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Lectures Class 16: Attributions  Class 16: Attributions
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Author: Jessica Collett Prof. Jessica Collett, University of
Notre Dame. "Introduction to Social Psychology" lecture notes -
Attributions  Class Notes  How do you determine the cause of
someone's behavior?      • We have two options.  We can blame
the person, or we can blame the situation. Dispositional
attribution - when we attribute a behavior to the internal state
of the person who performed it Situational attribution - when we
attribute a behavior to factors in the person's environment.
You are in your car.  Someone in front of you swerves into your
lane.      • You think, "This guy is such a jerk!  Doesn't he
know that I'm back here trying to drive safely." This is an
example of a dispositional attribution-- you are making
assumptions about the driver's disposition- that he is a jerk-
to attribute blame for his actions.  