[fromtheotherside]

Victim Mentality, (taken from wiki)

Psychological research into attribution began with the work of Fritz Heider during the early years of the 20th century. In his 1920's dissertation Heider addressed a fundamental problem of phenomenology; why do perceivers attribute the properties of an object they sense, such as its color, texture and so on, to the object itself when those properties exist only in their minds? Heider's answer was to consider the object being perceived and the physical media by which it is sensed – the ticking of a watch causing vibrations in the air for instance – to be quite distinct, and that what the perceiver's senses do is to reconstruct an object from its effect on the media, a process he called attribution. "Perceivers faced with sensory data thus see the perceptual object as 'out there', because they attribute the sensory data to their underlying causes in the world."

Heider subsequently extended his ideas to the question of how people perceive each other, and in particular how they account for each other's behavior, person perception. Motives played an important role in Heider's model: "motives, intentions, sentiments … the core processes which manifest themselves in overt behavior". Heider distinguished between personal causality – such as offering someone a drink – and impersonal causality such as sneezing, or leaves falling. Later attribution theorists have tended to see Heider's fundamental distinction as being between "person (or internal) causes and situation (or external) causes of behavior.

 

There are two types of "victim mentalities"

1. Explanatory attribution: People make explanatory attributions to understand the world around them and to seek reasons for a particular event. 

Ex. If Kermit's car tire is punctured he may attribute that to a hole in the road: by making attributions to the poor condition of the highway, he can make sense of the event without any discomfiture that may in reality have been the result of his bad driving. 

2. Interpersonal attribution (many ex members fall under this category) Sometime, when your action or motives for the action are questioned, you need to explain the reasons for you action, interspersonal attributions happen when the causes of the events involve two or more individuals.

Ex. Grouch had a fight with the Cookie Monster because C.M wouldn't share his cookies.  So when Big Bird asked what the fight was about, Grouch says its because C.M wouldn't share his cookies even though he asked politely, so to make himself the victim, and C.M the bad guy he also fails to mention the fact that Grouch had already asked for a cookie 5 mins before that and again 5 mins before and again and again, and had practically eaten all of C.M's Cookies.  

 

Ex. For ex members:  Cindy L. went with her friend to a church bible study, because her friend Robert D. really enjoyes going and was always bragging to her about her church.  So Cindy went there and studied and really liked what she heard.  Every one there were nice just like Christians should be and showed her love.  But when she went home she thought she might look up the church to learn some more about it.  She saw slanderous remarks and got angry.  Next thing you know it she goes on the forum and starts leaving angry words and says her friend tricked and they tried to brain washer her into joining the Church, but she fails to point out the fact she came willingly and no one handcuffed her into coming, but makes it the church and her friends fault and they are the bad guys.  

So there are two types which one are you?