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Listen to a lecture in a psychology class, take detailed notes while listening.
attribute – to give credit for something
factor – a cause
neat – not messy; clean and orderly
reverse – the opposite
wrapper – the plastic around a piece of candy that you take off before eating it
Fill in the following diagram.
Theory
1.
Factors
2.
4.
Consequences
3.
5.
Support
6.
Now answer the questions using your notes.
The Attribution Theory and Behavior Change
Summarize the text using your notes and diagram.
- 1: People explain what happens to them in two ways.
- 2: Internal.
- 3: People are more likely to change their behavior.
- 4: External.
- 5: People are less likely to change their behavior.
- 6: Children stopped being messy when they realized they were the ones causing the mess.
Listen again:
W: The Attribution Theory discusses how people explain results in their lives. The theory states that an individual will explain results–like getting a grade–as being caused by internal factors or external factors. If you believe that you got a good grade because you studied hard, you're attributing your success to an internal factor: yourself. But, if you think you got a bad grade because your teacher is bad, you're attributing your failure to an external factor: the teacher. So why is this important? Well, how people view events can influence their outward behavior. If a person thinks a result is caused by internal factors, she's more likely to change her behavior. But the reverse is true if she perceives that change results from external factors. Let's apply this to real life. In one experiment, teachers wanted to see if they could use the Attribution Theory to change their students' behavior. The teachers gave the students candy. Most of the students ate their candy and threw the wrappers on the floor. Over the next two weeks the teachers said to the kids, "this is a neat classroom, and you are neat kids". The teachers stressed to the children that they were neat and orderly. Their goal was to get the kids to see that they–the internal factor–were in control of making the classroom neat. After two weeks, the teachers gave the kids candy again. This time every one of the wrappers ended up in the trash can. The kids had learned that having a clean classroom resulted from their own actions.
