Self Serving Basis

The self serving basis occurs when people use praise or blame when they have a success or failure. People will contribute their success by their personality but when people fail they are more likely to blame outside sources instead of themselves for the failure. Western and Eastern cultures share different approaches in the use of attributions.

Western cultures look at people as individuals. People are more independent and self- centered. Behavior is looked at through personality traits. Western cultures have an analytical thinking style which involves internal characteristics such as traits, attitudes and aptitudes. They are more conscious and deliberate in their actions. They use controlled reasoning. When the government passes a law the people will meet and debate if it’s a good or bad law. They will consider their individual rights and fight for their rights. The western culture strives to prove the truth and in people’s individual rights. They strive for success and self achievement and believe in the external nature of money, faith and popularity to reach that success. They favor individual leaders that are more outgoing, charismatic and think for themselves. They view their leaders as an outstanding individual that stands out from the rest. Western culture many times view Eastern people as secretive, dishonest and inauthentic.

Eastern cultures examine life as a group and as a social being. They have a holistic way of thinking which involves belief structure, habits and norms. They are more spontaneous and preconscious. They use automatic mental processes. When the government passes a law the people will go along with it and if it interferes with their lifestyle they will find a way within their inner self to adjust to it. They accept the truth as given and seek balance from inner self. They view acceptance and adjustments as a social responsibility. They are follower with groups and they more readily conform. They view their leaders as very powerful and large in nature within their social group. Eastern culture is more conservative in their views; they are loyal, have piety to parents, have a close relationship with their families and are very aware of culture and tradition. Eastern people view western people as rude, loud and too outgoing.

In a failure situation such as the next great baker a group of Eastern decent people could compete against a group of western decent people. When a baking product failed an assessment of the situation would occur to explain what happened that contributed to the failure. The Eastern decent group would state that their group failed as a whole. Each person would do self reflection, self blame and then attempt to seek an inner balance to seek peace within. The Western decent group could state the cause was due to individual failure. They would base this upon having a bad disposition, poor leadership skills, poor decision making, lacking aptitude or having a bad attitude. People of Eastern decent use situational attribution while people of Western decent use dispositional attribution for explanations of situations and behaviors.