PSYC 1000 Chapter Notes -Fundamental Attribution Error, Dispositional Attribution, Tanning Bed
Document Summary
Textbook: psychology tenth edition in modules authored by david g. myers. They study the personal traits and dynamics that explain why different people may act differently in a given situation. They study the social influences that explain why the same person will act differently in different situations. Our social behaviour arises from our social cognition. Attribution theory wee can attribute the behaviour to the person"s stable, enduring traits (a dispositional attribution). Or we can attribute it to the situation (a situational attribution). Talking little or talking a lot such attributions to their dispositions can be valid because people do have enduring personality traits. But sometimes we prey to the fundamental attribution error: we overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situations. Napolitan and goethals studied college students with a young woman who acted either cold and critical or warm and friendly attributed her behaviour to her personal disposition even when told that her behaviour was situational.