Understanding Attribution Theory and Common Biases in Behavior Analysis

Introduction

Attribution is a way of explaining why someone behaves a certain way and why it happens. There are two different types of critical misjudgments people make: internal and situational dispositions. Internal and situational dispositions were based on a theory called attribution theory.

Exploring Attribution Theory:

This theory “was developed by social psychologist Fritz Heider” (Ciccarelli and White 479).

Fritz Heider used this theory “as a way of not only explaining why things happen but also why people choose the particular explanations of behavior that they do” (Ciccarelli and White 479). Internal dispositions are someone’s behavior based the characteristics, personality, thoughts, or feelings. Situational dispositions are based on a situation and actions that occurred to the person. An example of an internal disposition is Danny getting a bad grade on his research paper and thinking his professor does not like him. An example of a situational disposition is the directions that were given were too hard, and I did not understand them. Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is looking at other people’s actions and personalities based on our feeling and assuming something. An example of FAE is Sally’s boyfriend has not been answering her texts since Monday and thinks she did something wrong. Saliency bias focuses on the important parts of the explanation of the changes in behavior. Self-serving bias is when you are looking at your own behavior in a negative or positive way. It helps with our self-esteem, but over-blaming ourselves is not good or healthy.

Today in our society, everyone uses attributions, including me. Around the middle of May, my parents have gotten me my first car as an early graduation/birthday gift. I was so excited that I got a car! I would not have to worry about borrowing my mom’s car when I make plans with my friends. I literally had my own freedom to go anywhere I wanted, but obviously, I would tell my mom where I was going. About towards the end of June, I had already graduated, and it is one of the biggest accomplishments I have achieved now. My friends decided that as a reward for graduation, they were going to go to Pennsylvania from Friday to Sunday. I had to beg my parents to let me go because they did not let me go away for prom weekend, which is understandable. They told me I could go, and I was super excited! The day before we left, I went to the mall to buy shorts, and I wanted to buy a new bathing suit. I went to a store called Garage in the Garden State Plaza, and I fell in love with this one-piece bathing suit. The store did not have my size, so they called the other store located in Paramus Park Mall. They had my size, so I went over there. As I was leaving the mall, it was pouring like crazy. I tell myself as I leave the entrance of the mall, “You need to run to get into the car, so you can leave.” I drove out of the parking lot as fast as I could. As I was driving, I noticed that I couldn’t see anything. I thought to myself that it was going to go away, it was just rain, and it would clear up like it always does. Then, in a couple of seconds, I got into an accident on Route 17. Luckily, thank you to God that I was ok, and nothing happened to me. The only thing that was messed up with the bumper of my car by hitting a pole. I believe I got into an accident because of the pouring rain. I called my mom right away. It turns out that I was wrong about why I got into an accident. Lesson learned when your windshield starts to get foggy or if it starts to rain/rain, always put your defrosters on before you start to drive or as you are driving.  

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