Chapter 5 Flashcards
What is an attitude?
An evaluation of a person, object or idea (positive or negative)
How is called the object of an attitude?
The attitude object
How are attitudes developed?
Part are inherited - the rest develops through experience like schemas
What are the 3 components of attitudes?
- Affective (emotional reactions based on values)
- Behavioural (actions or observable behaviour - based on weak initial attitude)
- Cognitive (thoughts and beliefs - based on objective merits)
Are the 3 components of attitudes always equal?
No, some can be more salient than others
What are explicit attitudes?
Controlled/expressed
What are implicit attitudes?
Uncontrollable/involuntary (not expressed)
How can we measure attitudes?
Implicit association test (also seen through neuroimaging)
What is a stronger attitude?
More accessible, have greater influence on our actions
What is attitude consistency?
When the ABCs are in line with each other (we feel, think and act to the same extent and in the same way about the attitude object)
Which type of attitudes are more likely to predict our behaviours?
Consistent attitudes
A spontaneous behaviour results from a ______ attitude?
Highly accessible
A planned behaviour results from a ______ attitude?
Not highly accessible
What does the theory of planned behaviour states as the best predictor of someone’s behaviours?
The person’s intentions to perform a behaviour
What are the 3 factors determining the intention to perform a behaviour?
- Specific attitudes
- Subjective norms
- Perceived behavioural control
How is someone’s degree of self-monitoring related to the prediction of their behaviour?
The degree of self-monitoring of someone might help to predict their behaviours (low self-monitoring are less likely to act on their attitudes or not depending on the situation; their behaviour will be consistent)
What were the conclusions of the study about birth control?
The more specific the attitude is the strongest predictor of behaviour (those that had a precise opinion on taking pills during the 2 yrs were most likely to have their behaviour predicted)
What are the 2 main (general) determining factors in the efficacy of persuasion?
Who is communicating and what is commmunicated
What is someone evaluating when they consider a communicator trying to persuade them?
Is this an expert? Does it appeal to our emotions? Are they similar to us? Are they trustworthy? Are they influenced by external causes (paid to do the ad?)? How fast are they speaking? (faster = know what they are talking about)
What is the sleeper effect?
We forget the communicator but the message stays in our mind; therefore if we didn’t trust the communicator at first we forget to disregard the message when we forget about who said it
What is behind a spontaneous attitude change/message processing?
- When we accept a persuasion attempt because of the external signals (person is handsome, package is nice, we are not really interested in the details)
- Object is not interesting to us - we do not care that much to go into details
- Mostly guided by affect
What is behind a thoughtful attitude change/message processing?
- We have time to go through full info
- We engage with the material
- We identify how the message relates to us
- Cognition prevails - but if the message is too complex to understand we will rely on affect
How can we prevent persuasion?
By increasing attitude strength; strong attitudes are less likely to be changed
What is forewarning?
A way to increase attitude strength - Let someone know that people will try to persuade them
What is attitude inoculation?
Expose people to low doses of counter arguments to their attitudes so they have time to prepare arguments against persuasion
What is psychological reactance?
When one feel their freedom to choose is threatened - feeling resistance and trapped
Will most likely perform the forbidden behaviour to reduce the unpleasantness and regain control
What is subliminal influence?
Words or pictures used to persuade that are not consciously perceived
Is there evidence that subliminal influence works?
Yes but its weak
What is self-perception?
Inferring our beliefs from our behaviours - when we are uncertain ho to feel about something, we turn to our behaviors for answers
Who suggested self-perception as a concept?
Bem
What is the overjustification effect? Give an example
The tendency of people to view their behaviour as caused by extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons
Ex: Do I really love running or am I just doing it because I love to show it off?
What is the “everyone gets a trophy” phenomenon?
Rewards might disinterest us from our activities - caused by the overjustification effect
How is the overjustification effect shown in the experiment with markers and kids?
Those that were promised a reward to use certain markers got disinterested in the markers when they were left to choose them among other toys
What is insufficient justification?
When the social situation actually causes our behaviour, but we do not realize that the social situation was the cause
What is cognitive dissonance?
Feeling of discomfort caused by the realization that one’s behaviour is inconsistent with one’s attitudes or that one holds two conflicting attitudes
Explain the experiment with students and the boring task paid money to lie
Students given 1$ or 20$ to lie - 1$ group convinced themselves that the task was actually fun (that the lie was true)
Dissonant thoughts makes us feel:
Uncomfortable
Consonant thoughts makes us feel:
Comfortable
What is post-decision dissonance?
Inevitably happens after a person makes a decision
How is post-decision dissonance reduced?
Typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives
How can we reduce cognitive dissonance?
Change behaviour
Change cognition
Add new cognitions
Affirm our self-esteem (after doing something bad)
