1. Reversing Viewpoints Videotape and the Attribution Process: Reversing Actors’ and Observers’ Points of View Katie Harnish

2. Outline Background Methods Results Discussion Questions Reference

3. Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) “The tendency to assume other people’s actions are caused by their personal, individual qualities rather than external, situational forces” (Ross, 1977).

4. Background Individuals (Actors) seem to articulate potential causes and reasoning behind their own behavior through increased emphasis on external cues (Situational Factors). Outsiders (Observers) often consider more internal cues dispositional factors versus situational when explaining others’ behavior.

5. Contributing Factors Differences in actors’ and observers’ points of view: Availability of information about external surroundings, behavior, and contexts Processing of information

6. Purpose of Study Can actor’s and observers’ points of view be reversed through changing visual orientation?

7. Methods Overview of Experimental Procedure: Interpersonal Conversations-”Getting Acquainted” Videotape Replays Actor-Same Orientation Observer-Same Orientation Actor-New Orientation Observer-New Orientation Control Group (No videotape replay) Post Questionnaire

8. Methods cont’d. 120 Participants-30 groups of 4 people Measures: Personality Characteristics Situational Characteristics

9. Results Visual orientation is key when actors and/or observers are interpreting behaviors. No significant differences between perceived level of behavior and differences in attributions (situational, dispositional) Significant differences in the correlation between role (actor/observer) and videotape orientation.

10. Results cont’d. Actors attributed relatively more to situational causes than did observers (control and same orientation group) Actors attributed relatively more to dispositional than observers (new orientation group). For the questionnaire: dominance was difficult to assess for subjects (observers, self)

11. Discussion Question What are some possible implications from the results of this study?

12. Reference Storms, M. D. (1973). Videotape and the Attribution process: Reversing actors' and Observers' points of view. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 165-175.