Attribution Theory

Psychology Basis

Fritz Heider (February 19, 1896 – January 2, 1988) was an

Austrian psychologist and credited with being the creator of

Attribution Theory. In 1958 he published The Psychology of

Interpersonal Relations in which he explains that behavior is attributed

to various internal and external reasons.

Attribution TheoryA claim about the cause of a person’s behavior

Dispositional Attribution

Links behavior to internal causes such as personality, motives, characteristics, bias

Example: If a new student is quiet on the first day of class we may infer that shyness is the cause of the person's quietness.

Situational Attribution Links behavior to the external causes such as

situation, peer pressure, environment (home/work), chance

Example: If a friend is unusually quiet, we may infer that the friend is having a bad day.

Attribution TheoryThe Internal & External Attributions

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the effect of personality and underestimate the effect of situation when attributing social behaviors

Example: Personal experience of being called “Lazy” by teachers when I would not complete assignments; I had mild Dyslexia that was never discovered until I was a parent seeing it in my son

Self-Serving Bias The tendency to attribute our successes to our own

character/skills while our failures are attributed to external events/factors

Example: Getting a promotion at work is because of your own work/skills but being demoted is because the boss is out to get you or a coworker sabotaged your work

Attribution TheoryErrors & Bias

Plot summary: Five high school students, all

different stereotypes, meet in detention, where they pour their hearts out to each other, and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought.

Writer/Director: John Huges Ensemble Cast:

Judd Nelson as John Bender, the criminal Molly Ringwald as Claire Standish, the princess Emilio Estevez as Andrew "Andy" Clark, the athlete Anthony Michael Hall as Brian Ralph Johnson, the brain Ally Sheedy as Allison Reynolds, the basket case Paul Gleason as Richard "Dick" Vernon, the school

assistant principal

The Breakfast Club(1985)

Assistant principal, Vernon is openly hostile to the students in detention

He negatively characterizes each student focusing in on Bender, the most defiant one of the group

In spite of his clear predisposition as to who the students are, he still assigns a 1,000 word essay

The Breakfast Club“Who do you think you are?”

Through the course of the day, the students express negative characteristics about one another

As they begin to unite against the antagonist, Vernon, they develop a sense of one another

Finally, they drop all pretense and discuss who they really are and where they are in their lives

The Breakfast ClubDiscovery

Dear Mr. Vernon,

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But, we think you're crazy for making

us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But,

what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…

and an athlete…

and a basket case…

a princess…

and a criminal.

Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours,The Breakfast Club.

The Breakfast ClubThe Essay

There are several connections to Social Psychology

throughout the film I’m looking specifically at Fundamental Attribution Error

due to the powerful concluding essay written by the brain on behalf of the group

Vernon demonstrates that it is easier to attribute behavior with character than to invest in the time to understand any situational circumstances that contribute to the behavior

The essay points out what the students discovered for themselves as well, Vernon’s error in attributing their behavior to their character even though he doesn’t know any of them personally

ConnectionValid: Yes

This movie was released in 1985 as I was also attending

high school and constantly bombarded with what I now understand to be Fundamental Attribution Error

I could relate to each character either through my own experience of incorrect attribution or by seeing such attributions taking place around me

John Huges did an amazing job with the background on each of the characters so that when the authentic person was reveled, they continued to be believable and relatable

I have always kept the essay around to remind myself that people are three-dimensional regardless of behavior

My Take

Who We Are

The Breakfast Club, the movie PSY101 Lecture, handouts and lecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Heider http://www.psychologyandsociety.com/attribution.html https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/real-men-dont-

write-blogs/201406/why-we-dont-give-each-other-break https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-practice/

201301/the-self-serving-bias-definition-research-and-antidotes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088847/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Breakfast_Club Google Images

References