I assume Ed puts himself among the liberals given his use of "we" in the context of liberals and academics. Was it then unintended irony for Ed to make dispositional attributions about both conservatives and liberals in the midst of an argument about how conservatives make dispositional attributions while liberals make situational ones? Is it possible that errors in dispositional attribution are equally fundamental for both liberals and conservatives?
Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3055 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] (479)524-7295 http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman From: Pollak, Edward [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 9:36 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Why are most academics liberaL? (was Re: Consider Plan C: Go Gangsta ) So why are academic psychologists more likely to be liberal. I have a theory.that is probably not new: We are trained to look for the causes of behavior. And because of the behaviorist influences on so many of us, we tend to look for environmental causes. But even the biological types among us (myself included) look for causes of behavior. In my experience (and understanding), liberals tend to make situational attributions to explain behavior while conservatives tend to make dispositional attributions. Those dispositional attributions are precisely the sort that conservations like to talk about. i.e., people succeed or fail because of their laziness, ambition, etc. Those are also precisely the sort of explanations that behaviorists are most likelt to dismiss. We want to go the extra step and ask "what external variable cause differences in laziness, ambition, etc. and how can we change those variables to change behavior. I'm suggesting that academics are trained to go deeper in asking about causation whereas the majority of conservatives that I know are perfectly happy to make those dispositional attributions and end the discussion there. I am not suggesting that this more superficial analysis is a necessary part of all conservative thought (I can appreciate a George Will) but it seems to be a rather ubiquitous position among conservatives. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Department of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/home.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, & bluegrass fiddler...... in approximate order of importance. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5f8a&n=T&l=tips&o=2673 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-2673-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-2673-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2678 or send a blank email to leave-2678-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
