Trinity Bravo

9/20/21

Chapter 3 Reflection

In chapter 3 they talked a lot about the types of theories such as, Attribution theory,

Correspondent Inference Theory, Uncertainty Reduction Theory, and Core Concepts of

Expectancy Violations Theory. What was interesting was on page thirty-four they talked about

Attribution theory. This theory was interesting to me because like they stated in the book this is

something that everyone does every day. I also loved the analogy of being a crime scene

investigator basically saying that is how our brain works to put pieces together. It was very

interesting to me how they broke it down into Dispositional factors which are internal or

personal features and Situational factors which are uncontrolled and determined by the

environment because what seems so complex looking at it from a psychological standpoint is

literally second nature to us due to our brains. We were formed to make assumptions from how

we view people, their traits and behavior, which is why there is a known saying in “don’t judge a

book by its cover.” This theory made me think about my own personal life because when I see

people, I do tend to start making my own assumptions based off of what I can see whether it is

first interactions or just simply how one carries themselves and truthfully a lot of the time I am

wrong on my accusations because me just judging them on attributes is me falling in the theory.

Another example I can use to connect this theory is a show called “How to Get Away with

Murder” In this show it starts out as everyone in a law class and they are all working towards the

same goal in landing the position in the law firm and the five main characters all come from such

different background and all see each other as something they actually aren’t and then they

realize that they all got each other all wrong when a freak accident brings them all together. This
is a good example of Attribution theory because they were complete strangers, and all judged

each other off of what they wore and how they carried themselves in that one particular class. I

feel like they all were looking at one another through one specific lens because they were

looking at one another as competition so they weren’t giving each other the chance to actually

show and express who they were forcing the judgmental actions. One out of the few questions I

have for the class is out of all the theory read upon today which do you feel like you use the most

and the least and why do you feel that way? Another question I have is, did reading these

theories in chapter three did they make you actually think about how you think interpersonally?

Many people in our class favor interpersonal communications but do you ever think about

interpersonal communication in oneself or is it usually just one specific person you focus in on.