Question

TCO 3. The deacons at Morgan's church are experiencing group disharmony within their group, which has become so serious that conflict is the chief output of group interactions instead. Morgan is a very assertive and self-assured person who has a dominating interaction style. It is rare for other deacons in the group to be able to get a word in edgewise in their meetings, especially for those who are shy and introverted. Such members start out with every intention of being productive, although as time passes they don't feel like their ideas are valued and their participation levels drop. Two part question: a. Morgan thinks the members who have stopped contributing are lazy. Do you agree with his attribution? Explain your answer. b. How does the concept of perceived self-control apply to this situation? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Morgan thinks that the members are non participative which is an attribution error in itself. This is mostly because these participants have a varied interaction and personality style. It is usually seen that in group settings, introverts tend to feel drained out of energy and need their personal space to recover from the same. This means that they are people who derive their source of energy from within as opposed to extroverts who feel more charged in the company of others. For this reason, introverts need great amount of support & encouragement from their support system. Differences among people must be cherished therefore & varied styles of operating must be incorporated. Such individuals aren't lazy, rather they are driven to participate but seem lazy due to their shyness. The misinterpretation can become clearer when they are given the space & time to participate with the explicit assurance that their values & ideas are of importance.

Perceived control on the other end is the belief that one can determine one's own internal states and behavior, influence one's environment, and bring about desired outcomes. In the given situation since Morgan has dominating interaction style and an extroverted personality style, it may be true that he perceives such a control over his internal state as well as outcomes in his environment. He therefore may end up evidently noticing his own contributions & that of like-minded participants whereas ends up missing out on the subtle contributions made by other people, attributing the erroneous reasons for the same.