Psychology for Nursing and Healthcare Professionals by Barker Sue;

Author:Barker, Sue;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Limited
Published: 2018-11-19T14:30:37.228156+00:00

Fundamental attribution error

This is sometimes known as the ‘correspondence bias’ or ‘attribution effect’. This occurs when we make judgements or attribution about other people’s behaviour or our own behaviour. We exhibit an error or bias in these attributions: when we consider the reason for our own behaviour we usually attribute it to external factors, whereas when we consider other people’s behaviour we usually attribute them to internal factors.

If we return to Ali’s case study, we find that Ali is attributing Fred’s aggressive behaviour to his health problems and so to an internal cause, whereas he is attributing his avoidance of Fred to Fred’s behaviour. Likewise, if we return to the case study of Mel, we can see that Chris appears to attribute Mel’s behaviour to a lack of skills or motivation, whereas he attributes his behaviour or lack of engagement to Mel’s reluctance.

This bias can be seen to be explained through a lack of knowledge of the person and the situation. For Chris and Ali they can reflect on what is happening to themselves and identify detailed external factors which they are also focusing on in the situation. However, they may have a little knowledge of all the factors influencing Mel’s and Fred’s behaviour and their focus is on Mel and Fred, rather than on everything that is going on around them.

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