PSYC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 34: Fundamental Attribution Error, Fritz Heider

• School: Memorial University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1001
• Professor: markherbert

Document Summary

How do we explain behaviour of others (and ourselves) Dispositional (internal) attributions: fo(cid:272)us o(cid:374) people"s traits as the cause of their behaviour. Situational (external) attributions: focus on environmental factors as the cause of behaviour. Whe(cid:374) e(cid:454)plai(cid:374)i(cid:374)g other people"s (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iour, (cid:449)e te(cid:374)d to rel(cid:455) (cid:373)ore hea(cid:448)il(cid:455) o(cid:374) dispositional attributions. Attribution theory: fritz heider (1958, considered how people explain the behaviour of others. We make attributions: causal explanations of behaviour: we either attribute behaviour to internal factors of a person (dispositional attributions) or to external factors (situational attributions) See someone drop a dish more likely to conclude they are clumsy than the dish was hot. Someone speeding is reckless, not due to emergency. Famous study: jones and harris 1967, subject asked to rate how pro-castro speechwriters are, despite being told speechwriters were randomly assigned, still made dispositional attributions. When it comes to our own behaviour, we tend to make more situational attributions.