Ananta Vashisht 06.03.

2014 Psychology Essay Outline: Sociocultural Level of Analysis Discuss two errors in attributions (for example, fundamental attribution error, illusory correlation, self serving bias)

Introduction:
Attribution theory- Attribution is defined as how people interpret and explain causal relationships in the social world. Humans have a need to understand why things happen. Error in attribution can be defined as a false assumption or distortion in perception or judgment about the causes of our own or other peoples behavior. Fundamental attribution error is also known as correspondence bias. FAE is the tendency to overestimate the importance of personal or dispositional factors and underestimate the importance of external or situational factors as explanations for other peoples behaviors. Self-serving bias is the tendency for us to explain success in terms of dispositional factors and deny responsibility (blame external factors) when they go wrong. Fundamental Attribution Error: Ross et al. (1977) Self Serving Bias: Johnson et al. (1964)

Body:
Ross et al. (1977)
Aim: To see if students would make the FAE even when they knew all the actors were playing a role. Method: Participants (P"s) randomly assigned one of three roles: 1) Game show host - asked to design their own questions 2) Contestant - tried to answer questions 3) Audience member - watched the game show After the game show, audience members were asked to rank the intelligence of the hosts and contestants Results: P"s consistently ranked the host as the most intelligent, even though they knew they were randomly assigned this role and that they had written the questions Conclusion:

 They failed to attribute the host's behaviour to situational factors of the role they had been randomly assigned instead attributed his performance to dispositional factors intelligence Evaluation: Limitations 1) Participants were all university students 2) They often listen to professors who ask questions and provide answers (like the game show host) and are seen as authority figures 3) The belief that authority figures that the people who ask questions are intelligent could be a learned response, rather than attribution error 4) Sample is not representative; small sample, part of specific school 5) Findings cannot be generalized to a wider population

Johnson et al. (1964)

Aim: To investigate the effect of pupils' learning on teachers' SSB Method: Participants were psychology students They taught two children how to multiply numbers by 10 and 20 Teaching was done via a one-way intercom Taught in two phases: how to multiple by 10 how to multiple by 20 After each phase, worksheets were made available to participants to assess children's learning progress Worksheets were made in a way that pupil A gave all correct answers on both sheets pupil B 1) did poorly on both sheets (participant failed in teaching) 2) did poorly on the first sheet and improved on the second (participant succeeded in teaching) Results: Participants attributed pupil B's improved performance to their abilities as a teacher. Participants attributed pupil B's failure to the pupil's lack of ability. Conclusion: When attributing pupils' learning progress, teachers demonstrated SSB to enhance and protect the image of their own ability.

Evaluation: Strengths 1) Laboratory experiment

2) Strict control over variables 3) Determined a cause-effect relationship 4) Findings support SSB Limitations 1) Lacks ecological validity - cannot be generalized to the whole population 2) Participants Psychology students Not representative sample 3) Laboratory experiment 4) Artificial environment

Conclusion:
While these errors are similar in many ways, they exhibit differences in their general theoretical explanation of the reasons behind attribution error, the strengths, weakness and approaches of research supporting these theoretical claims and the role of culture in each attribution error.

Connection of study to question Ross et al. (1977) This study reflects and demonstrates that the FAE occurs because participants attributed the behavior of hosts and contestants to dispositional factors (intelligence), rather than situational factors (role) They argued that the observers and contestants had ignored the fact that the questioners had an unfair situational advantage (compiled the questions) and had overestimated dispositional factors in making their judgments. Connection of study to question Johnson et al. (1964) This study relates to the SSB because it demonstrates that If students are successful, teachers will attribute it to dispositional factors (their teaching ability) But if students are unsuccessful, teachers will attribute it to situational factors, external to themselves (child's ability) FAE There are many theories as to why people demonstrate this error People do not have enough information to make situational attributions, so they have dispositional attributions Information to make situational attributions is less obvious than that of dispositional FAE gives a sense of control over the world in that we possess the ability for things to occur in life FAE is a cultural bias, not attribution error

SSB

 Tendency to attribute success to dispositional factors and failure to situational factors There are many theories for why people demonstrate this error Self-presentation and self-esteem Attributions depend on expectation to succeed or fail Attributions depend on effort changes with success and failure There are many factors that affect this error Improvement of self-esteem in future Emotional state Desire for positive self-esteem Culture