Question

When half of his class earned D's and F's on the midterm exam, Professor Bush came back to the next class and delivered a stern lecture about their effort. He admonished the class for failing to meet their obligations, for being lazy, and for not taking their studies seriously. These attributions, which were all ___________ attributions, did not really give any consideration to the fact that the students may have had other reasons for failing the exam that were beyond their immediate control.

Answer 1

This question is missing the answer choices. I have found the complete question online. The choices are:

a) cooperative

b) dispositional

c) accusatory

d) situational

Answer:

These attributions, which were all b) dispositional attributions, did not really give any consideration to the fact that the students may have had other reasons for failing the exam that were beyond their immediate control.

Explanation:

This question is related to the attribution theory, which analyzes how people try to find relationships of cause and effect, even there is none, to explain events or behaviors. There are two ways in which people justify or explain something: the situational attributions and the dispositional attributions.

Professor Bush is using the dispositional attribution. To him, the reason why the students failed is internal - a trait or characteristic the students possess. To his mind, they are lazy and undisciplined, and that is the sole cause of their bad grades.

Professor Bush failed to consider any reasons outside the students themselves, any outside forces, which would be an example of situational attribution. For instance, students may be going through a hard time financially, or perhaps undergoing a lot of pressure and stress for some reason.