CHAPTER 4 BEHAVIOUR AND ATTITUDES Flashcards
attitude
A favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction toward something or someone, exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings, or intended behaviour.
Implicit Association Test (IAT)
A computer-driven assessment of implicit attitudes that uses reaction times to measure people’s automatic associations between attitude objects and evaluative words, where easier pairings (and faster responses) are taken to indicate stronger unconscious associations.
role
A set of norms that define how people in a given social position ought to behave
norms
Rules for accepted and expected behaviour that prescribe “proper” behaviour.
gender roles
Behaviour expectations (norms) for males and females
foot-in-the-door phenomenon
The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.
low-ball technique
A tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante. People who receive only the costly request are less likely to comply with it
door-in-the-face technique
A strategy for gaining a concession. After someone first turns down a large request (the door in the face), the same requester counteroffers with a more reasonable request.
cognitive dissonance theory
Tension that arises when we are simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions. For example, dissonance may occur when we realize that we have, with little justification, acted contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favouring one alternative despite reasons favouring another.
Insufficient justification
Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behaviour when external justification is “insufficient.”
self-perception theory
The theory that, when unsure of our attitudes, we infer them much as would someone observing us—by looking at our behaviour and the circumstances under which it occurs.
overjustification effect
The result of bribing people to do what they already like doing; they may then see their action as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing.
self-affirmation theory
A theory that people often experience self- image threat after engaging in an undesirable behaviour, and they compensate for this threat by affirming another aspect of the self. Threaten people’s self-concept in one domain, and they will compensate either by refocusing or by doing good deeds in some other domain.
