The Need to Explain Leave Impression in an Interview

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As humans we feel the need to explain everything to ourselves and to others, we attribute cause to the events around us which gives us a sense of control. This 'need to explain' is helped through attribution theory argued by Robbins, Millet and Boyle which try to explain the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behavior . There are three different type of observations that we make when we attribute behavior to either external or internal sources being consensus, consistency and distinctiveness. Considering a case of job selection process, Sam arrives at an interview and sits down without greeting his employees. Now given due to research that humans pass judgment on to others in a matter of seconds it was obvious that Sam was to be judged on his first impressions. The employers base their judgment first considering Consensus, which being if other people put in Sam's shoes behave the same way or not. Secondly Distinctiveness considering if Sam behaves the same way in other circumstances or not. Lastly Consistency questioning if the behavior of Sam is of a long term one. High consistency, low distinctiveness and low consensus are results of behavior due to internal sources also known as 'dispositional attribution'. On the other hand high consistency, high consensus and high distinctiveness are sufficient explanation of external causes also known as 'situational attribution' Q2) "In an interview situation, attributional processes are especially relevant in that a recruiters interpretation of information can determine the relative weight and importance of that information and subsequent decisions to hire" . In case of Rowan and his first interviewee Hagan the bias that w... ... middle of paper ... ...gs, consensus, consistency and distinctiveness. Now being more aware of the way attribution theory works I will be more inclined to judge someone thoroughly and also think about the internal or external factors that influence the behavior than jumping straight into immediate perception. Instead of assuming that the teacher is really connected with me in a social level and basing my decision on that I could have referred to this as an external factor such as maybe she's like this with everyone else on a consistent manner. Therefore attribution theory has caused me to learn that before passing judgments on someone or something it is highly necessary to do a thorough perception of the internal and external factors in play and to place my judgments based on that thorough information rather than limited available information leading to a clouded judgment in some cases.

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