Most Common Attribute Error - Essay Example

Errors in Attribution Introduction Humans are social beings who have a unique way of perceiving and understanding information as well as offering alternatives to problems. According to Wilbert & Haider (2012), people have a tendency to make interpretations of their own behavior and that of others by assigning attributes to behavior. An attribution theory lays down a smart way that shows proof of how people can influence their own and other people’s behavior. An attribution error is a false assumption in perception of what actually affects human behavior.

The two errors of attributions provide a complete analysis and understanding of human behavior.Two errors of attribution are fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias.Fundamental attribution error According to Huczynski & Buchanan, (2013), fundamental attribution error is a “tendency to attribute another’s behavior to dispositional qualities, rather than the situation itself.” (p. 34). For this type of error to occur, there must be a valid situational factor in that people end up overestimating the dispositional attributions.

Psychologists have proved that humans have a tendency to judge others without having any prior knowledge of what actually happened and thus apply dispositional attributions. Since it is something impressed in a society, Brookwell (2013) proposed that this type of attribution error is purely a cultural bias because it focuses on personal responsibilities and not behavior.Self-serving Bias Self-serving bias is a tendency to stable, dispositional factors and failures to temporary, and its link to self-presentation and self-esteem (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2013).

Therefore, if an outcome, either success or failure, contradicts expectations, people will be likely to make situational attributions. When taking exams, a good number of students have hopes of performing well. However, when the results are out and they realize they have failed or performed far below their expectations, they always justify their failure with external factors, which are not controllable in most cases. Therefore, when people fail in cases where they put in a lot of efforts, they always attribute their failure using situational factors.

Considerations that affect self-serving bias include projection of self-esteem in future, emotional state, desire for positive self-esteem, and culture. When people perform well with lots of efforts, they attribute their success to dispositional factors. In most cases, talking about failure is something everyone tries to avoid because of the unexpected reactions from friends and family. In the context of failing an exam, it is very easy for people to know even if they are not told because results are always displayed.

To cover up the issue, there is a tendency to talk to people by blaming everything that can convince them that it was not an intentional failure. Deliberately, someone feels happy after realizing the group is convinced with the justification of failing. It always nice to lie and still maintain an innocent ground!Conclusion While the above discussed error can have similarities in a variety of ways, there are unique differences in the sense that they have diverse theoretical explanations, approaches of research, and role of society and culture in each attribution error.

Human is to error! This is a true assumption because everyone is inclined to what pleases his or her goals and intention. ReferencesBrookwell, M. L., Bentall, R. P., & Varese, F. (2013). Externalizing biases and hallucinations in source-monitoring, self-monitoring and signal detection studies: a meta-analytic review. Psychological medicine, 43(12), 2465-2475.Huczynski, A., & Buchanan, D. A. (2013). Organizational Behaviour. New York: Pearson.Wilbert, J., & Haider, H. (2012). The subjective experience of committed errors and the Discrepancy-Attribution hypothesis.

Acta psychologica, 139(2), 370-381.