Observer's Vantage Point Research Articles

See it from My Point of View: Videotape and Attributions in Happy and Distressed Couples

Two studies addressed the following questions: (1) Do husbands and wives from happy and distressed marriages differ in how they perceive and make causal attributions about their own and their spouse's behaviors, and (2) does alteration of visual perspective through videotape alter biased perceptual and attributional evaluations? A total of 58 married couples discussed problems in their relationships. Discussions of distressed couples were videotaped from three vantage points. Some subjects saw no videotape. Others viewed videotapes of their discussions from their own, their spouses', or an observer's vantage point. Spouses made perceptual and attributional ratings concerning their own and their partners' behaviors before and after the videotape intervention. Results indicate that while there were few differences between happy spouses' perceptions and attributions about themselves and their partners, distressed spouses' ratings of both themselves and their partners were distorted in a self-serving manner. ...