PSY 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Fundamental Attribution Error, Dispositional Attribution, Cognitive Dissonance
Document Summary
To answer this we can study emotions, cognitions, motivations, reinforcers, etc. Social psychologists are going to look at the situation. Attribution: attribution= a conclusion about the cause of an observed behavior/ event, attribution theory= we explain others behavior with two types of attribution. Situational attribution= factors outside of the person. Dispositional attribution= factors inside of the person: fundamental attribution error= when we go too far in assuming a person"s behavior is caused by their personality. We think that their behavior demonstrates who they are (a trait) Ex:people who are on welfare or homeless= we say why are they lazy. And we fail to look at their environment= how they grew up, education,etc: we tend to overemphasize dispositional attribution and underemphasize situational attribution. Emotional effects of attribution: someone cuts you off in traf c. Situational attribution= maybe that driver is in a hurry to get to the hospital), we have a tolerant reaction.
