Attitude formation and change Flashcards
An evaluation of an object along a positive-negative dimension is
Attitude
Consciously accessible attitudes that are controllable and easy to report is
explicit attitudes
Unconscious associations between objects and evaluative responses is
implicit attitudes
Attitudes are made up of …..component
Cognitive, affective and conative
Those attitudes based primarily on people’s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object are referred to as
Cognitively based attitudes
If you buy a car based on how durable and fast it is and not how nice it looks we can see that your attitude is
Cognitively based
Attitudes based on people’s feelings and values is called
affectively based attitudes
Humans are born with attitude, true or false?
False
Attitudes are acquired through…
social learning and personal experience
A new learned response by linking two stimuli is called
Classical conditioning
instrumental conditioning is also referred to as
operant conditioning
When individuals receive social approval for their attitudes and behaviors, these become reinforced and strengthened. What conditioning is this?
instrumental conditioning
media exposure influencing attitude is an example of
observational learning
A parent teaching their child to be aggressive by instructing him or her to hit back when hit is a typical example of…
direct instructions
Attitudes formed through experience are ….. than those derived from others through indirect experience.
stronger
Attitudes formed through indirect experience are more ……. to change.
resistant
Two functions of attitude ….
Knowledge and self expression
A rating scale used to measure, opinions, attitudes, or behaviors is called
Likert scale
A likert scale consists of a statement or a question, followed by a series of about how many answer statements
5 or 7
The University of Ghana’s course and lecturer evaluation is a typical example of what type of scale?
Likert Scale
Social attitudes always predict behavior. True or false?
False
Strong attitudes are better predictors of behavior than weak attitudes. True or false?
True
An important factor in determining attitude intensity is
Vested interest
Accessible attitudes are less likely to determine behavior….true or false?
false
We can understand how attitudes guide behavior using ….
theories of reasoned thought and planned behavior
Efforts to change others’ attitude thy itch the use of various kinds of messages is called?
Persuasion
Attitude change is assumed to follow a series of stages namely…..
paying attention, comprehending and accepting the message
Four factors that influence persuasion are…
the communicator
the message
the medium
the audience
Credibility is based on two factors namely….
Expertise and trustworthiness
The amount of knowledge a communicator is assumed to possess is
expertise
the perceived intention of the communicator to deceive is
trustworthiness
The delayed effect that a low credible source has on attitude change is called
sleeper effect
Overtime, people forget where they heard a message from and are bony influenced by the message content only. True or false?
True
It has been suggested that and attractive communicator can be more persuasive than an unattractive one. True or false?
True
Similarity is not crucial in enhancing persuasion, true or false?
false
Less intelligent people are easier to persuade. True or false?
true
People with higher social approval are easier to persuade. True or false?
True…basically people pleasers
Those with moderate self esteem are easier to persuade than those with low self esteem because they do not pay attention enough to be persuaded.True or false?
True
Persons with high self esteem are easy/difficult to persuade?
difficult
Smaller groups lead to greater persuasion than bigger ones. True or false?
False
The youth are more susceptible to persuasion than the old. True or false?
True
Happy people are more easily persuaded. True or false?
True
When you make a small reasonable request after your target agrees to the request however, you follow up with a larger request what is this technique of persuasion called?
Foot in the door
first, you are offered a very reasonable deal, and when you accept it, the deal is changed for the worse but you have come too far to resist. What kind of persuasion technique is this?
Low ball technique
The advance knowledge that you have become a target of persuasion is called
forewarning
The tendency to direct your attention away from information that challenges your existing attitudes and behavior is
Selective avoidance
Negative reactions to threat to one’s personal freedom is
reactance
The theory focuses on the ways in which particular beliefs or attitudes are either constant or inconsistent with one another is called
Cognitive dissonance
Dissonance theory emphasizes
the psychological comfort/ discomfort of the individual
Smoking is harmful and I don’t smoke. What is this person experiencing?
Consonance
When people behave in ways that threaten their self image, it is upsetting and generates….
dissonance
When you must choose between two attractive alternatives, the rejected option generates
dissonance
When we behave in ways inconsistent with our values we experience
dissonance
The theory that describes and predicts how how you spend much of your time rationalizing your behavior rather than actually engaging in rational actions is called?
Dissonance theory
“Smoking relaxes me” …one uses excuses or new cognitions to justify their behavior. This reduces dissonance, true or false?
True
I don’t need to stop smoking, the data on its dangers are inconclusive, it is not harmful. This is an addict’s way of justifying their behavior through
changing one dissonant cognition
A technique for reducing dissonance in which the importance of attitudes or behavior that are inconsistent with each other is cognitively reduced is called
trivialization
If you say you have a weight problem but you do not exercise, you may feel…. so instead you say you already have an active life so no need to exercise. What dissonance reducing technique is this?
Trivialization
Where you convince yourself that you are not freely choosing to engage in a discrepant behavior “i have no choice but to smoke”, what form of dissonance reducing technique is this?
Reducing perceived choice
You can reduce dissonance by changing ….
the discrepant behavior
Many instances in our lives where we do or say things contrary to our beliefs leading to dissonance. This is called?
forced compliance
When you have little justification and therefore cannot explain away your actions, dissonance will be
more intense
Strong firms of coercion undermine dissonance. True or false?
True
