Good Intentions...Bad Narcolepsy

Okay, have you ever been in class and for some reason, whatever it may be, you start to feel sleepy and start nodding off? Well regardless if I had a good night's sleep, the subject is interesting, or I am near the front of a classroom, I have a terrible tendency of nodding off in class.

Anyone who has ever taken a class with me could probably name a few times where they've seen me nod off. This can especially be said for my morning classes. I can't even begin to count the times I've been in one of my classes and was paying attention, then suddenly I felt drowsy, followed by the inner monologue of telling myself to stay awake or to start drawing doodles or to sit up, then my eyes get heavy and BAM 15 seconds or more have passed. I'll kinda go "damn it..." then look around to see if anyone saw me, then go back to listening to the lecture. I always feel bad about doing that, because I know the professor must HATE seeing a student fall asleep in front of them...I know I would. Which is why I think I qualify most as the Second-Row Sleeper in conjunction with the photo up above.

When I look at my behavior following Kelley's Covariation Theory, I've come to realize that my dozing off in classes is a personal attribution (Kelley, 1967). My Consensus is low, because I hardly ever notice anyone else nodding off in most of the classes I've taken here. Additionally, my Distinctiveness is low as well because I nod off in most of my classes, not just the morning ones. Furthermore, because I will nod off in the same classes on different days, I also have a high Consistency. Overall, I have low Consensus, low Distinctiveness, and high Consistency which all indicate a personal attribution instead of a Stimulus or Circumstance attribution.

Anywho, feel free to try and pin yourself as one of the stereotyped students in the photo or create a new one that should be included. Also, on the topic of dozing off in class, I felt I should include the link to this video because I know it happens to everyone. The topics discussed are definitely not the same for everyone, but I would at least like to think that other people have inner monologues with themselves in class. Also I'm gonna hope that no one gets offended by the video, because I find it rather funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7hzcLZ7uRc

PS--I just applied the false-consensus effect by assuming that everyone in the class will find this funny, which I hope you all do...because I sure do. The false-consensus effect being the tendency for one to think others share the same opinions, attributes, and behaviors based on their own (Krueger, 1998; Ross, Greene, & House, 1977)




Kelley, H. H. (1967). Attribution in social psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192-238.

Krueger, J. (1998). On the perception of social consensus. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 30, 163-240.

Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The false consensus phenomenon: An attributional bias in self-perception and social-perception processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279-301.