Personal Analysis of a Group Member

Individuals belong in certain groupings because they have something in common with other members of that group. Social interaction is the process by which individuals act toward one another and react to other people. The degree of interaction is important, and in some types of groupings interaction is small while in others it is more extensive. A social category is made up of a number of people who have something in common but who do not interact with one another and do not gather in one place. The society as a whole is one such social category, and we speak thus of American, Britons, French, and so on. The members of a society have their culture and history in common, but they do not interact with one another on that basis and do not gather in one place. Social groups are different. Each is a col

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s and groups all the time based on the degree of information they possess about a given perception and on the psychological processes that are engaged in making use of this information. Biases have been identified by several researchers examining the attribution process. First, it is believed that we have a tendency to overestimate the influence of personal, dispositional characteristics and underestimate the influence of situational factors when we make attributions. This is called the "fundamental attribution error." Second, we have a tendency to see our own behavior as normal and appropriate--the "egocentric" bias--and we thus explain the different behavior of others as a function of their personal dispositions. Third, we tend to attribute our success to personal dispositions and our failures to situational factors--the "ego-protective" bias. Attribution theory has been described as having three propositions which define its nature: 1) Attribution is social in origin; 2) Attribution is social in its reference or object; and 3) Attribution is social in that it is common to the members of a society or group (Gudykunst, 1991, 85-86). Fishman (1982) notes that there is a process of ongoing nativization of non-native English
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Britons French, , Schneider Silverman, II Japan, Gudykunst WB, Mexico English, Sociology English, English Japan, Sage Krupat, attribution social, society social, american society, middle class, Fishman JA, identified middle class, personal dispositions, common interact, social category, student body, attribution theory, schneider silverman 1997, schneider silverman,
Approximate Word count = 1222
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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