Description

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 :

  1. Write about a time when you used this theory in your own life
  2. 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

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