encounters with recurring cues (trigger, context), a routine (the behavior) and then rewards (reinforcement).

Habits ( Behavioral chunking )

The characteristic way an individual engages in cognitive tasks such as perceiving, thinking, remembering, and problem-solving.

Cognitive Style

Aronson, Elliot, and Joshua Aronson. The Social Animal. Worth Publishers, Macmillan Learning, 2018.

The Social Animal

https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/psychmethods4e/

KPU Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition

Humans tend to overestimate the influence of personality (dispositional) compared to situational factors when making explanations for why people do what they do. 

The Fundamental Attribution Error

Explanatory Style

The fundamental attribution error is a cognitive bias describing the common tendency to overemphasize internal, dispositional factors as explanations for someone else's behavior while underestimating the impact of external, situational factors. People committing this error often overlook even obvious situational influences, incorrectly assuming that a person's actions directly reflect their personality rather than their circumstances. This tendency is particularly prevalent in cultures that favor a dispositional view of human behavior, such as in the United States.

Fundamental Attribution Error

How students/people use educational material to learn, often with the goal of doing well on an exam or quiz.

Study habits 

Habits References

Habits form by repeating behaviors or actions after certain contextual cues. In repeating these actions, dependence on conscious motivation for performing the actions is reduced. The consistent repetition of actions over the period of 60+ days forms habits.

Formation of Habits

- verbalizers
- spatial visualizers
- object visualizers

Common Cognitive Styles Present in Groups

Groups with an intermediate level of cognitive style diversity had more collective intelligence than those with a lot or very little diversity. This could be because groups with too much diversity could not effectively communicate and groups with too little did not have an adequate range of skills to perform better. 

Correlation Between Cognitive Style Diversity and Collective Intelligence

- Static vs. Dynamic
- Positivist vs. Negativist
- Evolution vs. Involution

3 Dimensions of Cognitive Style

1. Denial
2. Discounting
3. Differentiation 
4. Dialectical Thinking

4 Forms of Cognitive Style in Processing Contradictions

• Overgeneralizing

• Using selective abstraction

• Taking excessive responsibility

• Assuming temporal causality

• Making excessive self-references

• Catastrophizing

• Engaging in dichotomous thinking 


Types of Cognitive Distortions

Diversity of "cognitive style" refers to the psychological dimensions of each individual in the group for information acquisition and processing are different from one another. 

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