WEEK 6 - ATTRIBUTIONAL TENDENCIES
A friend of mine said that her car broke as she was going home
after work. It was dark, and she was alone. Suddenly she saw a shabby young man
with long hair and tattooed. "He is a pothead. I am sure he is a dangerous
person", she thought. Her fear was huge, and she was trembling as that
young man approached her. He walked directly to the vehicle, opened the car
hood, and fixed what was broken. He said no word and started walking away. She
thanked him in a low voice, got in the car, and went away. Did she make
incorrect attributions? Well, it seems she did! But what did she see is from
her life experience or attributional tendencies, according to her culture?
“Each culture has different attributional tendencies to one
degree or another. Sometimes they are similar, but they are always a little
different. It depends on what culture it is, [but] in all cultures, we are
always attributing things to other things,” said Mr. [1]Ivers. What
are attributions? They are labels, judgments, interpretations, or explanations
that each of us makes about the reasons, causes, success, feelings, beliefs, or
others' behaviors. We guess what we see, then we make assumptions, but what we
see is not always right as my friend's experience showed us.
According to Mr. Ivers, there are internal attributions – something that makes you feel guilty or you are responsible for good things and external attributions – it’s someone else’s fault, or someone else receives the credit for something good that happens to you. Comparing The United States and Japan, we can see cultural differences in successes. The typical American will attribute personal successes internally (I did it. I’m good. I deserve this. I’m smart. I’m talented). However, when something bad happens, they will attribute it externally (People are bad to me. They took this away. I would’ve been able to do it if it weren’t for other people). But in Japan, they will attribute personal successes externally (The reason I am successful is because of my parents, my great teacher), and personal failures internally (I failed. It’s my fault. It’s always my fault).
How do the typical American behave towards the personal
successes and failures of others? It’s the opposite. They will attribute others’
personal successes externally (They were helped by other
people. They had connections. They had good friends). And they will
attribute others’ personal failures internally (They failed
because they were just pretty dumb. They failed because they weren’t very
talented. They failed because they are lazy).
As Mr. Ivers spoke about religious people feeling a failure
because their children made something wrong, I thought as a mom “It
is human nature to search for answers to relieve the pain, whether it is mine
or my children”. Then, it makes sense when parents attribute their
children's mistakes as their personal failures internally (I’m
not worthy. I must have sinned) and they attribute it externally
to God (I have done something wrong. God is cursing me). Yes, we
feel a failure, even though we know that each person has the freedom to choose
for good or ill. “It’s irrational”, said Mr. Ivers, “but all cultures
have irrational attributional schemes”.
Mr. Ivers asked, “Are your personal attributional models
consistent with those dominant in your culture? Are these cultural attributions
reasonable, rational? Logical? Or should I judge things by circumstances?”
Reflecting on this question, I came back to the past. The person I was and the
person I am now. In my teenage years, I judged by my personal attributional
models, but over time life has taught me to see that each circumstance is
different. Relationships and environment influence our behavior; therefore, we
need to be rational as observing students’ behavior in an ESL class and help
one by one because it depends on what culture they were brought up in.
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