Voiceover: So we're gonna take
a look at a branch of Psychology
called Social Psychology. So we're placed in different situations
each and every day, so you can't dismiss the fact that these
situations affect our behavior. This is a situational approach to
behavior. And theorists place the situational
approach to behavior under a branch of Psychology called Social
Psychology. So Social Psychology is a branch of
Psychology concerned with how social phenomena influences us, and
how people interact with others. So it focuses on the interaction between
an individual in his or her environment. So this is us in our environment, and this interaction is going to shape our
behavior. So in many instances, people behave very differently, depending upon their
situation. So behavior is seen as being influenced by external situational factors rather than
internal traits or motivations. So, external is a very important word,
external or situational factors. So in this theory, or explanation, so to
say, it's hard to predict someone's behavior based
off of just one situation. Because, that one situation isn't going to
be really predictive of how they'll act or be in
another situation. That's the beauty of this situational
approach, is that, depending on the situation, the
behavior may change. That's the assumption we need to go in
with. And as social creatures, we humans base
judgments and ideas about others simply off the situation in
which that person behaves. But we also acknowledge, and it's
important to do this, that sometimes we behave in ways that deviate from our
typical character in differing situations. It's kind of like saying, you can't judge
a book by its cover. An attribution is the process of inferring
the causes of events or behaviors. So attribution has two parts to it but
we're going to focus on one part. So attribution can either be internal or
it can be external and the external, is what we're
going to be focusing on today. So, over the course of a day, or let me
step back a bit. Attribution, I said, is the process of inferring the causes of events and
behaviors, and it's something that we do everyday without even really realizing that we're
doing it. So, over the course of a day we probably
make tons of attributions about our own behavior, as well as that of
the people around us. So, the concept of attribution is actually
much more complex, but since we're gonna focus on
the external. We'll break that part down. So the external attribution is the
inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the
situation he or she is in. So, external attribution has three main
parts. And the first is consistency. So, now we're looking at external
situational, circumstances, we're looking at consistency, so does the person
usually behave this way in this situation? And the second is distinctiveness. Now distinctiveness in this case is does
the person behave differently in different situations or is
this particular situation distinct. And the last is consensus. So, do others behave similarly in this
situation? Now, if we can confidently answer yes to this second two questions, so the ones
that regard distinctiveness and consensus, so if we
can say yes to does the person behaves differently in
different situations. And do others behave similarly in the
situation? Then we can come to the conclusion that
the person is behaving in a particular way due to
their situation. So here we can say the situation is having
an effect on their behavior. Now if the person usually behaves the same
in new situation, then you know that their behavior is not really affected by that
situation, since they're consistent. So if we answer yes to this one, then we know that maybe their behavior isn't
totally dependent on the situation. If it's going to be consistent from
situation to the next situation to the next
situation. Maybe that is more of an internal
attribution. So, pretend you're at the zoo with your
very calm and reasonable best friend, and you head over
to the snakes exhibit. And although your friend doesn't like
snakes, she calmly takes the time to look at them and read about all the
different kinds of snakes out there. Now one day, you have this genius idea to
decide to bring a pet cobra to her house. And the second she walks in the door, she
screams and freaks out and runs out, and you are
totally bewildered. You have no idea what to do. Well, what can we conclude? I mean I wouldn't say your best friend is
always frantic. But clearly based on the distinct
situation she was placed in, she's going to behave
differently. So, in the zoo, the snakes are all caged
up. She's obviously comfortable, she knows the
snakes are not going to come at her. But the second you brought it into her
living room, in a different situation, she felt like her
safety was being endangered. So she's going to act differently in that
situation. So moral of the story: Situational
approaches teaches more about a person the more time we spend with them and see
them in different circumstances. And also, don't ever bring a snake that
close and in the open to your best friend's
house.