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When Jeanette received a poor grade in her final chemistry exam, she told her friends that it was her instructor's fault because he didn't teach very well. This is an example of __________.

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Final answer:

Jeanette attributing her poor grade to her instructor's teaching abilities rather than her own effort or understanding is an example of an external locus of control and demonstrates a self-serving bias.

Step-by-step explanation:

When Jeanette received a poor grade in her final chemistry exam and she told her friends that it was her instructor's fault because he didn't teach very well, this is an example of external locus of control. It implies that she perceives the control of events as stemming from outside forces rather than her own actions. This is closely related to the concept of attribution, where external attribution refers to an individual blaming external factors for their failures.

Self-serving bias is a common human tendency to attribute our successes to internal factors like ability or effort, and our failures to external factors such as other people or the difficulty of a task. In the scenario with the chemistry exam, Jeanette's behavior also displays self-serving bias as she attributes her poor performance to her instructor's teaching skills rather than her own study habits or understanding of the material

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