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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Wann, D. L. & Schrader, M. P. (2000). Controllability and stability in the self-serving attributions of sport spectators. Journal of Social Psychology, 140, 160-169.
Implicit and explicit biases are related mental constructs. For many years, even dating back to our great’s ancestor, people always have automatic judge people, places, and things. We were all given five senses, knowing how the brain works, we choose to use our conscious actions to judge. Without awareness, we usually act on those judgments. There are two types of judgments consciously and unconsciously.
The self-serving bias is the tendency for an athlete to accommodate to factors that paint the athlete in a favorable light. In the athletic realm, individuals portray the self-serving bias to foster future, effective performance in a sport. Whereas an athlete will attribute positive events to the doing of themselves, an athlete will attribute negative events to the doing of others. Although an individual may be inaccurate when imputing a factor, the self-serving bias is a method by which an individual safeguards esteem. It is this protection of esteem that is paralleled in the attribution theory. For instance, an athlete uses the self-serving bias to attribute success as a byproduct of the team. On the other hand, the athlete uses the self-serving
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...
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.
...ation, and Attribution Style Among College Students." Individual Differences Research 11.2 (2013): 59-69. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
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.
O'Grady, M. (2010). Depression History, Depression Vulnerability, and the Experience of Everyday Negative Events. Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology, 29(9), 949-974.
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.
Sullivan, M. J., Tripp, D. A., & Catano, V. (1997). The contributions of attributional style, expectancies, depression and self-esteem in a cognition-based depression model. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 29(2), 101. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/220514335?accountid=32521
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
WENZLAFF, R.M. and PROHASKA, M. L., 1989. When misery prefers company: Depression, attributions, and responses to others' moods. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25, pp.220-233.
Our tendency to attribute others’ behaviour to dispositional factors, rather than situational factors are an example of the fundamental attribution error. There is less information out in the environment to make dispositional attributions, so we result to situational attributions. Also, the fundamental attribution error does not make us feel helpless in life because we have control on our own opinions on others. Our tendency to attribute success to dispositional factors and failure to situational factors are examples of the self serving bias. People demonstrate this error due to self-presentation and self-esteem. Also, these attribution errors are a result of our expectation or effort to succeed or fail. The fundamental attribution error and the self serving bias are both errors in attribution, since they propose flaws in attribution theory and how people explain
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: