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 group 3 was given the task of observing the debate to
ascertain the true attitude of the members of groups 1 and 2. None
of the 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 done 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.