Actor Observer Bias Essay
PSY150 UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
TERM PROJECT
Concept 1. Actor Observer Bias (Chapter 2) Actor observer bias is a type of bias in attribution process. In actor observer bias, people tend to interpret and react the same situation in different ways because of the position that they are in. As a result, they -as actors and observers- make different statements about the same situation. In fact, if a person is in the actor position, the attributions that s/he makes are based on the external factors. In contrast, if the person is observer in the same situation, s/he attributes others’ behavior to the internal factors rather than external factors. The reason of this differentiation is that since people cannot observe their own behavior in the actor position, they have difficulty in making internal …show more content…
There are several examples of actor observer bias that can be given from daily life. To illustrate, my cousin and I used to play together when we were 5-6 years old. Sometimes we used to hurt each other; and, our grandmother used to punish the one who started to hurt the other. When the one who was punished was my cousin, I used to think that he deserved it because he is very puckish. On the other hand, when my grandmother punished me I used to blame external factors, such as he broke my toy intentionally and made fun of it; so, he provoked me to hurt him.
Concept 2. Counterfactual Reasoning (Chapter 3) Counterfactual reasoning, which is a type of heuristics, is described as the fact that individuals tend to think about alternative outcomes of an event that had already happened and resulted negatively, unusually, unexpectedly, or abnormally. Besides, individuals try to see how those alternative outcomes would have affected the present reality. In this context, counterfactual reasoning involves “what if?” questions and “if only” sentences in those events which resulted
TERM PROJECT
Concept 1. Actor Observer Bias (Chapter 2) Actor observer bias is a type of bias in attribution process. In actor observer bias, people tend to interpret and react the same situation in different ways because of the position that they are in. As a result, they -as actors and observers- make different statements about the same situation. In fact, if a person is in the actor position, the attributions that s/he makes are based on the external factors. In contrast, if the person is observer in the same situation, s/he attributes others’ behavior to the internal factors rather than external factors. The reason of this differentiation is that since people cannot observe their own behavior in the actor position, they have difficulty in making internal …show more content…
There are several examples of actor observer bias that can be given from daily life. To illustrate, my cousin and I used to play together when we were 5-6 years old. Sometimes we used to hurt each other; and, our grandmother used to punish the one who started to hurt the other. When the one who was punished was my cousin, I used to think that he deserved it because he is very puckish. On the other hand, when my grandmother punished me I used to blame external factors, such as he broke my toy intentionally and made fun of it; so, he provoked me to hurt him.
Concept 2. Counterfactual Reasoning (Chapter 3) Counterfactual reasoning, which is a type of heuristics, is described as the fact that individuals tend to think about alternative outcomes of an event that had already happened and resulted negatively, unusually, unexpectedly, or abnormally. Besides, individuals try to see how those alternative outcomes would have affected the present reality. In this context, counterfactual reasoning involves “what if?” questions and “if only” sentences in those events which resulted