The media introduces a scenario that allows you to look at behaviors and attribution theories in action. You will be asked to apply the theories to the scenario. As you participate in this discussion, think about how you attribute behaviors.
Instructions
View video about the Fundamental Attribution Theory.
After completing briefly but thoughtfully respond to the following :
Write about a time when you used this theory in your own life
How will this change the way you perceive others’ behaviors in the future?
Background
People cannot attend to everything they encounter in any given day. As a result, we use mental shortcuts to help us navigate what we know and what we expect to happen. Unfortunately, like any shortcut, the mental shortcuts we use are not always accurate. We select the information we will attend to, interpret it based on our experiences and expectations, and use our interpretations to arrive at judgments about the information (Kenrick, Neuberg, & Cialdini, 2015). The busier we are, the more we tend to rely on mental shortcuts to help us. These shortcuts give us a “good enough” sense of what is going on. Mental shortcuts help us determine what we expect others to be like. If someone volunteers at an animal shelter, for example, we might form an impression of this person based on this fact. As a result, we might think that they are kind and caring. This might be true, and it might not be true. We tend to take on the popular view and then stop looking for additional information. The use of shortcuts can become problematic when the judgments formed are not accurate.
Behaviors are often scrutinized and judged in some of the same ways. When we are trying to determine the causes of someone’s behavior, we often attribute the behaviors to either internal or external factors. Internal factors are personal factors of the individual in question, such as personality traits. External factors are more situational. Attribution theories seek to determine the extent of internal and external forces in an individual’s behavior. There are a couple of attribution theories:
Correspondent inference theory proposes that behaviors correspond to the individual’s internal disposition when the behaviors are intentional, when consequences are foreseeable, and when the behavior occurs despite countervailing forces (Kenrick, Neuberg, & Cialdini, 2015).
The covariation model proposes that the cause of behavior is determined by consensus (others acting similarly), consistency (the individual acts the same way in the same situation over a period of time), and distinctiveness (the individual acts the same way across similar situations).
Additionally, as the number of potential causes for the behavior increases, the confidence in any one cause as the true cause decreases based on the discounting principle. The augmenting principle proposes that if a behavior occurs even though forces that oppose this behavior are present, the cause of the behavior is likely very strong (Kenrick et al., 2015).
Upon successful completion you will be able to:
Apply cognitive strategies used to gain an accurate understanding of self and others.
Evaluate the influence of correspondent inference theory.
Analyze the roles of the discounting principle and the augmenting principle in human interactions.
Sample Solution
Sample solution
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
