Blog Chapter 16!

The attribution theory is the theory that we explain someone's behavior by the situation they are in.  For example, at school, especially choir class, I am really outgoing, but at home, I am really quiet and keep to myself.  This is because at school, my friends are there and they get me excited whereas home is nothing new and is rather boring.  

The fundamental attribution error is the overestimation of the influence of personality and underestimation of influence of situations.  As in my example earlier, all of the choir students think of me as extremely outgoing, but that is simply because they see me only in choir.  If they followed me around all the time, they would see that I sometimes like to keep to myself, but am not exactly shy.  

Stereotypes are the generalization of a group that we base our opinions and beliefs on.  There is a huge stereotype that says blondes are dumb, but being a blonde myself, I can see that there is a huge variation in the intelligence of blondes.  

A lot of the time when there are stereotypes, illusory correlation occurs.  Illusory correlation is, in a set of data, seeing the conclusion one expects.  An example would be when people form false associations between the number of membership in a minority group, like Mexicans, and negative behaviors, like gang fights.  We would see that as the Mexican population went up, so did the amount of gang fights, even though there is no relationship between the two.