Lay people tend to over-rely on dispositional explanations for behavior and ignore the power of situational influences, a perspective called the fundamental attribution error. Human behavior is largely influenced by our social roles, norms, and scripts.

Social psychology is the subfield of psychology that studies the power of the situation to influence individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Psychologists categorize the causes of human behavior as those due to internal factors, such as personality, or those due to external factors, such as cultural and other social influences.

social psychology — field of psychology that examines how people impact or affect each other, with particular focus on the power of the situation. social role — socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group. fundamental attribution error — tendency to overemphasize internal factors as attributions for behavior and underestimate the power of the situation. internal factor — internal attribute of a person, such as personality traits or temperament.