B: observers said they were unable to identify
the debaters' true
attitudes because the debaters had
been randomly assigned to argue a certain position.
Incorrect.
In section, group 1 was assigned to argue that the prison
study was ethical, group 2 was assigned to argue that the prison study
was unethical, and the class was given the task of observing the debate
to ascertain the true attitude of the members of groups 1 and 2.
Very few members of the observer group said that were unable to identify
the debates' true attitudes because the debaters had been randomly assigned
to argue a certain position, as their instructions were to try the best
they could to figure out the true attitudes members of group 1 and 2 held.
Perhaps they should have done or said what is contained in answer B, but
they did not. Social psychology often focuses on a descriptive
model of behavior, which means it describes what people actually DO,
as opposed to a normative model, which describes what people should
do, or what is best to do in a certain situation. In question 11,
we see that we are looking at behavior from a descriptive perspective (what
people did- commit the fundamental attribution error), instead of the
normative perspective (what people should do- say that they were
unable to identify the debates' true attitudes because the debaters had
been randomly assigned to argue a certain position.