Storms (1973)

1. Discuss the reasons Storms provides for why the videotapes changed people's attributions.

2. Which did the change of perspective affect more, dispositional or situational ratings? Do you see this as supporting the idea that one of these attributions is made more easily and more automatically?

3. What are the costs and benefits of self-observation? Storms discusses these costs and benefits in the context of therapy. In what other contexts would there be costs and benefits? What would those costs and benefits be?

4. What other ways do you think the actor-observer effect and the fundamental attribution error could be eliminated or reduced?

Miller (1984)

5. Is the Indian culture Miller studies more collectivist or individualistic?

6. Was there reliability across cultures for the coding scheme Miller used?

7. What were the two specific kinds of attributions Milller was interested in? Among adults, who makes more dispositional attributions, Americans or Indians? For which kind of behavior is this difference most visible? Is the same difference found among children?

8. Why did Milller include the classification task at the end of Study 1? Could the results of Study 1 be attributed to differences in economic status, rather than other aspects of culture?

9. Where did the behaviors explained in Miller's Study 2 come from? Did the pattern of results replicate the first study? What important alternative hypothesis does Miller's Study 2 rule out?