attribution theory & the breakfast club
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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
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