10/25/2021; Week 6: Response to "Attributional Tendencies"

      I have considered attributional tendencies in my own life often. For example, someone will say something like, "You sure did a good job in raising your daughter. She's a wonderful mother and faithful member of the church.". I always say that I can't take credit for that because if I did, then I'd have to take credit for my children who live their lives in ways that worry me. 
 
     I have also seen myself diligently searching for internal and/or external attribution of others when they die of COVID. I want to think that they had comorbidities, such as old age. If they are young, I often wonder if they were overweight, had diabetes, asthma, or other health challenges. I do this, and so do many other people I know, because I want to blame something for their death other than just the random fact that someone young and healthy can die from COVID. 

     Here in Mexico, there are a lot of kidnappings for ransom. This is another case in which I often want to assign internal attributes, i.e., they were involved in the drug scene, they were not taking the proper precautions, they flaunted their money. By doing this, I protect myself from worry, saying to myself that this couldn't happen to me or my family because we don't do any of those things. In reality, I know it could happen to anyone, but thinking this way is a self-protection mechanism. 

     Understanding these differences in our TESOL classes is extremely important because we could have someone who assigns internal attributions when he or she fails, which could cause a great deal of suffering. On other other hand, this same person could assign external attributions when they succeed, thus not enabling them to feel good about what they accomplished. These are sensitive issues that we need to be aware of. 

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