<p>The AP Psychology exam (April 11) is now less than 5 weeks away. So which AP Psychology prep book really is the best? I thought it might be interesting to make a direct comparison among the four leading AP Psychology books on a specific topic. I chose the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias because these concepts have generated a large number of multiple-choice questions and have regularly appeared in free-response questions. I will type up how each of the four leading prep books (sorry Kaplan and REA!) discusses these key concepts. However, I won’t disclose the identity of each book. For now, I’ll call them A, B, C, and D. So you be the judge. Which one is the best?</p>
<p>Whichever letter corresponds to Barron’s</p>
<p>SOURCE A:</p>
<p>ATTRIBUTION:
Attribution refers to how people assign responsibility for certain outcomes. Typically, attribution falls into two categories - dispositional (or person) and situational. Dispositional attribution assumes that the cause of a behavior or outcome is internal. Situational attribution assigns the cause to the environment or external conditions. When students fail a test, they might attribute that failure to their own poor work habits or lack of intellectual abilities (a dispositional attribute) or they could attribute their failure to some external factor such as that they had bad instruction (a situational attribute)</p>
<p>A self-serving bias sees the cause of actions as internal (or dispositional) when the outcomes are positive or external (or situational) when the results are negative. When a teacher’s class fails a test, that teacher blames the students for their lack of initiative and motivation. However, when the class does very well, the teacher attributes the students’ success to his or her superior teaching and motivational ability. A related concept is the fundamental attribution error. In this process of judging the behavior of others, people are more likely to overestimate the role of dispositional attributes and to underestimate the role of the situation. For example, if you are waiting for your friend to meet you at the movies and she is so late that the movie has already started, you would be more likely to blame your friend’s lateness on her laziness or procastination than on a traffic jam or car accident. Your judgment exemplifies a fundamental attribution error.</p>
<p>SOURCE B:</p>
<p>ATTRIBUTIONAL BIASES:
Although people are quite good at shifting through all the data that bombards them and then making attributions, you will probably not be surprised to learn that errors, are not uncommon. Moreover, people tend to make the same kinds of errors. </p>
<p>When looking at the behaviors of others, people tend to overestimate the importance of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors. This tendency is known as the fundamental attribution error. Say that you go to a party where you are introduced to Claude, a young man you have never met before. Although you attempt to engage Claude in conversation, he is unresponsive. He looks past you and, soon after, seizes upon an excuse to leave. Most people would conclude that Claude is an unfriendly person. Few consider that something in the situation may have contributed to Claude’s behavior. Perhaps Claude just had a terrible fight with his girlfriend, Isabelle. Maybe on the way to the party he had a minor car accident. The point is that people systematically seem to overestimate the role of dispositional factors in influencing another person’s actions.
(Continued on the next post)</p>
<p>SOURCE B (continued)
Interestingly, people do not evidence this same tendency in explaining their own behaviors. Claude knows that he is sometimes extremely outgoing and warm. Since people get to view themselves in countless situations, they are more likely to make situational attributions about themselves than about others. Everyone has been shy and aloof at times, and everyone has been friendly. Thus, people are more likely to say that their own behavior depends upon the situation.</p>
<p>One caveat must be added to our discussion of the fundamental attribution error. The fundamental attribution was named fundamental because it was believed to be so widespread. However, many cross-cultural psychologists have argued that the fundamental attribution error is far less likely to occur in collectivist cultures than in individual cultures. In an individualistic culture, like the American culture, the importance and uniqueness of the individual is stressed. In more collectivist cultures, like Japanese culture, a person’s link to various groups such as family or company is stressed. Cross-cultural research suggests that people in collectivist cultures are less likely to commit the fundamental attribution error, perhaps because they are more attuned to the ways that different situations influence their own behavior.</p>
<p>SOURCE C:</p>
<p>I. ATTRIBUTIONAL THEORY</p>
<pre><code>A. THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
1. Definition
. The widespread tendency to overemphasize dispositional
factors and to underestimate situational factors when
making attributions about the cause of another person’s
behavior.
. Dispositional factors include personality traits such as
level of motivation and willingness to work.
. Situational factors refer to social influences such as the
absence of parents or group pressures to conform.
2. Causes
. The just-world phenomenon – Most people have a need to
believe that the world is just and fair. As a result, they
believe that people generally get what they deserve. The
just-world phenomenon helps explain the tendency of
people to blame the victim rather than look to social
causes.
. The saliency bias – Situational factors are less salient or
noticeable than dispositional factors. As a result, people
focus on visible personality traits rather then the less
visible social context.
3. Examples
. Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast claiming
almost 2,000 lives in New Orleans alone. Why did so many
residents of New Orleans fail to evacuate the city? Many
critics ignored situational factors such as the shortage of
public transportation and instead focused on dispositional
factors such as residents who foolishly ignored warnings
to evacuate the city.
. As you are driving down the road, another car suddenly
passes you and speeds through a red light. Most people
make the fundamental attribution error by attributing
the driver’s reckless behavior to dispositional factors
such as drunk driving or aggressive behavior. Few
people pause to consider that situational factors many be
at work. For example, the driver may be ill and rushing
to a nearby hospital.
</code></pre>
<p>(Continued on the next post)</p>
<p>SOURCE C (continued)</p>
<pre><code>B. THE SELF-SERVING BIAS
1. DEFINITION
. Most people take credit for their successes while
at the same time attributing their failures to external
situations beyond their control.
2. CAUSES
. Most people are motivated by a need for self-esteem and a
desire to save face.
. Individuals are more aware of the situational factors that
influence their behavior.
3. EXAMPLES
. Students who earn high scores on the SAT and ACT
attribute their success to dispositional factors such as hard
work and extensive practice. Students who earn low SAT
and ACT scores blame situational factors such as inept
teachers, poor test-taking conditions and tricky questions.
. Stock brokers who produce high returns for their clients
attribute their success to dispositional factors such as
exhaustive research and disciplined investing. Stock
brokers who produce low returns for their clients blame
situational factors such as unpredictable actions by
foreign governments and surprise decisions by the
Federal Reserve Board.
C. CULTURE AND ATTRIBUTIONAL BIASES
1. Individualistic cultures
. Cultures like the United States and Canada that emphasize
independence and personal responsibility.
. People in individualistic cultures are more likely to
commit both the fundamental attribution error and the
self-serving bias.
2. Collectivistic cultures
. Cultures like Japan and China that emphasize inter-
dependence and collective responsibility.
. People in collectivistic cultures are less likely to make
the fundamental attribution error and more likely to be
aware of how situational factors influence behavior.
</code></pre>
<p>TIP:
The fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias have generated more multiple-choice questions than any other social psychological concepts. Questions typically ask you to apply these concepts to a situation from everyday life. For example, when students attribute their high history grades to hours of extra study and their low chemistry grades to impossible test questions, they are exhibiting the self-serving bias.</p>
<p>Source D</p>
<p>EVALUATING BEHAVIOR:
When evaluating our own behavior, we tend to show a self-serving bias, which means we attribute our achievements and successes to personal stable causes (dispositional attributes) and our failures to situational factors. If our groups gets a good grade on a project, we are inclined to overestimate our contributions to the project. Unfortunately, we don’t tend to be as generous when evaluating the behavior of others. The fundamental attribution error is our tendency to underestimate the impact of situational factors and overestimate the impact of dispositional (personal) factors when assessing why other people acted the way they did. We are more likely to believe another student is lazy or stupid when he/she makes a low grade on a test than to look for situational causes, like the recent death of a pet, to explain the grade. When judging others, we tend to make some more personal stable attributions while, when judging ourselves, we tend to look at situational constraints, particularly when dealing with our foolish or negative actions. The actor-observer bias is the tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes and the behavior of others to personal causes. This can lead us to believe that people get what they deserve - the just-world phenomenon. As an extension of this concept, we tend to blame the victim of a crime such as rape.</p>
<p>OK - so you be the judge. How do you rate Sources A, B, C, and D?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>^^ that 10char</p>
<p>Very interesting challenge DK.</p>
<p>I’ll go with C and then B as the two best. I like C’s clear outline and excellent illustrative examples. The Hurricane Katrina example is very good. Both C and B do a good job of discussing how individualistic and collectivist cultures affect the fundamental attribution theory.</p>
<p>A and D are definitely on the bottom.</p>
<p>Here are the answers:</p>
<p>SOURCE A: Princeton Review
SOURCE B: Barrons
SOURCE C: Crash Course
SOURCE D: Five Steps</p>
<p>Opinions? Thoughts?</p>
<p>Yeah, I recognized Crash Course material as soon as I saw C. I really like Larry Krieger’s outline way of organizing the facts as opposed to lengthy paragraphs like the others.</p>
<p>Honestly I think the best prep book ever for Psych is David G Myer’s Psychology. It’s a textbook and it’s thick, but it’s a good read, it’s interesting, and it’ll overprepare you. You could at least use it to look up topics you don’t understand from the prep books. If you’re looking for a prep book, last year I used Barron’s and got a 4. I didn’t read the whole thing, though, so maybe if I did I would have done better. It seems to me that Barron’s covers all the material, though. Of course I haven’t tried the others, but I’m ordering Princeton Review this year.</p>