Baba's thought for today.
"Whatever is to our advantage will appear right to us:
We do not usually look upon a matter from the other
fellow's standpoint."
My reflections on this quote prompt me to mention the Attribution Theory which deals with the way one can attribute a certain behaviour or happening either internally or externally.
We all have a need to explain the world, both to ourselves and to other people, attributing cause to the events around us. This gives us a greater sense of control. When explaining behavior, it can affect the standing of people within a group (especially ourselves).
When another person has erred, we will often use internal attribution, saying it is due to internal personality factors. When we have erred, we will more likely use external attribution, attributing causes to situational factors rather than blaming ourselves. And vice versa. We will attribute our successes internally and the successes of our rivals to external ‘luck’.
When a football team wins, supporters say ‘we won’. But when the team loses, the supporters say ‘they lost’.Our attributions are also significantly driven by our emotional and motivational drives. Blaming other people and avoiding personal recrimination are very real self-serving attributions. We will also make attributions to defend what we perceive as attacks. We will point to injustice in an unfair world.
We will even tend to blame victims (of us and of others) for their fate as we seek to distance ourselves from thoughts of suffering the same plight. We will also tend to ascribe less variability to other people than ourselves, seeing ourselves as more multifaceted and less predictable than others. This may well because we can see more of what is inside ourselves (and spend more time doing this).
In practice, we often tend to go through a two-step process, starting with an automatic internal attribution, followed by a slower consideration of whether an external attribution is more appropriate. From a standpoint of motivation, external attribution of events or bebaviour may be more campassionate and effective, maybe??? It's similiar to saying "I give you the benefit of the doubt" (More information on this topic can be obtained in the relevant web sites from which I had referred to.)
Very often too, we do not try to understand the other person's reality but instead pass judgement based on our own perceptions. Maybe we shall attempt to be more objective.
"Whatever is to our advantage will appear right to us:
We do not usually look upon a matter from the other
fellow's standpoint."
My reflections on this quote prompt me to mention the Attribution Theory which deals with the way one can attribute a certain behaviour or happening either internally or externally.
We all have a need to explain the world, both to ourselves and to other people, attributing cause to the events around us. This gives us a greater sense of control. When explaining behavior, it can affect the standing of people within a group (especially ourselves).
When another person has erred, we will often use internal attribution, saying it is due to internal personality factors. When we have erred, we will more likely use external attribution, attributing causes to situational factors rather than blaming ourselves. And vice versa. We will attribute our successes internally and the successes of our rivals to external ‘luck’.
When a football team wins, supporters say ‘we won’. But when the team loses, the supporters say ‘they lost’.Our attributions are also significantly driven by our emotional and motivational drives. Blaming other people and avoiding personal recrimination are very real self-serving attributions. We will also make attributions to defend what we perceive as attacks. We will point to injustice in an unfair world.
We will even tend to blame victims (of us and of others) for their fate as we seek to distance ourselves from thoughts of suffering the same plight. We will also tend to ascribe less variability to other people than ourselves, seeing ourselves as more multifaceted and less predictable than others. This may well because we can see more of what is inside ourselves (and spend more time doing this).
In practice, we often tend to go through a two-step process, starting with an automatic internal attribution, followed by a slower consideration of whether an external attribution is more appropriate. From a standpoint of motivation, external attribution of events or bebaviour may be more campassionate and effective, maybe??? It's similiar to saying "I give you the benefit of the doubt" (More information on this topic can be obtained in the relevant web sites from which I had referred to.)
Very often too, we do not try to understand the other person's reality but instead pass judgement based on our own perceptions. Maybe we shall attempt to be more objective.
This picture of a lovely sunset scene was taken on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. The "goodness"of this picture, can be attributed the unique scenery, the expertise of the photographer or to the quality of the camera? So what is the answer? Figure this out.
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