Attitudes and Emotions Flashcards
definition of attitudes
relatively enduring sets of beliefs, feelings and intentions towards an object, person, event or symbol
components of attitudes
affective component: feelings of like/dislike
cognitive component: beliefs held about the object
behavioural component: intention of behaviour in accordance to attitude
attitude formation
- classical conditioning
- mere exposure
classical conditioning
- Start: Unconditioned stimulus (US) evokes unconditioned response (UR)
Example: food (US) salivation (UR) - Conditioning: Repeated pairing of unconditioned stimulus (US) with conditioned stimulus (CS)
Example: food (US) + bell (CS) presented together
Bell originally a neutral stimulus, but not after conditioning - Result: Conditioned stimulus (CS) Conditioned response (CR)
Example: bell (CS) salivation (CR)
Bell produces the CR, which is the same as the UR (salivation) - Start: Unconditioned stimulus (US) evokes unconditioned response (UR)
Example: Family at Xmas (US) Relaxation (UR) - Conditioning: Repeated pairing of unconditioned stimulus (US) with conditioned stimulus (CS)
Example: Family at Xmas (US) + product (CS) presented together
Product originally a neutral stimulus, but not after conditioning - Result: Conditioned stimulus (CS) Conditioned response (CR)
Example: Product (CS) relaxation (CR)
Product produces the CR, which is the same as the UR (relaxation)
mere exposure
When a stimulus starts as neutral (or slightly positive)
Then, the more often you see it the more you like it
Mere exposure effect might even be larger when it is subliminal (5ms) …
Applies to people and advertising as well
factors which influence the likelihood that person’s attitude will be consistent with their behaviour
- Knowledge: If you know a lot and it is firsthand knowledge (rather than secondhand) then consistency will be higher
- Personal relevance: More personally relevant = more consistency (relevance = personal investment)
- Attitude accessibility: More accessible = more consistency (easier to bring to mind and act on)
- Behavioural intentions: Behaviour that is intended/planned = more consistency (specific aims to act a certain way)
behaviour affects attitude: self-perception theory (Bem, 1965)
- Theory states that people infer their own attitudes from their behaviour. This means that people would observe themselves similar to how they observe others and look for attributional explanations for behaviour.
- Example: you pick up a muffin every morning on your way to class. You have no previous strong attitude towards muffins but if someone were to ask you what you think of muffins you might remember what you do regularly and conclude that you must like them.
Behaviour affects attitude: cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1987)
Dissonance: unpleasant state; tension that arises when we perceive a discrepancy between:
- Attitudes and behaviours
- Behaviour and self-image
- One attitude and another attitude
Cognitive dissonance theory: dissonance is an adverse state that people are motivated to reduce
Dissonance cannot typically be reduced as once a behaviour is performed it cannot be taken back but an attitude can be changed.
Festinger and Carlsmith (1959)
Participants induced to do a boring task
Asked participants to tell another participant that the task was fun – lie
Reward for lying: $1 or $20
After the lying and reward: participants rated how they liked the boring task
Participants changed attitude about the task to not boring but enjoyable
But only if they had insufficient justification for telling a lie ($1)
define emotions
From Latin ‘to move’ or ‘to stir-up’
- Display of feelings
- Relatively brief
six basic emotions
- Disgust
- Fear
- Joy
- Surprise
- Sadness
- Anger
emotions and evolution (Darwin, 1872)
- Human expressions of emotions evolved not learned
- Universally expressed and recognised
- If expressions of emotions are biologically determined then they are the same regardless of culture/region
- Debate: evolved vs learned psychological constructs?
families of emotion examples
Basic emotions (evolved, universally expressed and understood)
- Sadness, joy, surprise, fear, anger and disgust
Self-conscious emotions
- Shame, pride etc
Moral emotions
- Contempt, empathy etc
What about emotions without clear facial expressions?
- Boredom, guilt, shame etc
Overall, many facial expressions of emotions are recognisable from people around the world
Zelenski & Larson (2000)
Which emotions are more common?
Freud claimed ‘humankind’s common mental state is unhappiness’
Method:
- 82 university students
- 3 short emotion questionnaires a day
- 1 month duration
role of amygdala in emotion
location: temporal lobe, front of hippocampus
part of the limbic system
important role in expression of conditional emotional responses
focal point between sensory systems and systems for behavioural, autonomic and hormonal components of conditioned emotional responses
role of orbitofrontal cortex in emotion
location: top of frontal lobes
receives information from sensory systems and regions of frontal lobes that control behaviour
communicates with limbic system
damage to amygdala
- Associated with lack of fear responses when confronted with typically fear-evoking stimuli
- LeDoux (1996) identified 2 routes by which conditioning of fear can occur:
o Link between thalamus and amygdala – ‘quick and dirty’ – carries the emotional content of the conditioning
o Link between thalamus and visual/auditory cortex and amygdala – slower – carries sensory content of the conditioning
damage to orbitofrontal cortex
- The case of Phineas Gage
- Damage to OFC impaired people’s inhibitions and self-concern
- Despite the possession of knowledge about social behaviours, people with OFC impairment have difficulties applying such knowledge in real life
- It has been suggested that connects between somatic states and an appreciation of them are missing
- They also have problems recognising facial and vocal emotional expression
facial feedback hypothesis: Strack et al (1999)
Method:
- Participants instructed to hold pen in mouth either ‘sucking position’ or in ‘teeth condition’ – told they were testing suitability of pens for individuals with hand injury
- Participants then read and rated cartoons
Results:
- Pen held with teeth (facial muscles forming a smile) led to cartoons being rated as more funny compared to when pen held between lips (preventing a smile)
- Supports the idea that our facial expressions can influence our feelings
effects of botox
Botox: paralyses the frown muscle, defeating forehead wrinkles but frown muscles are integral to anger expressions
Reading of sentences slowed when expression of evoked emotion would have required paralysed muscle (angry, sad)
Theories of emotion: James-Lange Theory
- Do we first feel sad, and then we cry?
- Or do we cry, and then we know that we are sad?
- “Common sense says we lose our fortune, are sorry, and weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and run… The hypothesis here to be defended says that this order is incorrect…The more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because
we strike, [and] afraid because we tremble…” – William James (1890, p. 449)
Theories of emotion: Cannon-Bard theory
- Counter to James-Lange
- Emotional and physiological responses are separate, but both occur in direct response to the stimulus
- Same physiological reactions (e.g., racing heartbeat, increased respiration) for different emotions (could be fear, excitement, anger)
Theories of emotion: Schachter and Singer’s two-factor theory
- Emotions are determined jointly by (1) perception of physiology and (2) cognitive assessment of the situation
- Experiment:
o Participants received adrenaline shot (causing increased arousal, faster heart rate etc in all participants)
o How do they interpret that arousal given the context they are in?
o Three groups. Participants were told that the injection: - Group 1: would have no effect
- Group 2: would make them tremble and their heart race (accurate)
- Group 3: would produce symptoms not associated with adrenaline (e.g., numb, itchy, headache)
o Participants put in room with confederate who was: - playing with paper airplanes or a hula hoop!! Wee!
- angry and ripping up questionnaire.
- Results:
o Groups 1 (not told about symptoms) and 3 (told to expect wrong symptoms): - felt happy around happy confederate or angry around angry confederate
- misattributed arousal symptoms (from injection) to emotion
o Group 2: told to expect the correct symptoms - emotion unaffected by confederate
- correctly attributed arousal symptoms to injection
Theories of emotion: Dutton and Aron’s misattribution of arousal paradigm theory
- Participants were required to cross either:
o a wobbly bridge
o a stable/solid bridge.
o Afterwards they rated their physical attraction towards a
target person - Results: Those crossing the wobbly bridge were physiologically more aroused and misattributed that arousal to physical attraction
- Thus they rated the target person as more attractive
