8.02 Social Cognition Flashcards
Attitude
tendency to respond positively or negatively to a certain situation
3 components of attitude: affective component
how a person feels toward something (emotional)
3 components of attitude: behavior component
the action a person takes toward something
3 components of attitude: cognitive component
how a person thinks about something
specific attitude
a clearly defined attitude is more likely to be followed with behavior
strong attitude
more likely to predict behavior
salience attitude
urgency of an attitude predicts behavior
persuasion
changing a person’s beliefs or actions through pleading
target audience
people intended to receive the message of persuasion
message
content of the argument
source
communicator of the message
medium
form through which a person receives a message
central-route processing
people attend to the content of the message
peripheral-route processing
people attend to clues outside the message
dissonance
person’s behavior does not correspond with her attitudes
3 ways of lessoning dissonance
- change behavior to match attitude
- change attitude to justify behavior
- form a new attitude to justify behavior
attribution
process of explaining causes of behavior and events
situational attribution
cause of behavior is from an external source
dispositional attribution
cause of behavior comes from within the individual
fundamental attribution error
explains people’s actions according to their personality, not the situation
self-serving bias
positive events are said to be due to the individual’s effort; negative events are blamed on others
just-world hypothesis
we all get what we bring upon ourselves
