PSYCH 111 Study Guide - Fundamental Attribution Error, Cognitive Dissonance, Leon Festinger
Document Summary
Social psychology focuses on three broad topics: how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Social psychologists study the social influences that help explain why the same person will act differently in different situations. After studying how people explain others" behavior, fritz heider proposed an attribution theory, noting that people usually attribute others" behavior either to their internal dispositions or to their external situations. We often fall prey to the fundamental attribution error, by overestimating the influence of personality and underestimating the influence of situations. Although the fundamental attribution error occurs in all cultures studied, this tendency to attribute behavior to people"s dispositions runs especially strong in individualistic western countries. In east asian cultures, for example, people are more sensitive to the power of the situation. As with other biases, people see themselves as less susceptible than others to the phenomenon. The fundamental attribution error is almost irresistible, though.
