Two Theories Of Attribution Essay

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

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 Fundamental Attribution Error occurs when a person’s personality is determined based on how they act in a certain situation, but not including the situation and outside influences when making that determination. The individual could be acting a certain way based on the particular situation or social circumstances, but in all actuality be completely different in another situation. Studies show that in most cases socially we want to fit in with a group, don’t want to be different, don’t want to be wrong, and in many instances act different than what our typical personality and values are based on influencing social factors. One of the main factors that often contributes to how we act in certain situations is to obey those in authority positions. The studies provided below are examples of the show how behaviors can change based on social factors.

Two assumptions bring the issue of explanation to the fore. One of these pertains to the range and the other to the type of event that the theories are adduced to account for. The merits of the theory theory and the simulation theory are usually discussed in relation to the practice of the prediction of intentional behavior. The reasonable assumption, (assumption A), is that the mechanism that is deployed in prediction will be the same one that is deployed in the explanation, the description and the interpretation of our own and others’ behavior. The second assumption, (assumption B), is that the two theories offer competing accounts of the same sort of event. The theory theory and the simulation theory, in proposing alternative views of the mechanism underlying our folk psychological practices of prediction, explanation, etc., agree on what these practices consist in.

When we make situational attributions, we are identifying the cause of an action as something

It can be said that fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers to overestimate the influence of personal characteristics and to underestimate the influence of situational characteristics. When people are trying to understand and explain what happens in social settings, people tend to view behavior as a particularly significant factor and tend to explain behavior in terms of internal disposition (such as personality traits, abilities, motives, etc.) as opposed to external situational factors, which can be due to focus on the person more than their situation, about which we may know very little, and also know little about how they are interpreting the situation (Fundamental, n.d.). In an internal or dispositional attribution, people infer that an event or a person’s behavior is due to personal factors such as traits,

Fritz Heider (1958) focuses on the internal and external attribution, which suggests why people behave a certain way according to their character or attitudes (external attribution) or the implication as to why an individual behaves a certain way due to the situation there in. “When we explain our own behavior, we are sensitive to how behavior changes with the situation” (Idson & Mischel, 2001). The significances of making a conclusion, gives direction and probability, which may help determine why a person may or may not act a certain way based on what the evidence shows. The implication of a certain behavior depends on the source to which it is attributed. For example: If Pat assumes that growing up isolated from her surroundings is normal, she won’t perceive it as non-normal. “The way we explain others’ actions, attributing them to the person or the situation, can have important real-life effects” (Fincham & Bradbury, 1993; Fletcher et., 1990). “A person must decide whether to attribute another’s friendliness to romantic interest “ (Myers, D. G.

The authors explain that “fundamental attribution error” is when people focus too much on individual traits rather than the “situational factors in affecting behavior.” What seems to be the case is that “fundamental attribution error” is main problem with Ross and Nisbett’s piece. They tried to focus too much on the logical side of things while entirely disregarding the human factor in their

Social cognitive theorists also suggest that people gather information from the world and develop hypotheses based on the interpretation of events that affect them known as “constructs” (e.g., personal construct theory) (Heffner, 2014). Wherein, individuals behave in a manner congruent to how they expect the world to be, based on their personal interpretations of past events (Heffner,

In this study, Peterson and Docherty examines the emotional state of parents with schizophrenic young adults. The intent of this research was to detect whether or not overinvolved parents of schizophrenic people, blame themselves for the patients’ illness, as well as controlling behavior toward others. 54 parents of schizophrenic patients were assessed with the Camberwell Family Interview. As a result, parents who were overly involved blamed themselves for the patients’ illness more than parents who were less controlling. This research is a valuable source for my research, it is a concise overview of the role parents play in the development and treatment for young adults with schizophrenia.

Clatterbuck (1979) tested the hypotheses derived from the axioms of uncertainty reduction theory in order to offer a means of operationalizing uncertainty in initial interactions through measures of attributional confidence. The process of reducing uncertainty is divided into two interactive processes: retroactive attribution (explanation) and proactive attribution (prediction). When individuals have adequate information which

Both the popular press article and the empirical study make a causal claim. A causal claim is a statement that suggests one variable is the cause for the change in the second variable (Morling, 2012). Kim states that “our first judgments of people are so strong, that they often override what we are told about them,” implying that one’s first judgments causes one to disregard

Social psychology, the study of how we think about, influence, and relate to another, can be used to explain many situations and phenomena that happen in the world. For instance, it can be used to explain why and how people react the way they do when they perform poorly in an act that they’re usually good at, also known as self-serving bias. It is blaming external factors when bad things happen, but contributing internal factors to the reason why good things happen.

In 1967, Daryl Bem, a social psychologist, created a theory that was drawn from the impression formation and attribution theories and developed the theory of self-perception. Self-perception is defined as follows, “Self-perception theory relies on situational and dispositional attributions similar to attribution theory” (Frymier207). Bem created this theory to help understand one’s understanding their own behavior through the same attributions that a person uses to understand someone else’s behavior.