ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Individual Attitudes and the Perception Process Introduction

In order to understand fully organizational behavior it is important to appreciate the individual process in organization. People are different and therefore there are individual differences within organizations. The term individual difference refers to the fact that people vary in many ways including but not limited to the following: Personality Attitude Self esteem Locus of control Perception Goal orientation

Personality Represent the overall profile or combination of stable characteristics that capture the unique nature of a person. Therefore it combines a set of physical and mental characteristics that reflect how a person looks, thinks, acts and feels. Each employee in an organization is unique and may act differently with others in a similar situation. The uniqueness makes management and working with people extremely challenging. Determinants of personality: 1. Hereditary Some personality characteristics may be influenced by the genetic make up of a person. This makes a person to have similar characteristics with the parent 2. Environment This includes:i). The persons cultural background Culture refers to the distinctive ways that people in different societies, organize and live their lifes Individual born in a particular society are exposed to family and societal values and norms of acceptable behaviour Culture also defines how various roles in society are to be performed e.g. the roles of men and women in society 1

ii) Family Family is the primary vehicle for socializing and individual into a particular culture. Parents, siblings, grandparent, uncles and aunties play an important role in personality development of an individual Through their own behaviours they present situations that bring out certain behaviour in children They serve as role models with which children identify the family members. They selectively reward and punish certain behaviour Family situation influences personality e.g. social life, economic behaviour, race, ethnicity, religious, geographical location, birth order within family, parents educational level etc ii). Group membership Eg family group, play mates, teenage peers, sport teams social groups for adults this influence individual personality formation understanding someones personality requires understanding the groups to which that person belong. iii). Personal experience Each persons life is unique in terms of specific events and experiences which serve as important determinants of personality Behaviour of individuals is influenced by the personality traits they posses. A trait is a component of personality There are five big personality factors on how individuals behave in certain situations These are: 1. Adjustment Stable, confident, effective doubting and moody 2. Sociality Energetic, self dramatizing withdrawn 3. Orderliness Planful, neat, dependable irresponsible 4. Agreeableness Warm, tactful, considerate rude 2

nervous, self

shy, unassertive,

impulsive,

careless,

independent, cold,

5. Intellectual openness Imaginative, curious, original literal minded

dull, unimaginable,

For example employees who are dependable, imaginative, confident would perform better than those without these traits. 2. Self esteem This results from an individual continuing self evaluation or self-rating. Self esteem may change because a person may develop, hold and sometimes modify opinions of self regarding their behaviours, abilities, appearance and worth. Self esteem reflects on how one response to people, situation, success, failures and opinions of others. Self-esteem affects behaviour in organizations and other social settings e.g. individuals with high self esteem take risks in their selection of jobs. They are attracted to high status occupations such as medicine, law, jet pilot, than those with low self esteem. Employees with low self esteem are more easily influenced by opinions of other workers than those with high self esteem Employees with low self esteem set lower goals for themselves than those with high self esteem. Employees with low self esteem are more prone to adverse job conditions such as stress, conflict, poor supervision, poor working conditions etc Generally self esteem is positively related to achievement and willingness to put effort (expend) 3. Attitude Attitudes are relatively lasting feelings beliefs behavioural tendencies aimed at specific people, groups, ides, issues or objects. Attitudes reflect an individuals background and experiences. Attitudes consist of three components i). Affective component This involves feelings, sentiments, moods, emotions about some person, object, idea etc. ii). Cognitive component This involves thoughts, opinions, knowledge or information held by an individual regarding the person idea or object iii). Behavioural component This causes people to act on a favourable or unfavourable evaluation of something

There are certain work attitude that will affect behaviour of employees at work e.g. original commitment, and loyalty and job satisfaction. Low job satisfaction can result in costly turnover, abseentism and stress at work. Original commitment which is strength of an employees involvement in the organization and identification with it also causes employees to behave differently. E.g. strong commitment leads to high productivity, punctuality, individuals become goal oriented and do not waste resources of the organization. Lack of commitment will lead to high turnover and low productivity. The stronger are employees commitment to an organization is the less likely it is a person to leave the organization. 4. Locus of control Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events affecting them individuals with a high internal locus of control (internals) believe that their own behaviour and action primarily determine many events in their life. They believe they can shape their destiny. Individuals with high external locus of control (externals) believe that chance, fate and other people determine what happens to them. Internals control their behavior better, they are more active politically and socially. They seek information about their situation more actively, they can influence and persuade others and they are less likely to be influenced by others. Such people are more achievement oriented and they are just easily to international assignments or other complex and challenging tasks. People between an external locus blame others for the circumstances in their lifes they have a victim mentality, they are afraid to take up challenges and they are not able to influence others.

Goal orientation There are two goals orientations that affect behaviour and performance of individuals in an organization. These are learning goal and performance goal. (i) Learning Goal Orientation A person with a learning goal in orientation develops continually acquiring new competencies and mastering new places. Such individuals are eager to learn from their mistakes and failure. Individuals with strong learning goal orientation strive to overcome failure and set-backs by increasing their effort and seeking new solutions to a problem. They treat failure as useful feedback 4

(ii) Performance Goal Orientation They maintain composure and challenges and increase performance when faced by obstacles. For such individuals when the going get tough they get going. A person with performance goal orientation demonstrates and validate competencies by seeking favourable judgment from others and avoiding negative judgment about performance Individuals with strong performance goal orientation avoid challenges at work, perform poorly when they encounter obstacles, they are unhappy and unsatisfied and they will seek to withdraw from difficult situations in which they find themselves.

The Perception Process

Perception is the understanding or view people have of things in the world around them. Different individuals may have totally different views of a group, such as organized labor, which influence their business decisions differently.

Different people are likely to have somewhat different, and sometimes contradictory, views or understandings of even the same event or person. Rarely do different observers describe events or persons in exactly the same way. For this reason, presenting a clear, well documented description of a situation is the first step in understanding behaviour. Because a person's perceptions have a strong impact on that individual's descriptions, analysis of events, and subsequent behavior, it is important to examine the perceptual process and some of the factors that affect it. Perception is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Things are often perceived differently by different people which is why people behave differently. We see different things around us and attach different meanings to them, for this reason perception is important in the study of differences in individuals behaviour since peoples behaviour would be based or influenced by their perception of reality. The perception process therefore involves elements Reception, Processing, Influencing, Output, Reaction such as:-

1. Reception Perception inputs are received through sensory mechanisms, events, objects and people in the environment enter our perception field to the senses through sight, hearing, smell taste and touch. 2. Processing The inputs are processed through perception mechanism they are selected organized and interpreted in order to give meaning to the perceiver 3. Influence The perception mechanisms are affected by both internal and external factors Internal factors are characteristics of the perceivers needs and the learning acquired form past experiences, self concepts and personality, external factors are characteristics of the object perceived i.e. its size, intensity, contrast, reception, motion, status etc. 4. Output This comprises of opinions, attitudes and feelings which not only determine is perceivers behaviours but also influence the way the perception inputs will be perceived in future 6

5. Reaction The attitude, opinions and feelings developed above causes someone to exhibit a response about the perceived thing. The perceivers behaviour may therefore be positive or negative depending on the attitudes and opinions formed in the step above. Factors influencing perception In the process of interpreting what has been perceived certain internal and external factors will influence how the perceived thing is to be received External Factors i). Size of the perceived object or thing Size establishes and enhances perception selection. The larger the size of the perceived stimuli the more likely it is to be perceived e.g. a tall student in the crowd of other short ones is likely to be noticed first The eyes of the person looking will perceive this student more than the others. ii). Intensity The more intensed the stimulus the more likely it is to be perceived eg the loudness of a sound the brightness of a light, a strong smell, bolded print etc such factors intensify the perceived stimulus iii). Contrast Eg the stimulus that is different from other stimulus is easily perceived eg a red or black spot on a white wall is more readily. A glue car in the midst of a fleet of red cars is easily noticed. iv). Repetition A repeated stimuli is more likely to be perceived than an unrepeated than a knock that is done only once. A flickering light is more likely to be perceived than the others around it that are not flickering v).Motion A moving object is more likely to be perceived than a stationery one vi). Familiarity A familiar stimulus appearing in new surroundings attracts the perceivers attention vii).Status Eg the social status or a perceived person influences perception judgment, a high status person attracts a stronger impact on perception than a low status person eg if one is introduced to a bank 7

manager and also to one of his teller he is more likely to remember the name of the manager than that of the teller. viii). Appearance E.g. the appearance of the perceived person influences the perception judgment e.g. if a person acts, dresses and talks like a doctor people perceive him to be a doctor even though he may not be one. This is how imposters can unsuspected people Internal factors influencing perception In perception the internal factors are the characteristics of the perceiver. The perceiver has a tendency to use himself as a basis for perceiving others. Internal factors that can influence perception are: i). Needs and motives ii). Past experiences iii). Self concept iv). Personality a) Needs and motives Eg a person who is hungry is more sensitive to food and we perceive it more strongly than a person who has just eaten b) Past learning experiences Eg if one has a bad experience with a thing or person before, their likely to have a bad attitude towards it and this is how they will perceive the thing or person next time they come across it. c) Self concept Eg if we perceive ourselves or competent we will set ourselves high performance goals and this is the way we will perceive others as capable of achieving high performance goals d) Personality Eg optimistic individuals always see things in favourable terms while pessimistic ones see things in negative terms. Personality can affect perception in one or more of the following ways:1. Secure individuals tend to perceive others as warm rather than cold 2. Thoughtful individuals are less likely to express extreme judgment on others they are moderate in the ay they perceive others 3. persons who accept themselves tend to perceive others more favourably than those who reject themselves 4. Self accepting individuals perceive themselves as liked wanted and accepted by others.

Overall, people tend to perceive others more accurately when their characteristics are similar to those of the perceived rather than when the characteristics are different Persons who accept themselves tend to perceive other more 1. Attribution This is the tendancy to judge the action of others person by evaluating the causes of the action. If the action is perceived as intentional and directed towards one person, then people will have a strong feeling towards the perpetrator of the behaviour. However, if the action is unintentionally or unconsciously carried out by the individual then the tendeancy is to judge the person less critically Behaviour can therefore be judged favourablyor unfavourably depending on its attribution. 2. Selective perception People selectively interpret that they see on the basis of their interest, background, experience and attitude.

Basically, the perceptual process takes place in two stages. The first is selection; the second is organization. 1. Selection Identifying certain features of an event to notice is referred to as selection. Individuals are continually faced by a mlange of sounds and sights. In a situation, so many stimuli bombard the individuals concerned that they find it difficult to take full account of all of them. Individuals tend to select and attend to only some of the features that are present in any situation. Attention is paid to the actions and conversations of only certain workers. Or attention is paid to only some of the characteristics of a worker. A manager might be alert to a workers experience with a particular piece of machinery or the workers age or sex. This selection process helps people avoid dealing with information that seems to them to be irrelevant. Further, by focusing on the most relevant information, it helps them avoid information overload. Unfortunately, in some cases, selection also causes individuals, to overlook important stimuli. (i) Characteristics of the Stimuli Certain characteristics of the stimuli themselves influence what stimuli individuals select. Stimuli tend to be selected that are larger, more 9

intense, in -motion, repetitive, either novel or very familiar, or in contrast to their background. Stimuli are often overlooked that are small, less intense, stationary, or that blend in with the background. Consider, for example, an error in bookkeeping. A manager is more likely to see a large error than a small one. An accountant will probably notice the small errors. Consider next a salesperson's response to a ringing telephone, a relatively intense stimulus. A salesperson frequently answers a phone before helping a customer waiting in person, because that customer-unless very vocal or demanding-offers a less intense stimulus. Now consider two workers who come to work late. One worker has been late three times already during the week, while the second has not been late for two months. Whose tardiness will the manager likely notice? It might be suggested that the manager would notice the first worker's tardiness because of the repetitiveness of the stimulus (tardy behavior). Alternatively, the manager might notice the second worker's tardiness because it is a novel stimulus. Think about the student who constantly asks the professor for extensions on assignments. Now compare that student to one-who has asked for an extension only once. Which student will the professor most likely question? The novelty of the second student's request causes the professor to focus oh it. In another work situation, employees may not hear (or select) the voice of a supervisor who continually complains about the quality of their work,-because the voice may lack sufficient intensity, novelty, or contrast. Finally, consider the bank teller who wears flamboyant clothes, rather than the more conservative dress usually worn by bank employees. A manager may be more likely to focus on this worker's behavior than on other workers' actions, because the teller contrasts with the background of the bank. (ii) Characteristics of Selectors Stimuli are also selected according to the internal state of the selector. Such states evolve from the individual's experiences, motivation, and personality. In organizations, an employees tardiness might be seen for example, in terms of the mangers own education or experience in viewing key events as a function of the managers social class, educational background, or job history. The situation might also be seen in terms of the person's own physiological requirements for sleep. Or it might be seen in terms of the individual's personality, aggressiveness, enthusiasm, or introversion. Similarly, an advertisement for a new restaurant may be seen one way if a person has experience with that' type of, restaurant. It might be seen differently if a need for food is the motivation, rather than a need for security or a need for self-esteem. Or a person with an 10

extroverted personality might shake the hand of a person who extends a hand, whereas a person with an introverted personality might not see the proffered hand. A person with an extroverted personality might not ''hear" a supervisor's raised voice, whereas a person with an introverted personality might focus immediately on that stimulus. Note that different experiences, needs, and personalities, might result in different perceptions of the situation. 2. Organization Once stimuli have been selected, individuals categorize and organize them so that the new material makes sense. If possible, the new stimuli are made to fit in with how people already understand and know the world. For example, if a manager sees current employees as being lazy, this individual will likely see new " employees as lazy, too. Disconfirming evidence will rarely be noticed. Stimuli are organized in two basic ways. First, stimuli are perceived as figures standing against a background. A plant supervisor sees for example, assembly line workers against a background of the plant equipment, or the actions of one worker against that of the entire group of workers. The distinctions made between figure and background will influence which attitudes and behaviors the supervisor ultimately chooses to focus on. Such distinctions influence performance evaluations in particular. The uniqueness of the subject being rated is significant. If someone is being interviewed for a job, the people whose interviews immediately precede will affect the way the interviewer will perceive that person. The previous interviews act as a background against which the current interviewee is assessed. In one study interviewees who had average qualifications were judged differently, depending on whether the preceding person had very high or very low Qualifications. As might be expected the average interviewees were rated much more highly when they followed a person with low qualifications, because their "better' features stood out against the background of the lower-qualified person. When the average interviewees followed people with high qualifications, their 'worse features were noted, so they were rated poorly. Another study determined the effects of the proportion of noncompliant "clerical workers on supervisors' ratings of compliant clerical workers. As in the study above, contrasts made a difference. The greater the proportion of noncompliant workers, the more 11

favorably the supervisors judged the compliant workers, and the more they gave them pay raises and recommended them for promotion. In addition to perceiving figures against a background, individuals group discrete stimuli into a pattern. For example, individuals try to create closure, which is the tendency to form a complete mental image out of incomplete data among related stimuli. Notice that you tend to complete the square and ignore the duplication of words in the three sayings. How does this principle apply to behavior in organizations? The supervisor who has thirty subordinates has a complete mental picture of each worker, generally based on just a few details. Grouping of stimuli occurs when they are similar, are near other stimuli, form a continuous pattern, or create a completed pattern. For example, a vice-president in an insurance firm may have difficulty distinguishing between the performance of two actuaries who have adjacent offices. A headmaster in a high school may mentally group ail- tardy students and have difficulty differentiating among them, regardless of the legitimacy of their tardiness. Grouping of stimuli underlies their interpretation and contributes to the distortions of perceptions described in the next section. Perceptual Distortions In reality, both selection and organization generally suffer from inaccuracies or distortions. These distortions include (1) stereotyping, (2) halo effect (3) projection and (4) expectancy. 1. Stereotyping Stereotyping is the situation when an individual attributes behaviors or attitudes to a person on the basis of the group or category to which that person belongs e.g. it is a known fact that the former KANU regime was bad; All vocal trade unionists come from Western Kenya, All managers are smart among others, illustrate stereotyping. Stereotyping often occurs with ethnic groups, women, managers, white-collar workers, and blue-collar workers. A common stereotype is that the average Japanese factory worker is dedicated to quality, whereas the average American worker is sloppy, and unconcerned with quality. Stereotyping often occurs because individuals do not gather sufficient data about others to describe their behaviors or attitudes accurately. They may look for shortcut ways of describing certain phenomena -without spending the time or completely analyze them. Alternatively, some individuals have personal biases against certain groups of individuals. Using stereotypes reduces the accuracy of our perceptions about these groups. Even when overwhelming disconfirming evidence 12

should cause the perceiver to admit that a person or thing does not conform to the stereotype. The perceiver often maintains the stereotype and views the exceptions as an anomaly. There are ways that can be used to reduce stereotyping in organizations. First individuals must gather sufficient information about other peoples behaviour and attitudes to encourage objective perceptions. Second they must check the conclusions they draw to ensure their validity. Third they must differentiate between facts and assumptions in determining the basis of their perception 2. Halo effect The halo effect refers to an individuals using a general impression of a person to evaluate that individuals specific behaviours or attitudes. Working overtime, for example can lead to a person being evaluated as highly cooperative. A neat personal appearance can cause a person to be judged as precise in his or her work. A talkative person may be judged less responsible than a quieter, seemingly pensive individual The halo effect frequently affects assessments of employee performance. Research suggests, for example, that such assessments are highly influenced by the quality of recent behavior-either good or bad-rather than by the behaviour throughout the rating period. A particularly outstanding report completed just prior to a performance evaluation may result in a highly positive appraisal for entire preceding period. For this reason, supervisors must seek accurate and complete descriptions of employee behavior. Other- research suggests the supervisor who has information suggesting identical performance by two female subordinates will give them different evaluations according to their attractiveness. Attractiveness increased the performance evaluations, pay raises and promotions of women in non-managerial positions, but decreased these same outcomes for women in managerial positions. No differences occurred in the evaluations or compensation of men. In addition, some raters tend to he consistently lenient, consistently strict, or consistently in the middle, in evaluating workers. These raters do not make individual evaluations. There are means by which the halo effect can be reduced. Those who gather complete data about an individual generally reduce their reliance on the halo effect for assessing behavior. In addition, distinguishing among various aspects of an individual's behavior, rather than grouping even superficially related aspects, should reduce the impact of the halo effect. Managers must separate appearance from performance, productivity from attendance, and personality from creativity. Finally, recognizing the proven correlates of performance 13

should decrease individual's use of the halo effect, rather than assuming unsupported correlates, such as the relationship between personal appearance and precision or speaking ability and responsibility. 3. Projection Projection involves an emotional biasing of perceptions. Fear, hatred, love, or distrust can influence individuals perceptions. Older workers who fear that their skills are becoming obsolete may translate this fear into a dislike or distrust of younger workers. This in turn may be reflected in their perceptions of the attitudes and behaviors of the younger workers. They may state that the new.. recruits do not like the experienced employees, for example. Thus, projection has decreased perceptual accuracy. Have you ever heard someone say My boss is prejudiced. The boss doesn't like women. The boss doesn't like black workers. The boss doesn't trust people over forty These observations about the boss may be accurate, or they may instead reflect the worker's prejudices. The speaker, rather than the boss, may not like women, black workers, or workers over forty. Projection refers to individuals attributing their own attitudes to another person. Individuals use projection as a defense mechanism, to transfer blame to another person, or asprotection from their own-unacceptable feelings. In business, individuals frequently attribute their own prejudices against minorities, managers, and employees to the other party. Projection frequently occurs in union-management relations. Each side attributes feelings of mistrust (its own) to the other side. Management might state that the union mistrusts them; when, in fact, it is management that mistrusts the union. They project their own feelings onto the other group, representing them to others as the feelings of the other group. Examples of projection are numerous. In order to reduce or eliminate projection, a person must first identify his or her true feelings. Once true feelings are recognized, the person must repeatedly assess whether and how they are influencing the person's perceptions of others. Further, in situations where projection is common, such as in union-management relations, managers must carefully evaluate the accuracy of their perceptions. 4. Expectancy When participants anticipate certain behaviors from other participants it is referred to as expectancy. They may expect workers to be lazy, 14

bossy, or tardy. These expectations may be associated with the participants anticipating certain types of behavior from different groups of workers (stereotyping); from, workers who demonstrate specific or bad behavior (halo effect), or from workers onto whom they project their own attitudes (projection). Thus, expectancy is also a type or perceptual distortion and underlies the other three types. Assume that a market research supervisor has two subordinates. The first subordinate has demonstrated great creativity and productivity in the advertising campaigns she has developed. The second subordinate follows the directions given by the manager to the letter, but she has demonstrated neither initiative nor enthusiasm for special projects. The supervisor just found an innovative marketing plan on his desk. Which subordinate will be congratulated for the excellent work? If expectancy is operating, the supervisor would likely approach the first subordinate, who had demonstrated creativity in the past. This evaluation could be incorrect. Of course, either subordinate could have developed the plan. Expectations influence and bias perceptions of others, reducing the accuracy of the perceptions. Expectations of managers have been shown to influence even the performance of subordinates. 5. The Attribution Process The need to determine why events occur is a common one. Many people, whether consciously or not, ponder the reasons for many events and then decide why the events occurred. In this way individuals attribute causes to the events. Individuals move from description to diagnosis. As might be expected, different people often attribute different causes to the same event. In this book, a wide range of explanations are presented for various phenomena so that individuals can .attribute causes as accurately and completely as possible. (a) Theoretical Antecedents Kurt Lewin defined behavior as being a function of both an individual's personality and the environment. He suggested that any time a person acts, the action probably results from both the person's personal characteristics and situational influences. It is inaccurate to assume that behavior results from just one of the two causes. When individuals try to understand reasons for behavior, however, they often ignore one of these types of causes- personal or situational. There is a tendency to overestimate the influence of either a person's personality characteristics or environmental influences and to typically discount the other factor. 15

(b) The Steps in Attribution Attribution theorists and researchers study the process of determining the causes of specific events, the responsibility for particular outcomes, or the personal Qualities of individuals participating in a situation. They also study the process by which individuals come to attribute people's behavior primarily to either, their personality or situational causes. One researcher has suggested that this process occurs in three stages: A person (1) observes another person's behavior; (2) determines whether the behavior was intended; and (3) assigns a reason for the behavior. More specifically, the process takes place as follows: Stage 1 Individuals observe or are told about some action. Stage 2 A determination is-made on whether the observed behavior was intended or accidental. By answering this question, a first-level determination is made of the cause of the behavior. If "it is assumed that the behaviour occurred accidentally, no attempt is made to determine its causes. It is attributed to fate, luck, accident, or a similar uncontrollable phenomenon. If however, it is assumed that the behaviour was intended, that the management chose to act, progression moves to stage 3. Stage 3 Questions arise as to whether situational causes or personal characteristics explain the person's behavior. For example, is competition in an industry the main impetus for closing business? If price wars were believed to be the key, and the management voted to close business, would it be attributed to situational factors? Or, it might be suspected that there were other extraneous factors. Although both situational and personal factors may influence an event, most of us generally try to simplify our understanding of the event and so attend primarily to only one type of cause or the other, rather than to both. Recognizing this tendency to simplify our understanding, and the resulting inaccurate attributions, Students are always encouraged to systematically apply a series of behavior perspectives to understanding a situation and attributing causes to it. 6. Attributional Biases The reasons for behavior may be attributed to either situational or personal factors. But, these attributions are made in predictable ways, based on an individual's point of view and the effectiveness of the behavior. 16

(a) Point of View An individual can participate in a situation, as an actor or an observer. Research on attributions indicates that actors emphasize situational causes of a behavior and de-emphasize personal factors, to protect their self-image and ego. For example, a CEO as the actor, would emphasize on economic conditions, including labors position, and deemphasize his personal attitudes as contributory aspects. The observer would emphasize the personal factors of the actor and de-emphasize situational factors as explanations for the situation. Consider the employee who arrives at work late. Does the worker attribute the cause of the tardiness to personal characteristics, or to situational factors such as traffic, a malfunctioning alarm clock, or changed work rules? To what does the worker's boss attribute the cause of the tardiness? According to the attributional biases just discussed, the worker attributes behavior to the situation-a delayed subway, perhaps; the boss attributes the worker's behavior to personal characteristics-laziness, for example. Recognizing this tendency toward bias should alert individuals to possible inaccuracies in their attributions and diagnoses.

(b) Effectiveness of the Behaviour The perceived success or failure of a behavior complicates the attribution of its cause, Actors attribute successes to personal factors and failures to situational factors. For observers the reverse is true. They attribute successes to situational factors and failures to personal factors. Now consider the case of a student who has just completed a final examination. If the student obtains an A on the exam, how will the excellent performance likely to be explained? If that student obtains an F on the exam, how will the poor performance be explained? To what will the professor attribute the student's performance? The student-as an actor-will attribute an A (success) to personal factors, such as knowledge or effort, but an F to situational factors, such as poor' teaching or noise in the examination room. The professor will make the reverse attributions. The teacher will attribute an A to excellent reaching aspects or the situation; and an F to the student's laziness or low IQ. Which of these attributions is correct? Of course, any of these attributions probably represents an oversimplification of the causes. (c ) Rectifying Attributional Factors 17

Testing the nature of attributions in a problem situation should be an early and recurring step of diagnosis. As much as possible, individuals should be actively involved in processing information about the situation, rather than remain passive. Individuals can learn reasonable causes for various behaviors as well as methods for testing their assumptions. By knowing the typical attributional biases, individuals can be alert to these biases in their own attributions and verify the accuracy of the causes they identify.

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