attitudes

Question 1

what is an attitude?

Answer 1

a positive, negative or mixed reaction to a stimulus

Question 2

how are attitudes formed?

Answer 2

• formation is quick, automatic & implicit
• can be learned through: evaluative conditioning, associations, operant conditioning (through rewards) and observational learning

Question 3

what is the difference between explicit and implicit attitudes?

Answer 3

explicit = something you aware of/ controllable

implicit = unaware/ uncontrollable

Question 4

what is the theory of planned behavior

Answer 4

• attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms & perceived control to influence a persons actions
• used to predict & understand behavior
• individuals act rationally according to their specific behavior + social norms + degree of control -> behavior relation to attitude

Question 5

what is persuasion?

Answer 5

act of changing someone’s mind; process of bringing attitude change by communication

Question 6

what are the factors of a message that contribute to persuasion?

Answer 6

1. source: credibility, like-ability, expertise, sleeper effect -> non credible source can changes someone’s opinion if they only remember the message
2. message: order of arguments, length, type of appeal
3. audience: gender, culture, beliefs, self-monitoring, personality

Question 7

what is the dual-process route to persuasion? (elaboration likelihood model)

Answer 7

central vs peripheral route

central = when a person thinks carefully about a communication & is influenced by strength of arguments - 3 steps: reception, acceptance, elaboration

peripheral = when a person if influenced by superficial cures

route taken depends on motivation, cognitive capacity & mood of audience

Question 8

Garcia-Marques & Mackie (message repetition)

Answer 8

• predicted that p’s unfamiliar with the message would process the message analytically and vice versa
• found that p’s in no repetition condition exhibited greater elaboration than p’s in repetition conditions
• procedural priming (pp) = p’s knew in advance what is going to happen in the procedure
• exp 2 eliminated pp

Question 9

what is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 9

• when there is a difference between attitude & behavior, discomfort is created, so attitude is changed to match behavior

Question 10

what are the 4 steps to cog dissonance

Answer 10

1. inconsistency
2. the action is freely chosen
3. uncomfortable physical arousal
4. connection between arousal & inconsistency (between attitude & action)

Question 11

what are strategies to reduce cog dissonance? (5)

Answer 11

• change the attitude (i dont really need to be on a diet)
• change perception of behavior (i hardly ate any ice cream)
• add consonant cognitions (ice cream can be very nutritious)
• minimize the imp of conflict
• reduce perceived choice

Question 12

how do rewards relate to cog dissonance?

Answer 12

the lower the reward, the more likely it is that someone will change their opinion (& vice versa)

the small reward is insufficient justification for performing an attitude-discrepant behavior

Question 13

what is the self-perception theory

Answer 13

we gain knowledge of ourselves only by making self-attributions - we infer our own attitudes from our own behavior

Question 14

what are 3 persuasion/compliance techniques?

Answer 14

foot-in-the-door = ask someone for a simple small request 1st (they agree) so they are more likely to do the 2nd real request

door-in-the-face = ask someone for a unreasonable/large request 1st (they disagree) so the 2nd real request seems better

lowballing = get someone to agree with request but then increase size of request by revealing hidden costs

Question 15

heuristic-systematic model

Answer 15

2 basic routes or model of information processing : systematic & heuristic

systematic = more thoughtful, deliberate & analytical (central route to persuasion)

heuristic = more reflexive & automatic (peripheral route to persuasion)