Your boss just praised you effusively for a superior job on a marketing report; he also said he liked the presentation you gave at the regional meeting. As you walk out the door, he says you might want to try wearing another tie. You spend hours mulling

over that last comment and find yourself becoming depressed. Your reaction to the comment was, "I am washed up as an employee; they want someone to replace me." Your conclusion is an example of

a. attribution.
b. an inexact label.
c. cognitive dissonance.
d. selective abstraction.

Answer: d.