5. Describe the role of situational and dispostional factors in explaining behaviour

5. Describe the role of situational and dispostional factors in explaining behaviour

1. Dispostional causes:

   • This is when someone attributes the cause of behaviour to their internal characteristics (their beleifs, attitudes and personality). tend to be stable factors
     • E.g. a student doing badly in a test because they were too lazy to revise and therefore their failure was due to their dispostion
   • Fundamental attribution error
     • Ross:
       • Aim: to see if student ppts would commit fundamental attribution error even when they knew actors were simply playing a role. Method: ppts randomly assigned gameshow host, player or audience. Hosts had to design question and audience had to watch gameshow and then rate the intelligence of the participants. Results

2. Situational causes:

   • Attributing the causes of behaviour to external factors such as immediate rewards and punishments in a social setting or pressure. Tend to be transient factors
     • E.g.a student doing badly in a test becasue the teacher was not very good and did not teach the content in the test, failure therefore due to their situation