Attitudes

Question 1

attitude

Answer 1

a positive or negative reaction towards people or stimuli (e.g. attraction/prejudice)

Question 2

types of attitudes

Answer 2

positive, indifferent, negative

Question 3

issue with attitudes

Answer 3

they may often be incorrect, are usually biased and make us more resistant to change

Question 4

ego-defensive function of attitudes

Answer 4

used to protect one’s self-image/ego, to be able to “live with oneself”
(we tend to like things we are good at - I am bad at this game = negative opinion of the game)

Question 5

value-expressive function of attitudes

Answer 5

used to maintain one’s identity, stems from wanting people to see one’s “best side”, satisfaction comes from expression of own values
(forming an attitude to express a value - climate change is an important issue ⇒ attitude on anti-climate change stimuli would be negative (& vice versa))

Question 6

adjustment function of attitudes

Answer 6

most reward and least punishment is the goal
(we tend to like things that bring us “good” (reward) (& vice versa))

Question 7

knowledge function of attitudes

Answer 7

stems from the need for understanding and clarity, the search for meaning e.g. stereotypes
(forming an attitude towards a group of people based on previous information = helping one make sense of the world)

Question 8

self-report measure of attitudes

Answer 8

attitude scales e.g. Likert scale

Question 9

covert measures of attitudes

Answer 9

EMG (records facial muscles activity);
IAT (measuring speed at which people respond to pairs of concepts;
bogus pipeline (phony lie-detector used to get respondents to give honest answers on sensitive topics

Question 10

evaluative conditioning

Answer 10

we form an atittude towards a neutral stimulus because it is associated with something/someone positive/negative

Question 11

classical conditioning

Answer 11

a type of learning in which an initially neutral stimulus - theconditioned stimulus(CS) - when paired with a stimulus that elicits a reflex response - theunconditioned stimulus(US) - results in a learned, or conditioned, response (CR) when the CS is presented
e.g. Pavlov, just a reaction to a stimulus

Question 12

theory of planned behavior

Answer 12

1. behavior is influenced less by general attitudes than by attitudes toward a specific behavior;
2. behavior is also influenced by subjective norms - our beliefs about what others think we should do;
3. attitudes give rise to behavior only when we perceive the behavior to be within our control (PBC);
4. although attitudes contribute to an intention to behave in a particular manner, people often cannot or do not follow through on their intentions.

Question 13

LaPiere’s study of attitudes

Answer 13

In a classic study, LaPierre (1934) drove through the U.S. with a Chinese couple.
They stopped at over 250 restaurants and hotels and were refused service only once.
Several months later, the owners were surveyed on whether they would serve Chinese people. The response was overwhelmingly negative, 92 percent of those surveyed said that they would not. In this case, clearly, their behavior gave less evidence of racial bias than their expressed attitudes did.

Question 14

level of correspondence

Answer 14

attitudes correlate with behavior only when attitude measures closely match the behavior in question

Question 15

influences on the strength of attitudes

Answer 15

= amount of information + how the information was acquired

= more stable and predictive of behavior when born of direct personal experience rather than secondhand information

= strengthened by an attack against it from a persuasive message (more confidence appears when successfully resisting change of the attitude)

= strong attitudes come to mind easily

Question 16

cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 16

inconsistent cognitions arouse psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce

Question 17

insufficient justification

Answer 17

when people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without receiving a large reward

Question 18

insufficient deterrence

Answer 18

when people refrain from engaging in a desirable activity even when only mild punishment is threatened
(the less severe the punishment threatened, the greater the attitude change produced)

Question 19

justifying difficult decisions

Answer 19

we rationalize whatever we decide by exaggerating positive features of the chosen alternative

Question 20

justifying effort

Answer 20

we alter our attitudes to justify our suffering

Question 21

4 steps necessary for arousal and reduction of dissonance

Answer 21

1. unwanted negative consequence
2. feeling of personal responsibility
   
   1. freedom of choice
   2. potential consequences foreseeable at the time of decision-making
3. physiological arousal
4. emotional attribution for the arousal

Question 22

ways to reduce dissonance (5)

Answer 22

• changing one’s attitude;
• changing one’s perception of the behavior;
• adding consonant cognitions;
• minimizing importance of conflict;
• reducing perceived choice

Question 23

self-affirmation

Answer 23

if a person acts in a way that contradicts their attitudes, if someone then praises them, they do not have to change their attitude to feel good and not feel dissonance

Question 24

self-perception theory

Answer 24

our attitudes come from what we do, if we do something different, our attitude changes

Question 25

impression management

Answer 25

changing one’s attitudes to attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event by regulating and controlling information in social interaction