How do dispositional factors explain behavior?

Essay Plan: Describe the role of situational and dispositional factors in explaining behaviour. (8 marks)

Situational factors are external factors that are purely caused by the environment whereas dispositional factors are caused by a person’s personality or internal factors like intelligence; both dispositional and situational factors can be seen as affecting our behaviour. Heider (1958) created the attribution theory which is based on the theory that people are naive scientists who attempt to make an understanding of other people to find the motives behind it.

ATTRIBUTIONAL THEORY

Attribution is defined as how people interpret and understand behaviours and interactions that take place in the world around them.

The attributional theory (Heider, 1958) assumes that people will attempt to explain observed behaviour → the actor-observer hypothesis suggests that people’s attributions about behaviour depend upon if they themselves are the actor or the observer

Our attributions are affected by situational and dispositional factors → situational factors are external factors that the individual themselves cannot affect (eg. weather), dispositional factors are internal factors (eg. personality).

Situational factors affect our behaviour by making us want to fit into certain groups.

STUDY 1: ZIMBARDO ET AL. (1971)

A: Investigate the role of situational factors in behaviour.

P: University students were assigned to be inmates or wardens in a mock prison → inmates were arrested at their home by real police and taken to the “prison” and inducted using normal prison procedures, wardens were given a costume and props and instructed to keep order but refrain from physical violence.

F: The experiment was terminated after 6 days rather than the intended 14 → prisoners showed dependence and passivity, many showed signs of depression, rage fits and acute anxiety; wardens showed enjoyment of power, leading towards abusive use of power and dehumanisation.

C: The situation made subjects internalise their roles in light of the situation → prisoners truly believed their identity and experience stripping of their identity at the hands of the wardens; wardens abused their power and displayed aggression when they were not being watched → outside of the experiment no participants were cruel or brutal or showed anxiety or a belief to be in prison → after the cessation of the study many wardens expressed shock at their behaviour → situational factors can have a very large influence on our behaviour.

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY (TAJFEL)

The Social Identity Theory uses dispositional factors to explain human behaviour → states we attribute positive behaviour in their in-group to disposition and negative behaviour in their out-group to their disposition → creates positive distinctiveness in favour of their in-group.

STUDY 2: ROSS ET AL. (1977)

A: Investigate the role of situational and dispositional factors in our attributions of a person’s intelligence.

P: Subjects were 18 male and 18 female pair → 12 male pairs and 12 female pairs were allocated to the experimental condition → the study simulated a game show and participants were randomly allocated to the role of contestant or questioner → questioners were asked to create 10 challenging general knowledge question which could be answered in a short phrase → contestants were told they would be asked questions composed by the questioner → the remaining pairs were assigned to the control condition → both the questioners and the contestants were told that the questions used would be created by somebody else.

24 additional subjects were allocated to be observers to watch the game show → questioners were told to ask each question and if within 30 seconds the correct answer was not given then they should give it → after the game show all participants (contestants, questioners and observers) filled out a questionnaires in which they rated the general knowledge of the questioners and the contestants.

F: In the experimental condition participants answered correctly 40% of the time → contestants consistently rated the questioner as having superior general knowledge over themselves as did observers → in the control setting there was no such discrepancy.

C: Situational advantage resulting from the questioners making their own questions led to higher general knowledge ratings from the contestants and observers → subjects attributed to questioner’s ability to answer the question to dispositional, rather than situational factors → when judging general knowledge the contestants and observers failed to take into account situational factors that gave the questioners and advantage, thus demonstrating the FAE → supports the attributional theory that actors tend to attribute their own behaviour to situational factors and other people’s behaviour due to dispositional factors.