Unpacking Attribution Biases: Understanding Coworker Tardiness

Social PSYC Respond to the below discussion posts Then, respond to the posts of at least 2 of your classmate’s posts by explaining whether the attribution they observed and described is an internal or external attribution, and why. Finally, take the scenario they have provided and examine by discussing how this affects how we perceive and explain our social world. #1 Post I recall an instance at work where one of my coworkers was regularly late for team meetings. Many of us in the team originally utilized an internal attribution to justify his actions. We considered he lacked discipline or regard for the team's time, thinking it was a character defect. However, after a few weeks, I had a one-on-one talk with him and discovered that he had lately become the principal carer for his ailing mother, which necessitated him to balance his professional commitments with unanticipated personal needs. Upon discovering this, my perception transformed from an internal to an external attribution. The reason for his tardiness wasn't his lack of commitment or discipline but external factors that were beyond his control. In retrospect, my original judgment was erroneous. The attribution made on his character was based on inadequate facts, leading to a biased belief about his professional ethics. Had I not taken the effort to connect and understand his circumstances, I might have continued to retain a potentially detrimental and erroneous perception about a fellow team member. In my perspective, this event underlines the significance of acquiring a full understanding before adopting beliefs or judgments. Attributions can be significant influencers of our views, but they can also lead us astray if we're not attentive. #2 Post Attribution theory analyzes how we explain people’s behavior and what we infer from it. We often infer that other people’s actions are indicative of their intentions and dispositions. One example that I can think of that I used attribution styles is with a coworker from my first job when I was a teen. My coworker no matter the day was always late to start her shift and it was super annoying because I couldn’t clock out until my coworker turned up to replace me. I never liked to work the same shift or even the same days because I knew she would be late. After a few months, I confronted my coworker on why she was always late, and she told me that she has another job, and her manager tends to keep her a little over when she is scheduled to clock out. The type of attribution style implemented is situational attribution which is the process of assigning the cause of behavior to some situation or event outside a person’s control rather than to some internal characteristic. I judged a book by its cover and considered that my coworker was lazy and unresponsible, but I should have just asked instead, and I would have understood that my coworker doesn’t mean to be late. When explaining someone’s behavior, we often under