Final answer:
The argument over whether behavior is more influenced by temporary external or enduring inner influences pertains to the person-situation controversy. This highlights different psychological perspectives on behavior, such as situationism versus dispositions, and includes phenomena like the fundamental attribution error and the actor-observer bias.
Step-by-step explanation:
The debate over whether people's behavior is more strongly influenced by temporary external influences or by enduring inner influences best characterizes the person-situation controversy. This issue lies at the intersection of situational and dispositional influences on behavior, with situationism suggesting that behavior is determined by the environment, and dispositions holding that behavior is determined by internal factors. The fundamental attribution error involves overemphasizing dispositional factors when observing others' behaviors, while the actor-observer bias highlights a tendency to attribute others' actions to their dispositions and our own actions to our situations. Social psychology as a field prioritizes the role of situational factors.
Self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external factors, which aims to preserve our self-esteem. Each of these concepts contributes to our understanding of how we interpret our own behaviors and those of others, taking into account the complex interplay between internal and external influences.