Fundamental Attribution Error Research Paper
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messages) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of fundamental attribution error examples original research should be removed. (February 2015) (Learn how and when to fundamental attribution error definition remove this template message) This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this fundamental attribution error quizlet by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (February 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) In social psychology, the ultimate attribution error fundamental attribution error, also known as the correspondence bias or attribution effect, is the tendency for people to place an undue emphasis on internal characteristics of the agent (character or intention), rather than external factors, in explaining another person's behavior in a given situation. This contrasts with interpreting one's own behavior, where situational factors are more easily recognized and
Defensive Attribution
can be taken into account. Contents 1 Examples 2 Details 3 Classic demonstration study: Jones and Harris (1967) 4 Explanations 5 Cultural differences in the error 6 Versus correspondence bias 7 See also 7.1 Cognitive biases 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Examples[edit] As a simple example, consider a situation where Alice, a driver, is about to pass through an intersection. Her light turns green and she begins to accelerate, but another car drives through the red light and crosses in front of her. The fundamental attribution error may lead her to think that the driver of the other car was an unskilled or reckless driver. This will be an error if the other driver had a good reason for running the light, such as rushing a patient to the hospital. If this is the case and Alice had been driving the other car, she would have understood that the situation called for speed at the cost of safety, but when seeing it from the outside she was inclined to believe that the
overestimate the impact of dispositional factors. For instance, people often tend to believe that aggressive behavior is caused by aggressive personality characteristics (dispositional factor) even though aggressive behavior can also be provoked by situational circumstances
Self Serving Bias
(situational factor). History of Fundamental Attribution Error The term fundamental attribution error actor observer bias was created in 1977 by social psychologist Lee Ross. However, research on the fundamental attribution error goes back to fundamental attribution error studies the 1950s when social psychologists Fritz Heider and Gustav Ichheiser started to investigate lay perceivers' understanding of the causes of human behavior. Interest in the fundamental attribution error experienced a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error peak in the 1970s and 1980s when a general notion within social psychology was to discover shortcomings in human judgment. Notwithstanding its widely accepted significance for social psychology, the fundamental attribution error has also been the subject of controversies regarding its general nature. On the one hand, critics argued that the fundamental attribution error does not occur for everyone under any http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/social-cognition/fundamental-attribution-error/ circumstances, which challenges the adequacy of the label fundamental. On the other hand, critics claimed that there is no unambiguous criterion that could specify the real causes of human behavior, thus challenging the adequacy of the term error. Irrespective of these controversies, the fundamental attribution error is generally regarded as a very important phenomenon for social psychology, as it often leads to surprised reactions to research findings demonstrating a strong impact of situational factors on human behavior. Fundamental Attribution Error Evidence From a general perspective, evidence for the fundamental attribution error comes from three different lines of research. First, numerous studies have shown that people tend to infer stable personality characteristics from observed behavior even when this behavior could also be due to situational factors. For example, students may infer a high level of dispositional anxiety from a fellow student's nervous behavior during a class presentation, even though such nervous behavior may simply be the result of the anxiety-provoking situation. This tendency to draw correspondent dispositional inferences from situationally constrained behavior is usually called the correspondence bias. In the present example, t
Home> Essays> The Fundamental Attribution... The Fundamental Attribution Error Only available on StudyMode Topic: Social influence, Social psychology, Psychology Pages : 2 (509 words ) Download(s) : 638 Published : September 16, 2007 Open Document → http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Fundamental-Attribution-Error-121068.html Save to my library Please sign up to read full document. Text Preview The fundamental attribution error plays a major role in our everyday lives. Until reading this section on the attribution error, I wasn't as aware of it as I am at this moment. Hopefully after you read the section and this short essay, you will be more conscious of this misattribution that happens right before your eyes, and you will be more attribution error aware when making attributions. The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences upon other's behavior. (Myers, 2008) In simple terms, when a person's behavior is unbecoming, we tend to automatically jump to a conclusion that the person has a bad behavior, they're rude, etc. Very seldom do we look at the situation that the person may be in, whether it's personal or work related. In fundamental attribution error every event there is always cause and effect. Many times in misattributions, the cause of a person's behavior is underestimated. As an observer, I've noticed a soldier who never really said much at work, and always walked around looking sad. This soldier wouldn't really help out much either when it was time to do details or clean the office daily. I begin to think that this person was lazy and would look at the soldier with mean stares. When I learned of the soldier's situation, he was diagnosed as depressed, I begin to think of what may have caused the depression. War had a major affect on his behavior, and the way I perceived him was incorrect. I had overlooked his situational influence, and overestimated his dispositional influence. I apologized on the inside, and no longer looked at that person in that way. This also changed my viewing of everyone else that I encountered. Instead of just making an attribution, I really tried to look below the surface to see what was the real problem. Attribution researchers have found a common problem with our attributions. (Myers, 2008, no page # needed here-102) When explaining... Show More Please sign up to read full document. YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE DOCUMENTS HELPFUL Attribution and Interpersonal Perception ...Attribution and Interpersonal Perception It i