attitudes and social cognition Flashcards
what is an attitude?
persons evaluate of various aspects of their social world
attitudes are preferences regarding an attitude object (what an attitude is about)
what are ambivalent attitudes?
mixed, being both positive and negative
what are values?
more broad than attitudes, influence behaviour through influence on attitudes
enduring, evaluative beliefs about general aspects of life
what are ideologies
interrelated and widely shared sets of beliefs that typically relate to social or political contexts
more general than attitudes
tripartite model of attitudes (ABC)
affect - emotional reaction
behaviour - behavioural tendencies
cognition - beliefs
criticisms of ABC model
only defines behaviour as inherent part of attitude
does not look at how behaviour is related to how people think and feel about attitude objects
what is attitude complexity
number of dimensions along which an attitude object is evaluated
attitude formation - Katz (1960)
1) knowledge function
2) utilitarian function
3) value expression function
4) ego defensive function
what is the knowledge function
attitudes function as schemas to help us make sense of complex world
focus on important characteristics of attitude object
utilitarian function
attitudes help us obtain rewards and avoid punishment
value expressive function
allow people to express their deep seated values
ego defensive function
can protect us from psychological threats
what is the mere exposure effect
being exposed repeatedly to a person or object can cause people to form more positive attitudes towards them
however, prolonged exposure ceases to have an effect and can have opposite effect
factors affecting attitude formation
innate factors
- genetic factors play a role in development (twin studies)
- diverse attitudes tend to be organised by political conservatism, which seems to be heritable
attitude consistency and balance
- when attitudes are consistent with each other, they are in a state of balance and form a coherent whole or unit
- if we have a positive attitude to an object, we will form positive attitudes to objects positively related to it
social representations - the social formation of attitudes
theory that beliefs about social world are formed through social interaction
criticism of social representation theory
provides theory but not account of how this works
confirmation bias
implicit and explicit attitudes
implicit - unconscious
explicit - conscious
what are the direct measures of attitudes
attitude scales - series of questions to gauge someone’s attitudes (quick, inexpensive, online, rely on honesty)
observational studies - can show actual behaviour in real life situations (high effort, complicated ethically)
indirect measures of attitudes
bogus pipeline procedure - person attached to bogus pipeline, told it can detect true attitudes, people are afraid so are more honest
electromyography (EMG) - measures electrical activity of muscles in face, allows examination of subtle movements not noticeable with naked eye
ERPs observed using EEG - well suited to capturing rapid and short term neural responses to stimuli
implicit association test (IAT) - PPs asked to press different key to match concept during series of trials, tests people’s implicit preferences for some stimuli
what is the APE model
theoretical account of implicit-explicit duality
implicit and explicit attitudes are the behavioural outcomes of separate mental processes
implicit evaluations are outcomes of associative processes (activation of mental associations on basis of feature similarity and spatiotemporal contiguity)
explicit evaluations are outcomes of propositional processes (validation of activated information based on logical consistency)
to what extent do attitudes predict behaviour
predicted by a variety of factors
situational factors - e.g., expressing political attitudes at a rally
attitudinal factors - stronger the attitude, the more likely it will influence behaviour
what is the theory of planned behaviour
several factors determine behavioural intentions concerning behaviour
factors:
- subjective norms
- attitudes towards the behaviour
- perceived behavioural control
people decide to behave in a particular way because of a sequence of rational thought processes
what is the theory of reasoned action
predecessor to theory of planned behaviour, so is very similar
key difference - did not take perceived behavioural control into account as predictor of intentions
what is cognitive dissonance
unpleasant psychological state which occurs when people notice that their attitudes and behaviours are inconsistent with each other
to deal with dissonance, Festinger argued that people change the way they think rather than their behaviour
what did Cooper and Fazio argue? (conditions for cognitive dissonance)
individual has to:
1) realise the inconsistency has negative effects
2) take responsibility for the action
3) experience psychological arousal
4) attribute the above feeling to the action
how does hypocrisy tie in with cognitive dissonance? (Aronson et al)
if people are aware they are publicly advocating an attitude by behaving inconsistently, they can experience strong dissonance
what is embodied social cognition?
a research area that broadly shows that bodily states influence attitudes, social perception and emotion
proprioception (perception of bodily position) plays fundamental role in thoughts, feelings and actions
what is the social perception theory
- people become aware of their own attitudes by looking at what they do (look at own behaviour and infer own attitudes from that behaviour)
- relates to situations in which individual’s attitude/cognitive dissonance is weak
