Attributional Tendencies

 

02/12/2022

Week 6 Response: “Attributional Tendencies”

Of the cultural paradigms we have learned so far, attributional tendencies seems like the one with the strongest hold on our world/life view. For example, if one attributes their life failures internally like bad judgment or lack of intelligence, or externally like mean parents or bad luck, that way of thinking can be very difficult to break out of. Some people may spend lots of time and money in therapy trying to find a correct attribution or break away from an incorrect attribution. This topic also seems like the most difficult to resolve or find a comfortable place with because how do we ever know what is the correct attribution? Did I get that great job because I was smart and qualified, or because I put together a great resume, or because I happened to interview when the boss was in a good mood? One of those may be the reason, or it may be a mix of all. Like Brother Ivers mentioned in the video, when you factor in religion, it gets even more complicated. Take the example of a car accident. If a family survives an accident, they may attribute it to skillful driving or great safety features of the car. But more likely, in a church context, you will probably hear it attributed to God looking out for them; they were protected. Then people can get into the whole game of attributing why they were protected. Maybe because they were really good, righteous people, or they needed to stay on the earth to accomplish something. And if the accident is tragic, the attributions can be even more difficult to decipher. But, as humans, we always want to attribute events to something. I guess the best we can do is look at things from multiple angles and try to make the most healthy attributions.

Unhealthy attributions can often have a profound effect on students. I would say an internal-stable attribution is an unhealthy one. An example would be a student who feels they are bad at math and always will be; they just don’t “get” math. This way of thinking traps them because they think that no matter what, they will never get better at math. A good teacher will help students to develop a healthier, growth mindset. They may not know everything about math at the moment, but they can work to learn a little bit at a time until they get better. ESL teaching is the same. We can help our students understand that no one is “good” or “bad” at learning language, it’s just a matter of motivation and effort.

Comments

  1. Lilian PerezFebruary 12, 2022 at 10:47 PM

    Hi Amber.
    Your post made me reflect if psychologists study about culture. Looks like we need to attribute to something or someone, if we don't do that we are not satisfied. Great post!

    ReplyDelete

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