It is very common to attribute our fails to bad behaviour we might have done during past situations. I remember I had this friend. Her boyfriend passed away in a car accident, so She was always saying that it was her fault, because they went together to the beach and He started drinking a lot of alcohol and she got mad about his behavior so she took a taxi and came back home, late that day when the guy was returning home, He was so drunk that He couldn´t even cross the highway, and unfortunately a truck ran over him and killed him.
Remembering that situation is hard for me, too; because He was my childhood friend, we used to play a lot as kids.
Now his girlfriend was always blaming to herself; always saying the typical: "If I had". So we, her friends; always heard things like: "it was my fault, If I had stayed with him we would have returned together and nothing would have happened", "I`m as guilty as the truck driver", or "God is punishing me because I stopped praying", She was always looking for a guilty one in order to decrease her sadness or maybe to vent, I really never understood his attributions but what I could understand was the sadness on her, there were no possible consolation words, I tried to share some gospel messages to her but she always refuses to listen, and she always said words like I want nothing from God because He stole my boyfriend. It has happen like 4 years ago but She`s still blaming herself attributating this situation to herself.
Now, to mention an example for external situation attribution, We could consider a very common example that most of the time We hear here in Perú; related to public and private schools. In my country there exists this attribution that private schools are better than public school, because in the first ones parents have to pay a monthly money so "their children will be better prepared at the end of school time" and they will be ready to apply to a university exam. Meanwhile it is said that students who finish their high school education at public schools need more preparation before taking this exam, because public schools are synonims of bad education.
So regarding to this last example some attributions could be: "Your son didn´t approve the university exam because He finished high school at a public school, what did you expected?", or "Congratulations for your son, studying at a private high school helped him to approve the university exam"
I found these cartoons online about attributions:
In this funny cartoon Alvin attributs his test score to an amnesia problem. (very clever)
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In this second cartoon, The left guy attributs his lack of interest about school to a back-up of his brain that He didn´t do. (very clever and funny one).
This was a very interesting topic. Due to my experience teaching at schools, I remember I had a student who always curse during classes, Once I decided to talk to him at the end of the class I told him that He was a beautiful boy that I didn´t understand why He was always cursing to his classmates and that He doesn´t have to curse, because his mouth is like full of garbage, his answer shocked me, He said, Miss I just repeat what my older brother says at home to his friends. Now that we are taking this subject I can realize it was his attribution in order to excuse himself for his behaviour. So, after talking to my student I talked to his tutor teacher, I told her what was happening during my classes and she decided to set an appointment with his parents to explain the situation during classes because it was not only during englih classes but also during arts and physical education. There was a commintment by his parents side to start an educational psychologist treatment. But his parents told some attributions too, like that their son watched too many violent cartoons or movies on T.V, and that these were the sources that He learnt these kind of words. The tutor talked to the school psychologist and they together started an anger managment treatment with this boy, it worked, and little by little He stopped cursing. I would like to read your opinions, how would you have reacted to this situation?.
Most of time, we are not only english teachers, but we also have to be friends, psychologist, and even take mother´s role, being a teacher is so complex, we really must love what we do because we can leave a positive print on our students life.
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