Question

The professor-student relationship in which the student blames bad grades on a teacher’s strictness and the professor blames a student’s bad grades on the student’s laziness is an example of_________-.

Answer 1

Answer:

Diffusion of responsibility.

Explanation:

Diffusion of responsibility is a sociopsychological phenomenon that occurs in a group of people which is sharing the responsibility of the outcome of particular actions or processes. It often occurs when it is not possible to identify who exactly is responsible for which elements of the outcome; when the outcome is subject to efforts from all participants of the process.  

Here, both a teacher and a student are responsible for the quality of the outcome of the educational efforts. Meanwhile, when negative outcome (bed grade) occurs, each of them is psychologically prone to place responsibility on another and thus diffusion of responsibility takes place.