Attitudes Flashcards
Attitude
A favorable or unfavorable evaluation reaction towards something or someone, exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings, or intended behaviour
Persuasion
Attempt to change evaluation
Prejudice
Negative attitudes about a group and it’s members
Explain the Tripatile model (ABCs)
Your attitudes can have all these different aspects to it
- Affect (emotion, feelings)
- Behaviour (Actions)
- Cognition (thoughts)
What is spreading activation - linked to one’s attitudes
Attitudes are received my memory
- Your grandfather liked coffee, so you like coffee because of this
Classical conditioning of attitudes
The pairing of stimuli, so that previously innocuous stimulus gains a new response in an organism (or person)
e.g neutral words (e.g google) can gain meaning
What happens when you pair a behaviour + reward
Increases behaviour, strengthens attitudes
What happens when you pair a behaviour + punishment
Decreases behaviour, weaken attitudes
Explain the difference in classical and instrumental conditioning
Classic conditioning:
Negative event + group = negative evaluation
(You’re not doing anything)
Instrumental conditioning:
Nasty behaviour to group x + reward = negative evaluation
(You’re doing something)
What is the modelling of attitudes
Via the observation of others
e.g children often watch their parents more than they listen to them
Explain social comparison
Looking to others to validate our social reality
Do genetic factors play a factor in whether we inherit attitudes?
Maybe…
There’s a suggestion through research that there could be a heritable component to attitudes
When do attitudes predict behaviour?
The more specific the attitude is, the more it will predict specific behaviour
What is the theory of reasoned action
What others think about whether you should engage in behaviour
Why is expertise a strong persuader
Persuaded by the “expert”
If we agree, see commicator AS “expert”
Why is trustworthiness a strong persuader
Arguing your own self-interest
Why is attractiveness a strong persuader
Attractive people tend to have more say
Why is a rapid speaker a strong persuader
People who tend to speak more quietly gives the impression that they know what they are talking about
What is the “sleeper” effect?
Over time, remember message, but not source
Link between the two becomes weakened (often severed) over time
i.e delayed increase in impact of persuasive message (counter-intuitive)
Why is communication effects a persuasive message
Intent not obvious, we tend to not trust people who look like they’re trying to manipulate you
Consider both sides of issues
Explain the two components to the cognitive response analyses
- What do people think about when exposed to persuasion attempt
- How do these thoughts and mental processes - > persuasion?
What is the Central Route in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM)
When used: When important, interesting, personally viewed relevant message
What happens: Cognitive elaborations (careful information processing)
Result: persuaded by message strengthening
What is cognitive dissonance
When tension is created b/c we experienced an inconsistency in our;
- beliefs/attitudes
- beliefs/attitudes vs. behaviour
How does dissonance work?
(Name 3 different ways)
- Change attitudes (to be consistent with behaviour) - “I dislike smoking”
- Change behaviour (to be consistent with behaviour) - “doesn’t smoke”
- Maintain both the attitude and the behaviour, but introduce an additional cognition (to restore Constance between these attitudes and behaviours)
What is post-choice dissonance
Our own decisions can produce dissonance
What makes self-perception theory different then dissoance theory?
There is no motivation (or tension)
Instead we observe our own behaviour when making attributions. We infer our own attitudes from our own behaviour
When are the times that self-perception works
- Attitudes are unimportant
- Attitudes are not anchored in internal belief structure
