Chapter 17: Social Cognition: Attitudes & Stereotypes

Question 1

What is a stereotype? What are some examples?

Answer 1

Some people are under the impression that certain groups have particular characteristics that are typical of them:
A generalized and simplified belief about a group of people.
Eg.
-hipsters
-bogans
-snobs

Question 2

What are the most common stereotypes?

Answer 2

Gender
Age
Ethnic
Occupational

Question 3

What is person perception?

Answer 3

The process by which we develop an impression of another person, using information we can initially gather or observe about them.

Question 4

What are attributions?

Answer 4

Attributions are conclusions that we make about the causes of events, the behaviour of others and our own behaviour.

Question 5

What are internal attributions?

Answer 5

Which people infer that event or persons behaviour is due to traits and feelings. 
Eg. 
Traits
Ability
Motivation
Attitude
Mood
Effort

Question 6

What are external attributions?

Answer 6

Which people infer that an event or persons behaviour is due to situational factors. 
Eg.
Environmental setting 
Situation 
Luck
Actions of another person

Question 7

Why may stereotypes be difficult to change?

Answer 7

• They are highly subjective- the stereotype a person holds means that the person will be likely to see only what they expect to see in others.
• Biases may help perpetuate stereotypes where positive aspects of group members are explained for reasons other than the good qualities of the minor it group.

Question 8

What is an attitude?

Answer 8

A learned, stable and relatively enduring evaluation of a person, object or idea that can influence an individual’s behaviour.

Question 9

What are the different dimensions of an attitude?

Answer 9

• an attitude is learned.
• it is relatively stable and enduring.
• it is an evaluation of a person, object or idea.
• it can influence an individual’s behaviour.

Question 10

What is an explicit attitude?

Answer 10

Where people openly state their attitude and behave in a way that reflects this attitude.
Eg. Exercise is good for health (attitude)
Visit the gym daily (action)

Question 11

What is an implicit attitude?

Answer 11

Involuntary, uncontrollable and sometimes unconscious. It is possible for individuals to be unaware that they hold a particular attitude until their actions reveal it.
Eg. Moths are harmless (attitude)
Scream on seeing a moth (action)

Question 12

What are the functions of attitudes?

Answer 12

PIE
Predisposing:
-guiding us to behave in different ways.
Interpreting:
-helping us to understand and process information.
Evaluating:
-helping us to reflect on our values.

Question 13

What is attitude specificity?

Answer 13

Highly specific attitudes are characterised by particular behaviours. For example, if you specifically prefer one brand of shampoo, you will purchase only that brand regardless of price.

Question 14

What are the three components of an attitude?

Answer 14

CAB

Cognitive component
-thoughts, ideas + understanding about attitude objects.
-what we know/ what we think we know about an object.
-your opinion based on a main object.
Eg. Dogs can be good guard dogs and good companions.

Affective component 
-feelings + emotional responses to an attitude object. 
-learnt through our daily lives. 
-emotional response. 
Eg. You may love dogs. 

Behavioral component:
-active element of an attitude.
-what we say and how we act.
Eg. You get a dog as a pet and you spend time with it.

Question 15

What is prejudice?

Answer 15

An unfavorable attitude towards a group of people.

Question 16

What is discrimination?

Answer 16

Prejudice expressed through behaviour.

Question 17

How can the tri-component model of attitudes be applied to prejudice?

Answer 17

Cognitive: the categorization of people, and beliefs about the people that are put into these categories, especially stereotyping.

Affective: feelings that are either friendly or hostile towards a group of people.

Behavioural (discrimination): behaviour towards a group of people.

Question 18

What are the most obvious examples of prejudice?

Answer 18

• sexism
• racism
• ageism
• homophobia
• disability

Question 19

What are examples of discrimination?

Answer 19

Reluctance to help- reluctance to help other groups improve their position in society by passively or actively declining to assist their efforts. Eg. Inadequate facilities for physically disabled employees.

Tokenism- public giving trivial assistance to a minority group in order to avoid accusations of prejudice & discrimination. Eg. Employing one woman in a predominantly male organisation.

Reverse discrimination- publicly being prejudiced in favour of a minority group in order to deflect accusation of prejudice and discrimination. Eg. Making it a company policy to employ a percentage of minority group members.

Question 20

What are some examples of the effects of prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 20

• low self-esteem
• disadvantage/failure
• self fulfilling prophecies
• violence and genocide

Question 21

Summarize the robbers cave experiment

Answer 21

A study set in a school holiday camp at the Robbers Cave Park in the US, involved campers who were mainly 11&12 yo boys.

The study investigated the causes of, and possible solutions to, intergroup conflict.

The experiment was conducted in 3 stages:
Stage 1: setting up camp.
The boys were divided at random into 2 groups. Each was initially unaware of the other group, but gradually became aware.

Stage 2: setting up rivalry between groups.
A series of contests were set up to create rivalry between the two groups. There was hostility once each group became aware of the other’s existence. Each group had developed negative stereotypes of the other group, and a contrasting positive stereotype of themselves.

Stage 3: setting up cooperation between groups.
Researchers tried to reduce friction between the groups by having them socialize at pleasant events such as 4th of July fireworks, but this was unsuccessful. However, when told that there might be a water shortage, the groups discussed the problem together and worked collaboratively towards a solution. Next morning, there was another food fight but the researchers again provided a cooperation task. After this, the rivalry between the groups diminished.

Question 22

What was LaPiere’s key finding in his study? (Chinese people)

Answer 22

That people who expressed prejudice had not actually behaved in a prejudicial way. People expressed attitudes that contradicted their behaviour.