Ch 12 Social Psychology Part 2

Question 1

What are attitudes?

Answer 1

An attitude is a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation. Attitudes are often poor predictors of behavior unless the attitude is very specific or very strong
Three components of an attitude are:
1. the affective (emotional) component
2. the behavioral component
3. the cognitive component

Question 2

How do we form attitudes?

Answer 2

We form attitudes through 1. Direct contact with the person, situation, object, or idea, e.g., eating vegetables.
2. Direct instruction from parents or others, e.g., being told smoking is bad, or that you will like a certain movie.
3. Interacting with other people who hold a certain attitude, e.g., if you peer group likes playing a certain sport.
4. Vicarious conditioning: watching the actions and reactions of others to ideas, people, objects, and situations, e.g., you see that you mother is afraid of dogs.

Question 3

What is persuausion?

Answer 3

Persuasion is the process by which one person tries to change the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through argument, pleading, or explanation. The key elements in persuasion are the source of the message, the message itself, the target audience, and the medium.

Question 4

What is the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion?

Answer 4

Elaboration Likelihood Model states that people will either elaborate on the persuasive message or
fail to elaborate on it, the future actions of those who do elaborate are more predictable than those who do not. There are two routes the Central route and the Peripheral route.

Question 5

What is the different Central Route and the Peripheral.

Answer 5

Central route:

1. Persuasion based on content and logic o the message.
2. High elaboration: careful processing of the information.
3. More durable attitude change.

Peripheral Route:

1. Persuasion based on non-message factors such as attractiveness, emotion, credibility.
2. Low Elaboration:minimal processing of the information.
3. Less durable attitudes change.

Question 6

What is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 6

Cognitive dissonance: sense of discomfort or distress that occurs when a person behavior does not correspond to that persons attitudes. Lessened by changing the conflicting behavior, changing the conflicting attitude, or forming a new attitude to justify behavior.

Question 7

Describe cognitive dissonance in the brain?

Answer 7

Larger differences between belief and behavior led to greater brain activity in the prefrontal cortex. Same areas that are involved in difficult cognitive task.

Question 8

What is attribution?

Answer 8

Attribution is the process of inferring the cause of mental states, behaviors, and events which occurs to ourselves and others.
External (situational or environmental) attributions: behavior is due to the situation. ex. “He probably missed
work because he’s
sick”, or “He must be having a rough day.”

Internal (dispositional or personal) attributions: behavior reflects the person. ex. “He probably missed worked because he’s lazy, ” or “He is not a friendly person.”

Question 9

What is fundementa attribution error?

Answer 9

Fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute someone else’s behavior to their personal disposition and underestimate the effect of the situation.

Question 10

What is impression formation?

Answer 10

Impression formation is the forming of the first knowledge a person has about another person affected by:

The Primacy effect states the very first impression one has about a person tends to persist even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Social Categorization is the assignment of a person one has just met to a category based o characteristics the new person has in common with other people with whom one has had experience with in the past.
Stereotyping is a set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all members of a particular social category.

Question 11

What is social interaction?

Answer 11

Social interaction explains social interactions with others, or the positive and negative relationships between people which includes the ideas of prejudice discrimination, liking/Loving, and aggression prosocial.

Question 12

What is the difference between prejudiceand discrimination?

Answer 12

Prejudice: negative attitude held by a person about the members of a particular social group.
Discrimination: treating people differently because of prejudice toward the social group to which they belong.

Question 13

What are the forms of prejudice?

Answer 13

Forms of prejudice include ageism, sexism, racism, and prejudice against those who are too fat or too thin.

In‐groups: social groups with whom a person identifies; “us”.
Out‐groups: social groups with whom a person does not identify; “them”

Question 14

Describe the social cognitive theory of prejudice?

Answer 14

Social Cognitive theory views prejudice as an attitude acquired through direct instruction, modeling, and other social influences.

Question 15

What is the Realistic conflict theory of prejudice?

Answer 15

Realistic Conflict theory: Conflict between groups increases prejudice and discrimination, elated to resource competition.

Question 16

what is the social identity theory of prejudice?

Answer 16

Social Identity theory: the formation of a persons identity within a particular social group is explained by social categorization, social identity, and social comparison.
Social identity: the part of the self-concept including one’s view of self as a member of a particular social category.
Social comparison: the comparison of oneself to others in a way that raise one’s self-esteem

Question 17

What is the theory for stopping prejudice?

Answer 17

Equal status contact is the contact between groups in which the groups have equal status, with neither group having power over the other.

Question 18

What is aggression?

Answer 18

Aggression is the behavior intended to hurt or destroy another person.
Frustration–aggression hypothesis states aggression is a reaction to
frustration.
Konrad Lorenz saw aggression as an instinct for fighting to promote the survival of our species.
Biological influences on aggression may include genetics, the amygdala and limbic system, and testosterone and serotonin levels

Question 19

Describe aggression social role?

Answer 19

Social role is the pattern of behavior that is expected of a person who is in a particular social position: violent TV, movies, and videos are related to aggression.

Question 20

What is Altruism?

Answer 20

Prosocial behavior is socially desirable behavior that benefits others.
Altruism: prosocial behavior that is done with no expectation of
reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself. The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is larger in individuals who make altruistic choices.

Question 21

What is the bystander effect?

Answer 21

Bystander effect is the effect that the presence of other people has on the decision to help or not help, help becomes less likely as the number of bystanders increases.

Question 22

What is the diffusion of responsibility?

Answer 22

Diffusion of responsibility occurs when a person fails to take responsibility for action or for inaction because of the presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility. Researchers Latané and Darley found that people who were alone were more likely to help in an emergency than people who were with others, one bystander cannot diffuse responsibility.

Question 23

What are the five steps to making a decision to help?

Answer 23

Five steps in making a decision to help

1. Noticing
2. Defining an emergency
3. Taking responsibility
4. Planning a course of action
5. Taking action

Question 24

What is social cognition?

Answer 24

Social cognition is the mental processes people use to make sense of the world around them. The three components of social cognition are attitudes, attribution, and impression formation.