Judgment Biases and Attributional Biases
Thought processes can greatly influence people's social interactions, and the way that they live their lives. Cognitions develop how people perceive themselves and others on a daily basis. It is important to investigate how people attribute actions and behaviors exhibited, not only by themselves, but also those around them. These attributions shape the way an observer feels and reacts to others, and how people feel about themselves due to their own actions. The correspondence bias (fundamental attribution error) and the self-serving bias are two errors made in attribution by virtually every human being (Baron & Byrne, 2000). Both of these biases can be shown not only in adults, but also children (Guern, 1999). Even sport spectators display these biases when watching their favorite teams (Wann & Schrader, 2000). When the self-serving bias is absent in people's cognitions, they will show the self-defeating attributions. It is important to study people that demonstrate self-defeating attributions, because these individuals also show symptoms of depression (Wall & Hayes, 2000). Clearly, attributions are an imperative aspect of social cognition. Attributional bias is discussed by Marie Beesley. It is also important to investigate the factors that affect people's judgment biases in decision making and reasoning skills, which is explored by Amanda Wheeler. Because these two processes are so vital to the way in which people perceive themselves and others, and to the way a person chooses to behave, it is important to understand the factors that can cause inaccurate judgments. Judgment biases affect the way people form conclusions and make attributions about others, as well as abou...
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Sport fans, sometimes also called sport devotees, followers, or supporters, are persons who are enthusiastically devoted to a particular athlete, team or sport. They may show their enthusiasm by often attending sporting events or watch on television, being members of a fan club, follow sport news through newspapers, online websites, and creating fanzines. Their disposition is often such that they will experience a game or event by living through their favored players or teams. These behaviors manifest itself in different ways. To enable better understanding of these behavioral patterns, we have to classify these sports fans into groups based on their devotion to teams: fair-weather fans, bandwagon and the super-fans.
nature of engaging in spectatorship: it can easily go wrong. The nature of a character’s
In a biological outlook on depression, abnormal genetic or biochemical processes incline some individuals to depression. Conversely, in a cognitive perspective, the way people understand events in their lives has a very important effect on their weakness to depression. One example of a cognitive perspective is the hopelessness theory in which people believe that negative events in their lives are stable and global in that it will last “forever” and will affect everything he or she does causing a maladaptive cognitive (Alloy, Abramson, Francis, 1999). This article proposes that negatively biased negative self description provides the foundation for a cognitive vulnerability to depression. That is, a person whose mind set is negatively biased when processing information about one’s self may be particularly vulnerable to depression. For instance, when confronted with an unfamiliar situation, a vuln...
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Known as the world’s most popular sport, professional soccer has helped create and define different groups of people around the world for longer than a century. The hoopla surrounding teams, geographic areas fans dwell in, and political ideals associated with individual clubs have carved an identity for millions of supporters whose heart and soul becomes dedicated to their favorite players, stadiums, and coaches. Soccer teams and their fans can give us a window into how people can be divided and defined by their allegiances and ideals, and why those with similar views band together to create a familiar environment for themselves.
The classic model of depression, according to Beck (1979), centres on the ‘depressive cognitive triad’. These patterns of negative thoughts are about: First, the world, the past or current situation, for example, no one likes me. Second, oneself (self-criticism, guilt, blame), for example, I’m worthless. And third, the future (hopelessness, pessimisms), for example, I will never be successful.
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Depression is sometimes mistaken as the typical sad feeling all humans get once in a while. However, the distinct difference between depression and those typical sad feelings are that depression is long-term whereas feeling sad is short-term. Depression is a mental illness that should be taken seriously as this illness can affect the individual emotionally and physically, and impair the daily life. So what is it that causes depression? This is the big question psychologists try to answer through research but their explanations do not explain how those who face one of those factors, only a few are able to avoid developing depression. Everyone thinks and behaves differently, but there are specific personal factors such as one’s negative personalities, chronic illnesses, and substance abuse that causes each individual to respond in a similar and certain way, thus causing them to be prone to developing a depressive disorder. Low self-esteem and negative personality styles can cause depression due to its negative influences on the individual’s mind. Chronic illnesses triggers depression due to its biological and psychological effects. Lastly, substance abuse affects an individual’s mood, personal life, and health causing vulnerability to developing depression.
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The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is a concept within social psychology that assumes when someone is aggressive, it is due to a flaw in their personality as opposed to a reaction to their personal circumstances (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2015). However, there is typically a situational reason for the other person’s behavior that is not taken into account through the FAE (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2015). I have been guilty of making the FAE myself; for example, I can think of two situations where my frustration led me to believe that there were flaws in my antagonists’ characters. Recently, my mother wanted me to assist my brother in scheduling classes for the semester. Since I was annoyed that my mother was insisting that I assist him when
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We make inferences about the actions of people that we do not make about inanimate objects. People have beliefs, motives, or intentions. Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual's behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination depends largely on three factors:
Mental health professionals classify depression as a disorder that affects a person’s thoughts and feelings. “At some point during their lifetime, depression plagues 17 percent of U.S. adults.” (Myers, 2006 p. 621) In the year 2000, 76% of college students felt “overwhelmed” and 22% were unable to function as a result of their depression (American College Health Association, 2001). Major depressive disorder is characterized by extreme...