>On Tue, 21 Nov 2000, Paul Leiberton wrote:
>
>> Everytime I go over the actor-observer bias, I wonder if this is still a
>> current concept. I would seem that the self-serving bias would be a more
>> comprehensive concept. Myers defines slf-serving bias a tendency to
>> perceive oneself favorably. Would this not mean to make a situational
>> attribution in incidences of failure,etc and dispositional attributions in
>> incidens for success, etc?
>>
>> So a qustion from this hope-to-retie-soon high school psychology teacher,
>> is actor-observer effect still a "current concept" or has it been replaced
> > by self-serving bias?
An excellent question. But it assumes that social psychologists are
trying to put together a comprehensive theory of bias. I say this
because of your suggestion that self-serving bias might "replace" (or
better subsume) the A-O bias.
This lack of integration has been one of my complaints about much of
the work in this area. We mostly have a nice long laundry list of
biases, with not much theoretical integration among them all (some
attempts have been made but they are not widely cited). For example,
Nisbett & Ross (in their book "The person and the situation") talk
about "dispositionism" as a basic pattern in attribution. My
favorite contender for an overarching theory of bias would be an
evolutionary approach showing that these are, in some way, adaptive.
Many folks have said as much, but I am unaware of of a comprehensive
attempt to make this argument. If folks can point me to one, I would
be appreciative.
-Chuck
- Chuck Huff; 507.646.3169; http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/
- Psychology Department, St.Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057
