Pat, a senior psychology student, was studying for his final examination. At 12
ID: 3453809 • Letter: P
Question
Pat, a senior psychology student, was studying for his final examination. At 12 o’clock Pat decided to have lunch in the cafeteria. After obtaining a large bowl of chili and salad, Pat stopped in the drink line and ordered a large soda. When putting the soda on the tray, Pat slipped and knocked the entire tray on the floor. This caused a very large mess; many people laughed, some tried to help, but most just stepped over the mess. Pat became very upset, ran from the cafeteria, and did not return that day. Pat flunked the final examination and had to retake the course. Give possible explanations for Pat's behavior. Refer to locus of causality (internal/external attributions) and stability/controllability of causality in your explanation. Define the fundamental attribution error and the actor-observer effect and give examples for each. What is the difference?
Explanation / Answer
Pat has an external locus of control. He blames the situational factors for his flunking in an exam. He believes that it was due to external factors that he flunked and that he had no control over the situation. It is the outside forces that are to be blamed.
Fundamental attribution error refer to emphasizing on internal dispositions instead of external factors as a cause of behaviour. Others laughed at Pat and made fun of him because they resorted to the fundamental attribution error where they attributed his behaviour to internal dispositions like being clumsy. Whereas Pat resorted to the actor-observer effect. He attributed his slipping and falling to external factors like, slippery floor (actor). However, the others attributed his behaviour of falling to personal dispositions like being clumsy (observer). Fundamental attribution error is an observer bias whereas, actor-observer effect is actor bias. It depends whether a person is the actor or the observer.