Social Psychology Essay

Imma put this here and I dunno why. PSYCH essay due manana.

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Social Psychology
9/11-9/18
Assignment #1: The Self-serving Bias and the Fundamental Attribution Error

It’s only natural that humans like to view themselves as unique,
particularly on the individual
level. This farcical view of ourselves is referred to as the
‘self-serving bias’. Additionally, just as
we tend to falsely judge ourselves, we tend to judge others in just
the same manner. In fact, we
have a habit of being significantly more hostile towards others than
we would be to ourselves
in the same situation. This particular way of thinking is known as the
‘fundamental attribution
error’. I will be spending the next few paragraphs trying to scrape
enough info from these two
concepts to create at least a semi-decent essay.

The average human is arrogant and cocky with an all-around
generally inflated view of
themselves. They feel that if they don’t constantly fuel their ego
they will fall into some form of
despair, therefore, people have a nasty tendency to commit the
‘self-serving bias’. See, people
love themselves, some do it twice a day! This boundless love leads to
an unrealistically positive
self-perception in which they place themselves in an unwavering
God-tier light. Blaming others
for their mistakes and taking all credit for whatever success passes
their way are both
symptoms of the SSB. But the SSB doesn’t just apply to positives and
negatives, it also
encompasses all those who consider themselves ‘unique’. Anyone who
thinks their being holds
any actual significance, particularly in relation to others, is
committing the SSB to the first
degree. (That rhymed.

Keeping that habit of judging ourselves rather recklessly company
is our habit of judging
others just the same. By this I am of course referring to that pompous
**** that keeps cutting
you off on your way to the Laundromat. Is he really a verminous ass?
Or did he just miss second
breakfast this morning? It is in our nature as honest humans to fancy
the first of the two
options, which according to some super-smart social scientists, is the
incorrect option. See,
studies show that people’s actions are primarily based off outside
influence. Personally, I find
this to be complete blarney, however this essay requires that I agree
wholeheartedly, so I will. If
you have ever judged someone based off their actions without
considering the circumstances,
you are within the far-reaching realm of the ‘fundamental attribution
error’, which
psychologists gave a ridiculously long name because that’s what they do.

So how do these two concepts differ? You might think that the FAE
is just a byproduct of the
SSB, and you’d be absolutely right. See, it helps us keep ourselves in
a positive and farcically
unique light when we repeatedly bash on others. In a way, these two
concepts differentiate
from one-another in their similarities. As it stands, FAE is basically
just anti-SSB; While in SSB we
place ourselves in a falsely positive light without regarding our own
circumstances, we place
others in a falsely negative light without regarding their
circumstances when it comes to FAE.
For example, let’s say we cut some sad sod off on the freeway, we’d be
thinking to ourselves
“Well I’m perfectly justified with this because I left the muffins in
the oven too long.” You’d be
committing the SSB. However, if you were the sad sod who just got cut
off, you’d be thinking
“What a ****.” Without stopping to consider the circumstances behind
their actions, you’d be
committing blatant FAE-ism.

So how do these concepts come into play with yours truly? Funny
you shouldn’t ask that!
Just the other day I happened to self-serve myself in a biased manner.
I was sitting there, trying
to think up a good SSB to write about in my pretty new diary, when a
thought crossed my mind;
“Pffft. I’ve never committed the self-serving bias.” Well it just so
happens that that statement is
a shining example of SSB. Fortunately, I caught myself right away and
marked it off in my diary.
See, I had placed myself in a farcical God-ray by implying that I
never place myself in farcical
God-rays. My reaction to this was purely delight, as I had come a bit
closer to completing this
sodding assignment.

FAE was a tad easier, as I’m constantly judging people based on
the most trivial nonsense
(and I love doing so!). It just so happens that a rather odd yet
surprisingly common incident
caused me to mingle with FAE just a few days back. I was sitting in my
friendly neighbourhood
Starbucks, sipping on my hot chocolate in the hundred-degree weather
and all-around minding
my onesies when some lady the next table over totally threw off my
groove, or messed up my
zen, whichever. This lady had been sitting there for quite some time,
and it seemed every other
minute her phone would ring and she would immediately reject the call.
Eventually she
accepted it and shouted into the phone “Stop calling me, I don’t want
to talk to you!” She then
threw down the poor cellular device and proceeded to announce to the
entire shop that she
had a stalker and she was sorry for disturbing them. (Her phone
continued to ring off-and-on
over a time, and it didn’t help that she had one of the most grating
ring tones I had ever heard.)
Now, I like to hold people accountable for their actions, but a good
grade requires that I make
excuses for them, so after I had gotten over calling her several rude
names (in my head, I hope)
I stopped to consider the circumstances. Perhaps she truly has a
stalker? Perhaps this stalker
has proven incredibly frustrating and she simply snapped? These seem
like reasonable
explanations for her actions. Either that or she’s just cray cray as a
crayola crayon.

All in all the SSB and the FAE are factors that would have next
to no stake in reality if we
didn’t have such rampant egos. But since we all love ourselves so
much, we are all subject to
them. The most entertaining bit is how they are both subconscious
concepts, we commit each
one without so much as blinking, it takes a considerable bit of
forethought to avoid them all-
together. In fact, if we lived in a world without them, it’d be like
living in a bloody silent film,
which as good as they were, were often lacking in the pretty explosion category.