Individual differences exist between people and it is the cornerstone of modern psychology. It refers to the psychology of the person and the psychological differences between people and their similarities. It is important because people’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. The world that is perceived is the world that is behaviorally important. One of the major determinants of how and why an individual initiates and sustains certain behaviors is based on the concepts of sensation and perception. “Sensation refers to the physical stimulation of the senses—our ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch” (Berelson & Steiner, 1964, p. 87). There are many internal and external factors that influence the way in which we view the world around us. The factors that influence our perception is the perceiver, the target and the situation. Our culture and individual differences play a similar role in a person’s perception. An attribution is the casual observation we make for an observed behavior. There are internal and external attributions. External attributions are when we explain a behavior by referring to the situation. Internal attributions are explaining someone’s behavior using the internal characteristic of the individual. “Not only how we make attributions about other people has a big influence on how we react to them, but it also has an influence on our own behavior” (Blascovich & Mendes, 2000).
A situation