Social Issues and Personal Growth

Attributions
Attributions
Attributions
Attributions

Lack of Effort

Internal

Lack of Jobs

External
Attributions

Why is Mary always late for Psychology?

Attributions

Only one behaving this

way?
no situational
Behaving this way for other
subjects?
yes

Freely chosen? yes dispositional

In line with prior yes
dispositional
behaviours?
Attributions

In many situations, we do not have all answers

to these questions.
Attributions

Personal
Rude
Driver

Why did

? ? ?
that driver Do other Has this
Behaviour
Behaviour
cut in people behaviour
freely
front of behave occurred
chosen?
me? this way? before?

Situational
Running
late
Attributions

Attribution error is the tendency

for people to interpret the actions
of others as intentional, instead of
being unintentional consequences
of any number of external factors.
Go to
http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/myers6e/content/psychquest/08index.htm
and do the attribution exercise.
Fundamental Attribution Error

Your view of your own behaviour can be quite different

from the view of someone else observing you.
  When an “actor” and an “observer” draw inferences about the
causes of the “actor’s” behaviour, they often make different
inferences.
  Actors favour external attributions, while observers are more
likely to explain the same behaviour with internal attributions.
  This leads to misjudging the causes of others’ behaviour
because of:-
•  overestimating internal/personal factors,
•  underestimating external/situational influences.
Fundamental Attribution Error

Do the “Causes for Concern” activity on

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072422971/
student_view0/chapter1/interactive_activities.html#
Fundamental Attribution Error

We tend to attribute our successes to internal or

personal factors but to attribute our failures to
situational factors beyond our control. This self-
serving bias accounts for the consistent human
tendency to:
•  take credit for success (e.g., doing well on an exam
because of innate brilliance or studying hard,
winning a game because of athletic prowess);
•  to deny responsibility for failure (e.g., failing an
exam because it was unfair or tricky; losing a game
because "the referees were blind").
Fundamental Attribution Error

1.  Suggest the processes that might contribute to the

occurrence of the self-serving bias.
2.  Suggest potential positive and/or negative effects on
behaviour.
Fundamental Attribution Error

Go to
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/livepsych/media/
interface/index.htm?
atitle=Attributions&id1=31_1&id2=31_2&sid=31_1
to find out more about attributions.
Test your attributions on
http://www.ablongman.com/html/mindmatters2/activities/
m12/hp12ac09.htm
http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/myers6e/content/
psychquest/08index.htm
Fundamental Attribution Error

Go to the web site below to see how the fundamental

attribution error might affect jurors in a criminal trial.

http://www.decisionquest.com/litigation_library.php?NewsID=218
Fundamental Attribution Error

Go to the web site below for revision of terms.

http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/morris5/
chapter15/deluxe.html