500 word assignment due by 5pm est 1/26 $15 NO LATE WORK MUST FOLLOW DIRECTIONS
Jazz1
SAMPLEJOURNALENTRY_2016.rtfJournal Entry 1
Description
Context: My husband, and I discussing how important it is to follow rules and him receiving a no seatbelt citation along with a running through a stop sign violation while driving home from his parents’ house.
Interaction: A few years ago my husband and I were returning home from a visit to his parents’ house in San Francisco. While getting into the car I mentioned to him that he should put his seatbelt on because “tickets are not cheap.” He responded by saying he didn’t have to because we were not traveling far. When we were almost home he decided to take a back road to get to our house faster. This road just so happens to be known for cops staking the area to catch drivers, like my husband, who disregard the rules of the road. As we were getting close to our house I spotted an officer sitting in his usual spot on the side of the road. When my husband finally saw the cop car sitting facing us he quickly attempted to fasten the seatbelt but was too late. He had already been seen, the lights began to flash and we were pulled over.
In the excitement and being distracted my husband dangerously rolled through a stop sign. As my husband frantically grabbed his license and insurance he was acting as if his life was over. The officer asked Joe, my husband, if he knew why he had stopped him. The answer given to him was, “No sir was I speeding?” Then the officer went on to explain that he was pulled over due to him not properly wearing a seatbelt while operating a motor vehicle. Also that he has to issue a second citation for running a stop sign. While the officer collected Joe’s license and walked back to his squad car all I could do was look at him and mouth, “I told you so.”
This led to a small argument about how he feels that everybody is out to get him. He felt that he was the target or scapegoat for everyone else’s problems. In reality he brought the whole ordeal on himself. Everything would have been ok if he had taken the 5 seconds to simply put on the seatbelt. I did my best to not sound like his mother and sound like a concerned wife but he was not up for hearing what anybody had to say. After we arrived home he apologized for putting us in danger when he ran the stop sign and realized that he was indeed overreacting. He now wears his seatbelt regularly and stops at all stop signs.
Analysis
ATTRIBUTION THEORY- THEORY THAT EXPLAINS HOW YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR BEHAVIOR TO SOMEONE WHEN THE BEHAVIOR IS BAD AND ATTRIBUTE IT TO YOURSELF WHEN IT IS GOOD
My husband’s actions describe the attribution theo ry. This theory explains how we judge a person’s actions AND BLAME THEM ON SOMEONE OTHER THAN THAT PERSON. This is an example of how we make impulsive judgments of others based on their actions to help ourselves make sense of the behavior. My husband believed that since the officer was just sitting around doing nothing that he personally and spitefully chose him out of all the other cars on the road, thereby attributing the ticket to the officer not himself. He argued that if the officer was doing his job, he’d be after a real criminal and not someone who had a simple driving mistake. That he chose to pull him over for entertainment purposes only because the officer had nothing better to do, not because of the traffic violations. I then tried to explain my thoughts about the situation. I explained to him that these rules are set into place in hopes to keep us safe and alive. These rules allow us to return home to our children and our families. If he breaks these rules, he might not get hurt, but he could kill someone else and spend his life in prison. That it also allows our fellow drivers to return to their families safely as well, which may had not happen if we were hit or we hit another car because he rolled through the stop sign. I basically said that the officer was doing the right thing. The officer’s actions could be attributed to his career and commitment of keeping people safe and his years of experience on the force. My husband’s behavior can be attributed to his thinking the rules are for others, not him. He kind of got what he deserved. But I didn’t say that to him.
This is also a statement about how we as humans harshly judge others and have difficulty coming to grips with our own thinking and acting. The Attribution Theory applies here because it explains that if we don’t like our own actions and we attribute them to another person, we will feel less guilt and responsibility. That’s exactly what my husband did. In order to not feel bad about ourselves for something we do we will search out someone else to blame, even using stereotyping to get off the hook. My husband did this by thinking the cop had nothing to do but sit in his car and look-out for my husband to ticket. I believe that we are all guilty of this. We can cause so much emotional harm on ourselves and others with one bad judgment. It did not help that my husband did not have the best of luck with running into cops. I am pretty sure at one point in time he held the world record for the number of warnings given out in one year. When we believe we are right, it takes a while for us to admit fault, if we admit it all. And if we attribute it to someone else, as The Attribution Theory points out, we may never admit our own fault and responsibility. This is something that my husband is currently working on and has improved significantly.
