Chapter 6 Flashcards
3 components of atitude
1)affect(emotion)
2)cognitions:thoughts that typically reinforce a person’s feelings
3)specific behaviors
Measuring Attitudes
Likert Scale: lists a set of possible answers with anchors on each extreme
Measure the accessibility of the attitude-how readily it comes to mind
Another way is to determine the centrality of the attitude to the person’s belief system
implicit attitude measures (unconscious attitudes)
Physiological indicators,
One potent determinant of behavior that weakens relationship between attitudes and actions is
a person’s understanding of prevailing norms
Example:you want to talk to your friend during a movie but you don’t because others around might disapprove
Wilson found that introspecting about the reasons for our attitudes can undermine how well those attitudes guide our behaviors
Introspection may lead us to focus on the easiest-to-identify reasons for liking or disliking something at the expense of the real reasons for our likes and dislikes
Cognitive dissonance theory:
aversive emotional state (dissonance) is aroused when people experience inconsistency between two cognitions, this unpleasant emotional state motivates efforts to restore consistency typically by changing to cognition to make it more consistent with the behavior
decisions and dissonance
Festinger argued that dissonance reduction take place only after an irrevocable decision has been made(if the decision cant be undone), recent research suggests Dissonance reduction occur both before and after decisions are made
Effort justification
tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time,effort, or money devoted to something that turned out to be unpleasant or disappointing
Induced forced compliance:
when people are induced to behave in a manner that’s inconsistent with their beliefs and attitudes
People’s attitudes toward different classes of people,places,things, and events are often expressions of attitudes about a prototypical example of a given category
If we encounter a specific person or situation that doesn’t fit our prototype for such citation or person, our behavior won’t reflect our attitude because our general attitude does not apply to that particular situation or person
extinguishing undesired behavior
achieved through mild vs severe punishments
forbidden toy paradigm
Mild threat caused dissonance among the children, because the threat was not justified. Kids justified by thinking the toy was not that interesting
severe threat group did not experience dissonance
mild threat rate the same toy lower later on
when does inconsistency produce dissonance
when holding 2 inconsistent cognitions causes dissonance
what causes inconsistency
dissonance occurs if inconsistency challenges core self concept
People self-concept is usually, rational and morally upright
when do u experience dissonance
behavior is freely choice
behavior wasn’t sufficiently justified
behavior had negative consequences
negative consequences were forseeable
ways dissonance can be solved
1) directly addressing specific threat
2)indirectly by affirming other positive qualities and core values to compensate (self-affirmation)
is dissonance universal
westerners experience dissonance
japanese people show no dissonance effect regardless of self-affirmation when they believe others arent watching
dissonance occurs in Japanese participants when they believe others are observing their behavior
self-perception theory
people infer their own attiudes by observing their behavior and situational context rather than introsepcting
cognitive dissonance theory vs self perception theory
cognitive dissonance theory invovles physical arousal->without physiological arousal there is no attitude change
self perception theory is rationally and casually inferring what their attitudes might be based on behavior and context(no change in attitude just infer what attitude is)
indivduals can somtimes guess their atittudes
wehn they cant its bc attiude is unclear or uncertain
bodily movements
people have physical states and bodily movements that function as cues to understand thoughts and feelings
-these physical states are considered to embody cognition and emotions
system justification theory
believing in a fair sociopolitical system
witnessing inequality can create ideological dissonance this may be alleviated by enhancing virtues of prevailing system instead of striving for change
terror management theory
how humans cope with anxiety/mortality awareness
strategies indivduals use to manage terror
denial, adopting beilefs of afterlife, legacy continuation(having more children)
TMT suggest people seek
symbolic immortality by connecting themselves to broader cultural institutions and values
idea of their values and institutions enduring beyond their lifetime
