Social Psychology: An Interview With JP Morgan Chase

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Social psychology and its principles are present throughout the world whenever people interact with one another. Social psychologists look to study the way people act and feel when they are in social situations. The ideas and concepts of social psychology are applicable to many of the interactions that we experience in our life.
My interview with JP Morgan Chase for a summer program was an instance when I fell victim to many of the flaws in my thought process. Like all other ambitious high school students, I applied for an internship during the summer before my senior year at a JP Morgan Chase, so that I could develop the skills and abilities needed to do well in college and at a potential future job. The application process for this internship
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The fundamental attribution error is “the tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior is due to internal, dispositional factor and to underestimate the role of situational factors” (Akert, 89). In other words, we are more likely to assume that a behavior is as a result of an internal attribution, instead of an external attribution. Internal attribution is “the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about their person such has attitude, character, or personality” (Akert, 85). In other words, this concept reasons that people’s actions are credited to aspects of their personalities. External attribution is “the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in” (Akert, 85). This idea refers to the conclusion that people’s actions and feelings are a result of situational causes. After my interview, I thought that my interviewer was very harsh and a snob because he did not smile and asked very tough questions. Therefore, I attributed his behavior and actions to his personality. However, I did not think about the external reasons that may have caused him to act this way. For instance, the interviewer may have been explicitly told by his employer that he was supposed ask certain questions, in order to better assess me as a candidate. In addition, the interviewer may have also been inundated with work, which was why he was not able to properly greet me. Thus, by disregarding external attributions, and solely making internal attributions we cannot accurately interpret a situation due to the fundamental attribution

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