15 February 2020

Week 6 Attributional Tendencies in Cultures

There are often internal and external attribution tendencies in most cultures. This can be positive or negative in your life depending on how you see or use this. Some people think they are cursed and blame all their failures on this curse. If they are successful, then perhaps God has blessed you more than you think you deserve. Sometimes we blame our circumstances in life for what goes wrong. In some cultures, the success of an individual is attributed to the parents of the person, like their personal input does not matter. If the same person is a failure that might be blamed on the person for not listening to the parents. The good is attributed to the family the bad to the person themselves.

Somebody I know did poorly in school as a teenager and was called stupid by the people around him. Especially his family. He moved to a different country away from his family and did very well in his work. He worked well with his hands and people were impressed with the work he did. He learned these new skills by watching how it was done by those who had these skills.  This man was encouraged by others to go to school, and he said he was no good at book learning. Now days there is help for those with difficulty learning. This man realized he had learning disabilities, but his experience in his culture as a child is still very strong in his mind.

Teachers should pay attention to those who are having difficulty learning. Learners should be complimented on their work and realize the good they do is because of their own work. If they are not too sure about advancing in their school work they can be encouraged to try. I taught a woman in Iceland the Icelandic language and she was a great student and eager to learn. At the age of twelve she had left school in Thailand and went to work. Her Icelandic was good enough for her to go back to school. She looked at me with a surprised look when I asked her if she had thought of going to school. She said she was not good enough and I told her she was. She smiled with hope in her face.

Learners should know they are not cursed or their accomplishments in school are their own doing. They do not have to think they are cursed or hopeless because of choices they made in life. We can always change. This can be difficult for some who have learned that their culture is always right or their families are. It takes time to change attitudes about social and cultural attributional tendencies, whether they are positive or negative.