Attitude & Social Cognition Flashcards
What is Social Psychology
Examines the influence of social processes on the way people think, feel, and behave.
What is an attitude?
- An association between an object an an evaluation.
2. Involves positive or negative impressions
What three components does an attitude contain?
- Cognitive - Exams assess knowledge
- Emotional - I get anxious about exams
- Behavioral - I studied hard for my exam.
What are the ways an attitude can vary?
- Strength - durability and impact
- Importance - personal relevance and psychological impact.
- Accessibility - ease of activation
- Complexity - specific vs. general
- Ambivalence - negative and positive feelings.
- Coherence - internal consistency.
What is a implicit attitude?
An association between attitude objects and feelings about them that regulate thought and behavior unconsciously and automatically.
In regard to attitudes, what is cognitive complexity?
The intricacy of thoughts about different attitude objects. (varies with both gender and culture)
In regard to attitudes, what is attitudinal ambivalence?
The extent to which an attitude is internally consistent. (We should like things we believe have positive consequences.)
In regard to attitudes, what is attitudinal coherence?
The extent to which an attitude is internally consistent.
Under what circumstances are attitudes likely to predict behavior.
- The attitude and the behavior are specific
- Environmental reinforcement matches attitude
- Important others share the same attitude
- Attitudes are implicit (unconscious)
- Attitude is strong.
- Attitude has developed from personal experience
What is persuasion? What are its components?
The deliberate attempt to change an attitude held by another. Has multiple components…
- Source
- Message
- Channel
- Context
- Receiver
‘Source’ is a component of persuasion, discuss.
Persuasive sources are credible, attractive, likable, powerful and similar to the recipient.
‘Message’ is a component of persuasion, discuss.
Persuasive messages match recipients level of consideration of the topic.
‘Channel’ is a component of persuasion, discuss.
Persuasive channels of delivery are personal (face to face).
‘Context’ is a component of persuasion, discuss
Messages should be delivered at the right time and in the right place.(attitude inoculation)
What is attitude inoculation?
involves building up the receivers resistance to a persuasive appeal by presenting weak arguments for it or forewarning against it.
‘Receiver’ is a component of persuasion, discuss
Persuasion is likely if the receiver has weaker attitudes and/or is attending to the message.
What is the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion?
Suggests that there are two routes through which people can be persuaded.
- Central route - recipients to consider arguments carefully to change attitudes.
- Peripheral route - appeal to emotions. classical conditioning and simple repetition.
What is conservation psychology?
The scientific study of the reciprocal relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with particular focus on how to encourage conservation of the natural world.
What is the phenomena of cognitive dissonance?
Refers to a perceived discrepancy between an attitude and a behavior that results in a state of psychological tension similar to anxiety.
Cognitive dissonance motivates the individual to reduce tension by?
- Changing the behavior
- Changing the attitude
- Changing the perception of the inconsistent information.
Post decision regret is a phenomena associated with cognitive dissonance, explain.
Worrying about whether the right decision has been made or not is the basis of post decision regret.
What is post-decision dissonance reduction?
Dissonance reduction after the fact.
How do self-perception theory and self-presentation account for the phenomena of cognitive dissonance?
- Holds that individuals infer their attitudes, emotions and other internal states by observing their own behavior
- The attitudes that people report depend on their behavior, behavior changes, so to does attitudes.
Can it be said that cognitive dissonance is a culturally universal phenomenom?
Dissonance is not universal, it varies across cultures.
What is social cognition?
The process by which people make sense of themselves, others, social interactions, and relationships.
What is used to understand social cognition?
Cognitive models such as schemas, connectionist models and parallel processing.