This is a question that we seem to learn when we are just barely old enough to talk. We hear it from toddlers when they are asked to do something. We continue asking that question all our lives: when we are faced with difficult situations, or behaviors of others, or even when we are blessed with successes. We always want to know "Why?" Why did X do Y? (We ask that even when we are not involved in the situation!)
After asking the questions, we guess at the answers. Unfortunately, our guesses are not always right. These guesses (or "inferences") about the causes of events, others' behaviors, or our own behavior, are called "Attributions." How do we attribute what has happened, or what others have done? We will usually attribute them to either to personal disposition, or to situations that surround the event. Do we pat ourselves on the back for successes? Or blame ourselves for failures? These are "internal" attributions. Do we blame the actions of others, or think that what was happening allowed a success? These are "external" attributions.
How we see an event or behavior depends on whether it happens to us ( as the "actor"), or someone else (as an "observer"). It is a natural tendency to see our own successes as resulting from something that we have done, and the successes of others as a result of factors outside them. With failures, we see them reversed! When failure befalls us we blame outside forces, and we blame others personal weaknesses for their failures.
Of course, the above is only true in certain societies. As we look at the Individualistic vs. Collectivistic divide (see my post of 2/13/2020), we find that those attributions are reversed in collectivistic cultures. They give credit to outside forces when successful, and take the blame themselves for failure.
As teachers of diverse groups of students, we need to notice which cultural norm each student uses in attribution, and help them to make correct judgments about what happens to them and by them.
In all of this, I can't help but consider that internal factors are within our own control. Perhaps that is why we (wrongly sometimes) attribute failure to external causes. Those things are not within our control. We might sometimes "play victim," and feel that nothing could be done about it, when reality may be that the failing was our own, and that if we strengthened our weakness it might not have happened.
Because attributions are usually not correct, perhaps we should remember the teaching of Jesus: "Judge not..." I think it is good, and necessary, to evaluate what happens to ourselves, and make adjustments in those areas where we have control (internally). But when it comes to other people we may observe (in the classroom, in our homes, in our relationships with others), knowing what our natural bias is, we should think twice (or three or four times) when attributing the "why" of their success or failure, and maybe judge them as we judge ourselves.
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https://video.byui.edu/media/05+Attributional+Tendencies+in+Cultures/0_u45682wd
https://wattersattribution.wordpress.com/
https://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/socialpsychology/section3/
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