Question

An undergraduate student turns in a late assignment for one of her classes. Upon receiving the assignment, the instructor thinks "this student is a lazy bum." This is an example of a(an) _____. On another day, upon receiving the late assignment, the instructor thinks "maybe there is a family issue going on." This is an example of a(an) _____.

Answer 1

Answer:

Dispositional/Internal attribution.

Situational/external attribution.

Explanation:

In psychology, the term attribution refers to the explanation that we give of behaviors.

There are two essential types of attributions:

1. Dispositional attribution (also called internal attribution) refers to the fact that we infer that an event or a person's behavior has to do with personal factors such as traits, abilities, or feelings, thus in a dispositional attribution we think that the performance had to do with the person's abilities and not with environmental situations.
2. Situational attribution (also called external attribution) refers to the the tendency to assign the cause of a behavior to outside forces rather than internal characteristics of the individual. Thus, in this attribution we think that the performance had to do with environmental situations and not with the person's abilities

In this example, the student turns in a late assignment for her class. The instructor thinks "the student is a lazy bum", thus he is making an explanation that has to do with the student characteristics. Thus, this is an example of Dispositional/internal attribution.

Another day, when the teacher received a late assignment, he thinks "maybe there is a family issue going on". Now she thinks that the behavior might have to do with environmental situations (family issues). Thus, this is an example of a Situational/external attribution