According to the book attributions are, “an interference made
about the causes of another’s behavior”. There are two kinds of attributions
that can be made about another person’s behavior. The first is internal which
is related to the other person’s personality and the second is external which
is regarding that person’s circumstance. Internal attributions, for example,
get on their personality which can usually lead to name calling. (She’s
stuipid… Name calling: Idiot). External, on the other hand, is a way to avoid
blame and avoid giving credit where credit is due. (You got that job because
you graduated from a good high school)
False attributions are interferences made about another person
which are not true. This can lead to many problems because you are beginning to
call names or wrongly accuse someone they didn’t do anything wrong. There have
been times where I have made false attributions about another person when I
shouldn’t have. I feel like this happens a lot when my boyfriend and I are
arguing. He will do something that bugs me and instead of thinking of all
possible situations about why he could be doing that I immediately make an
internal attribution about him like “he’s stupid”, “he’s lazy”, etc. This makes
our arguments a lot worse than they already were because I really don’t know what
the situation was or what was going on. This has caused me to not judge so
quickly and step back to think about everything before doing so.
There have been times where I have made an accurate attribution
that has actually helped me to be more aware of the situation I was in. I used
to have this friend and at first I thought she was the greatest. We would spend
every waking moment together and I would tell her all my secrets. I then
started to notice some actions that she was making that didn’t seem right to
me. From that point I started to hold back information from her and not spend
too much time together. After doing that I came to find out that she was talking
to my ex boyfriend behind my back. Because I made that attribution about her
and the behaviors she was doing, I was able to watch my back for myself.
I have definitely been guilty of making a false attribution, especially in the midst of an argument. Instead of clearly assessing someone's behavior and trying to configure what might prompt them to behave in such a manner, I jump to conclusions and attribute characteristics to their actions that really aren't true. Honestly, I recognize it isn't helpful and only augments the confrontation, but I end up getting wrapped up in my own emotions I don't think clearly. I really liked your personal example because it further served to explain the concept to me. Nice job!
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