Attribution theory :: essays research papers

ATTRIBUTION THEORY OF FRITZ HEIDERIntroductionThis article starts off by a man having his wife serve on a jury in a federal case involving conspiracy, racketeering, drug dealing, armed robbery, and extortion. There were seven defendants and sensation that escaped from police custody. The key government witness was an ex-gang member named Larry who was called the Canary by the defendants because he turned informer. For two months Jean, the wife, listened to Larrys testimony and tried to write in code out whether his account of the incident was credible or not. A question in her mind was that whether his behavior on the stand was that of pathological liar, a rejected pal seeking revenge, a petty crook who would say anything to save his own skin, or and honest witness dedicated to the truth? All this fall into Fritz Heiders attribution theory saying that we all tend to rationalize in the same way. Fritz said that the theory of attribution is the wreak of drawing inferences. This wo uld be seeing a person act and warmly reaching a conclusion that goes beyond mere sensory information. Example Larry yawns while on the stand. Your immediate conclusive reaction would be is he bored, afraid, tired, or indifferent. In the article it says that Heider would see us as nave psychologist bringing common common sense to bear on an interpersonal judgment. It also says that we cant answer it to make these judgments. This is because we make personality judgments in order to explain otherwise enigmatic behavior.Heider says that theres another reason for making causal inferences from behavior. The reason is because we want to know what to expect in the future. He says prediction is a survival of the fittest skill. Example Jean comes face-to-face with one of the defendants, in her jury trail, outside a train station. Mildly anxious, she quickly turned aside. Accurate attributions can help us know which people might do us harm.The article also talks about attribution as bein g a three-step process through which we perceive others as causal agents. The three-step process talked about includes perception of the action (You saw it), judgment of intention (You/they meant to do that), and attribution of disposition (What you return of the action).AnalysisTo begin, in the case with Jean trying to figure out whether Larrys story was credible and how to categorize his behavior. In my opinion I would hypothesize him turning informer