Attribution theory Essay

as opposed to external situational factors. This can be due to our focus on the person more than their situation, about which we may know very little. When we are playing the role of observer, which is largely when we look at others, we make this fundamental attribution error. When we are thinking about ourselves, however, we will tend to make situational attributions. Our expectations of our social world matter because of our social beliefs and judgments.

Trevor’s actions led his peers to label him as a constant threat, as well as the school “weirdo.” Everyone, even his parents, cautioned himself or herself around him. Trevor’s own actions categorized him as a threat to all. His peers would wonder about the causes for his actions. This led them to believe in false causes. A theory in this particular case, which is widely used in this concept, is the attribution theory. This explains and states the different types of processes we use to judge behaviors

We learnt that people should not be using shortcut to judge others such as selective perception which is a perceptual filtering process based on interests, background and attitude. Another shortcut in judging others is stereotyping which is judging someone on the

Notably, the fundamental attribution error is a personal bias that is problematic in society. To emphasize, the fundamental attribution error is when individuals have the tendency to attribute people’s behavior to components of their character or personality, even when situational influences are producing the behavior (Textbook, page 171). An example of the fundamental attribution error operating in daily life is when a driver avoids hitting a pedestrian and causes an accident. In this

inferences and judgements about people and sometimes forget that it is our own viewpoint that

Cultural influence affects not only the formation of a stereotype, but also its acceptance. According to the tripartite model of attitudes, a stereotype is the cognitive component of prejudiced attitudes. Many contemporary theorists suggest prejudice is an inevitable consequence of the stereotyping process (Devine, 1989). This makes learning attitudes and stereotypes of social groups inevitable. There is strong evidence that stereotypes are established in children’s memories before they have the ability to use cognitive processing to accept or reject the stereotypes. In this developmental process, the stereotype is easier to access for the child than personal beliefs; therefore, the culture an individual lives in makes it impossible not to apply stereotypes in daily life (Devine, 1989).

Attributions are the next facet of the four cognitive processes that can be seen in The Whore’s Child. They are defined as “assessments of the cause of an action or behavior,” (Canary 111) and can be both internal and external. Internal meaning that the behavior is attributed to qualities such as

In the ways of the world it is easier to make assessments about people or objects based on a quick observation. For instance, almost everyone has heard the clique saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is a perfect scenario where looking at just what is holding the book together a decision is made on whether the book will be picked to read. In the same ways individuals tend to judge each other. Unfortunately, when quick judgments are snapped about a person or object the observer is missing out a bigger picture. This is defined as the fundamental attribution error. For example, a person kicking a vending machine over and over may not have an anger management problem. Although, the observer may make this assumption as they walk by not

The definition of prejudice may vary among the different psychologist but most will agree that prejudice has something to do with prejudgment, typically negative, about a group. (Fiskie, 1998; Jones, 1997; Nelson, 2002 ). According to Plous (2003), Prejudice is not exactly considered an opinion, but an attitude which includes feeling such as hating the group, rather than believing they’re bad. Within psychology, we can link prejudice with discrimination and stereotyping (Plous, 2003). Although each may go together, they can be done separately. Prejudice and discrimination are most likely absent in a positive stereo type (Plous, 2013). For example describing an ethnic group as “family oriented”. Stereo typing does little to no harm without discrimination or prejudice. A generalized form of prejudice may lack discrimination and stereo types, such as being against foreigners.

enough to put them to everyday use” (64). Culture can affect the way someone views someone or

Attribution theory: an attempt when individuals observe behavior to determine whether it is internally or externally caused

The primary fascinating certainty I saw amid the investigation was the way rapidly we adjusted to another culture and began to feel a sense of generalization towards the other culture, marked by prejudices. When we began the test, I thought it would be harder for us to adapt to another culture. However, we started to act and act like we were relied upon to do in our way of life within a brief timeframe. Also when we went to visit Beta culture, we quickly began to generalization them. This experience gave me knowledge that generalization is regularly done in intuitive personality. Somebody may contemplate another culture is entirely right. In any case, likely that individual is simply stereotyping in a subliminal mind. While the Alpha culture

Recent theoretical and empirical developments in psychology have brought the field to the point where researchers need to be mindful of the generalizability of Western findings to other cultural contexts (Heine & Norenzayan, 2006). Another shortcoming of psychological research is the majority of most influential research giving focus to comparisons of North Americans and East Asians. It is perhaps logical that North Americans specifically and Westerners more generally have usually served as the point of comparison in these studies, due to the majority of psychological theories did in fact arise from such samples. Nevertheless, this ought not to be the case. Heine and Norenzayan (2006) calls for cultural psychological research to go beyond only comparisons of East Asians nations with Western nations. At present, despite the growth of cross-cultural research, very little is known about the psychological processes of the majority of cultures of the world. Another shortcoming of psychological research is that it has largely been limited to explorations of the extent to which concepts and occurrences that have been developed and identified in the West generalize to non-Western cultures.

In social psychology, the phrase person perception has historically referred to the perception of others that leads to judgments of traits and dispositions. Fritz Heider proposed that people can attribute the behaviors of others to factors that are internal (personality, dispositions, etc.) or external (situational constraints), but that people are prone to make internal attributions (Ickes, 2000). These basic observations affected decades of research and provided an important foundation for two related theories, in particular. Harold Kelley’s covariation model, for example, described how people discern the attitudes of others based on simple factors surrounding observed behaviors (Sadalla et al, 1994). Similarly, Edward E. Jones

Culture is fundamental to understanding human experience. It makes the world inspiring, entertaining, enables effective communication, and influences most factors of modern life, so it’s no surprise that psychologists are interested in the impact it has. Sociocultural psychology and cross- cultural psychology are two different approaches that explore cultural experience. The two disciplines, though different in their definitions of cultural impact, share many of the same goals and ideas, and can arguably offer great insight to the other approach. The potential for collaboration between the two disciplines to garner a rich insight into personal and social cultural influence means that the two approaches are by no means incompatible, and their compatibility can offer a wealth of positive contribution to psychological research.