Fundamental Attribution Error

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Attribution occurs when a person attributes an outcome to one or more external or internal factors. The first factor is Fundamental Attribution Error, this is when a person overestimates the role of dispositional factors on one’s behavior. The second factor is the Self-Serving Bias, the Self-Serving Bias is when a person takes credit for their success by attributing them to dispositional factors, and attribute their failures to social factors.

Fundamental Attribution Error occurs most often when a person observes and automatically makes inferences, they automatically assume it’s a dispositional factor. Most people never make it pass this part of Fundamental Attribution Error because here they begin to ignore the situational factors. A study that tests Fundamental Attribution Error would be Ross et. al(1977). Their participants were University students, the participants were assigned to one of three roles game show host, audience, or game show participant. When the audience were asked to rank the intelligence of the participants, the participants received low score while the host received relatively …show more content…

al. argues that we all use Self-Serving Bias to protect our self esteem, it’s used as a means of self-protection. THe Self-Serving Bias can be found mostly within Western culture while Modesty Bias is more likely to be found within Asian culture. A study that tests the Self-Serving Bias would be Johnson et. al.(1964) The participants were Psychology students. The students taught two children how to multiply through a two way intercom. The students tested the first pupil A and after the first pupil B was tested. At the end of the first phase pupil A got everything right, but pupil B, depending on the condition either did badly on both or improved the second time around. In the condition in where pupil B ha improved they attributed this to their ability as teachers. However when pupil B did not improve they attributed this to the pupils lack of

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