Attribution Interpersonal Perception

Attribution and Interpersonal Perception

It is said that we often attribute our own and others ' behaviour to personal dispositions when the behaviour was in fact caused by the situation. Why and when is this so? Refer to the function of attributions; attribution errors; interpersonal perceptions and interactions. You may use personal examples to illustrate these biases.

1 Background 2
2 Introduction 2
3 Attributional Theories 2
3.1 Correspondent Inference 3
3.2 Causal Attributions 3
3.3 Behaviour as a function of Disposition or Situation 4
3.4 Augmenting and Discounting 5
4 Attributional Sources of error: 5
4.1 Correspondence Bias: Overestimating the Role of Dispositional causes. 6
4.1.1 Wanting Dispositions 7
4.1.2 Misunderstanding
Because we cannot "see" their covert feelings, reasons and intentions, we have to infer them from what we can "see"-- their overt behaviour. We make our attributions about ourselves in much the same way. Often our own emotions, attitudes, traits, and abilities are unclear and ambiguous to us. (Why did I overreact?) In self-perception, as in our perception of others, we search for plausible causes of our behaviour. If we are aware of strong external factors pushing us, we are likely to make situational attributions. But when there are no clear external forces we are likely to make dispositional attributions. This distinction between situational and dispositional causes of behaviour is fundamental to all attribution theories. Many discussions of casual attribution seem to suggest that attribution is a highly rational, logical and objective process. This is not always the case -- often our attributions are subject to biases that lead us to incorrect conclusions regarding the reasons behind others ' (and our own) behaviour. Attributions cannot tell us why a person behaved in a certain way. That is not their function. Rather their function is to describe the psychological operations that underlie such attributions. The prescribed literature for this assignment contributes to an understanding of these psychological operations.

2 Introduction
Attribution is defined as the process through which we
In other words, an observer should not assume D to be positive or negative when S and B are equal. Called the discounting principle, this principle suggests that when we try and estimate a person’s dispositions, the person’s behaviour should be “discounted” or ignored when it is precisely the behaviour required by the situation. Such behaviour is said to be non-diagnostic and tells us nothing about the person’s tendencies to behave (Gilbert