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An experiment was conducted to examine relationships among cognitive set variables, attribution, and behavior. Subjects were given either positive-, negative-, or no-set information about the emotional health of a stimulus person prior to observing a videotaped social encounter. After viewing the tape, subjects were administered a free-response attribution measure or a distraction task. All subjects then engaged in actual social interaction with the stimulus person. Principal findings were that (a) subjects receiving positive-set information wrote more positively valenced attributions and displayed more positive behavioral responses than did subjects receiving negative-and no-set information, (b) Subjects who made attributions exhibited more pronounced behavioral responses as a function of the set manipulation than did subjects who did not make attributions. It is argued that the latter data reveal the important role of attribution in mediating the effects of set on behavior. Overall, the data are discussed as reflecting a control motivation in the production of attribution and behavior.For many years, attribution researchers among alternative courses of action" (p. have been encouraged to probe the relationship between attribution and behavior (e.g.,

Previous research has shown that differential causal attributions are made for identical successful performance of male or female stimulus persons. It has been suggested (Deaux, 1976) that expectations derived from stereotypical assumptions about men and women might also hold for other stereotyped groups. A study was conducted to test this assumption by examining causal attributions for a successful banking career based on both the sex and race (black or white) of the target persom It was found that both male and female subjects attributed significantly greater ability, less effort, and less luck to the white male than to the other three groups (white female, black male, or black female)for whom attributions did not differ. Thus, race and sex act similarly as stimulus variables for attribution.

Exemplary research in social cognition and perception is examined. It is suggested that a singular focus on internal, intraindividual cognitive and perceptual processes is not sufficiently broad to account adequately for the spectrum of social knowing phenomena. A more molar approach to social knowing than can be found in contemporary work in social cognition and perception is advocated. More specifically, it is suggested that work on molecular cognitive and perceptual processes will help elucidate basic social knowing phenomena only when such processes are meaningfully tied to the social contexts in which they, occur and to ongoing social behavior.