While in grad school (studying education and psychology) I came across a lot of very interesting ideas in modern psych, that relate (imo) to Buddhism, dharma practice, and life in general. I wonder if some of you with an interest (or background) in psychology would be interested in discussing things of this sort?
An example- the fundamental attribution error
Wiki's description is pretty good:
In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect) is a theory describing cognitive tendency to predominantly over-value dispositional, or personality-based, explanations (i.e., attributions or interpretations) for the observed behaviors of others, thus under-valuing or acknowledging the potentiality of situational attributions or situational explanations for the behavioral motives of others. In other words, people predominantly presume that the actions of others are indicative of the "kind" of person they are, rather than the kind of situations that compels their behavior.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamenta ... tion_error
Put another way, when people behave some way there is a tendency to attribute their behavior to a self, fixed personality traits, rather then to aggregate patterns that have arisen due to situational conditions.
There is no self, yet humans usually assume there is, automaticaly.
