Chapter 6: Attitudes, Behavior, and Rationalization

Question 1

What is attitude?

Answer 1

an evaluation of a target

the target can be a person, object, issue, group, or behaviour

Question 2

the valence of an attitude can be

Answer 2

positive or negative (direction)

ambivalent (sometimes positive and sometines negative)

neutral (neither favourable nor unfavourable)

Question 3

Attitudes are most commonly assessed through …

Answer 3

simple self-report measures, such as survey with likert scale or sematin differential scales (ex. mark a line from good to bad)

Question 4

advantages of likery types sales and semantic differential scales?

Answer 4

advantages: easy to construct
disadv: people are not always willing to hinestly report beliefs)

Question 5

why do we develop attitude?

Answer 5

1. object appraisal function: determine whether attitude object is helpful or harmful
2. value-expressive function: allow us to identify to others

Question 6

where do attitudes stem from?

Answer 6

1. affective reactions: emotions
2. cognitive appraisals: beliefs
3. assessment of past behaviour

Question 7

when do attitudes rely of affect (emotions)?

Answer 7

controversial issues: politics, sex, religion), not giverned by logic and often linked to religious or moral values

Question 8

What are the soruces of affective attitudes (emotion based)?

Answer 8

1. evaluative conditioning: associate attitude towards something positive or negative
2. mere exposure effect: tendency for repeated contect with an object/person to increase liking for it (ambivalent -> pos or neg)

Question 9

when does mere exposure effect not work?

Answer 9

when target initially causes negative affect

Question 10

when do cognitive appraisals form for attitudes?

Answer 10

positive attutudes based on positive experiences/features (ex type of car or household item)

Question 11

w

when do behavioural sources of attitude form

Answer 11

self perception: when attitudes/feelings are uncertain, we infe them by observing our behaviour and situation in which it occurs

role play: fake it till you make it

Question 12

is bag stronger than good?

Answer 12

generally yes,

negative stimuli elicit faster and stronger physiological response that positive

Question 13

What is response latency?

Answer 13

accessibility of the attitude
- how readily attitude comes to mind

Question 14

What is centrality?

Answer 14

a way to assess importance of one’s attitude
- how central is the attitude to a person’s belief system

Question 15

What is implicit attitude measures?

Answer 15

An indirect measure of attitudes that doesn’t involve a self-report

associations or physiological indicators

Question 16

how does neuroscience detect attitudes

Answer 16

amygdala: central to initial core components of attitude and received sensory information from thalamus and then gives information about positive or negative value (valence) of the object (gut feeling - occurs prior to fully knwoing what object is)

Question 17

are attitudes a good predictor of behaviour?

Answer 17

no – inconsistent attitudes

Question 18

when do attitudes predict behaviour?

Answer 18

when attitude is strong (extremity, importance, based on direct experience)

behaviour is controllable

behaviour compatible with attitude (specific/general attitude -> specific/general behaviour)

attitude is implicit

Question 19

when is behaviour not controllable?

Answer 19

1. external threat
2. lack of alternate
3. lack of time
4. biological need or addiction

Question 20

what is an implicit attitude?

Answer 20

an automatic, affective evaluation response toward a target (ex how long does it take to associate certain words)

Question 21

what is explicit attitude?

Answer 21

can be affective, cognitive, and behavioural sourced controlled evaluation

Question 22

is introspection a good indicator of attitude?

Answer 22

• can mislead you to the wrong reasons for why you have an attitude towards something
• tend to focus on easy to idenitify reasons for liking/disliking something
• ineffective with affective/emotional basis
• effective for cognitive stimuli

Question 23

highly specific attitudes versus general attitude?

Answer 23

• highly specific attitude = likely behave consistently
• general attitude = less lilely to behave consistently

Question 24

attitude influences behaviour or behaviour influences attitude? why?

Answer 24

behaviour influences attitude
- cognitive dissonance theory: justify/rationalize behaviour to reflect attitudes and minimize inconsistencies between attitude and actions

Question 25

What is the aversive emotional state?

Answer 25

dissonance - aroused when people experience inconsistency between 2 cognitions

Question 26

How do decisions cause dissonance?

Answer 26

• All hard decisions cause some feelings of dissonance, so we rationalize the decision that was made
• Directly after making a decision, compared to before, when the decision can’t be undone (ex. Bets, votes) to make oneself feel more confident about selection
• Option not chosen likely has some attractive features
• Option chosen likely has some unfavorable features

Question 27

What is effort justification? example

Answer 27

• Pay high price for something and it is disappointing = experience dissonance
  Ex. “it’s not so bad” exaggerate negatives when others have pets or children
• Payment can be physical labor (enjoy self made furniture) or monetary (cash vs credit)

military or fraternitiy hazing/team bonding rituals

Question 28

What is induced (forced) compliance or counterattitudinal advocacy?
does this cause dissonance?

Answer 28

people are induced to behave inconsistently with their beliefs given the illusion that they have freely performed the counter attitudinal behaviour

• dissonance: easiest way to acheive consistiency is to change attitude for the compliance bc whatever the action was, it can’t be take back

Question 29

How does the use of incentive in an experiment affect the participant?

Answer 29

Should use smallest amount of incentive or coercion necessary ($1 vs $20 for mind numbing activity)
* if you want people to internalize the broader message behind the behavior ie the attitude - internal justification
* If incentive was too large, rationalization is on money - external justification
* If incentive is small, rationalization is attitude change

Question 30

What situation are likely to cause dissonance?

Answer 30

we ought to experience dissonance when we act in ways that are inconsistent with our core values and beliefs and
(a) the behavior was freely chosen
(b) the behavior wasn’t sufficiently justifed,
(c) the behavior had negative consequences
(d) the negative consequences were foreseeable

Question 31

how do you reduce dissonance?

Answer 31

1. change behaviour
2. add consonant cognition (add matching attitude)
3. reduce importance of dissonant cognition (not care about attitude)

Question 32

How do attitudes change when extinguishing undesired behaviour?

Answer 32

not allowed to do something mildly desireable – dissonace -> devalue object

severe punishment for going against expmter and obtaining desirable thing -> same value of object

Question 33

HOw does self-affirmation relate to dissonance?

Answer 33

is you do a behaviour that causes dissonance but affirm your self that you are good at something else – ward off dissonance

Question 34

How does dissonance compare in different cultures?

Answer 34

less dissonance effects for Asians more dissonance for westerners

Question 35

What is self perception theory?

Answer 35

the theory that people come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and the context in which it occurred and then inferring what their attitudes must be.

Question 36

how is self-perception theory different from coginitive dissonance theory?

Answer 36

self perception: no arousal involved
people rationally infer what their attitudes must be in light of their behaviour and the content

Question 37

which theory is correct, self perception or cognitive dissonace?

Answer 37

implicit and explict measures show that there is arosual in the face of dissonace, so cognitive dissonance

Question 38

when is self perception used? when is cognitive dissonance used?

Answer 38

self-perception: when behaviour conflicts with attitudes that are relatively vague or of less importance

cognitive dissonance: when behaviour is inconsistent with preexisting attitudes that are clear-cut and of some importance

Question 39

a surpising ptoportion of out attitudes are

Answer 39

rather weak and ambiguous, so self-perception is relevant theory

Question 40

how do we embody self-perception theory?

Answer 40

physical boldily movents (frowning, nodding, etc.)

Question 41

What is system justification theory?

Answer 41

the theory that people are motivated to see the existing sociopolitical system as desirable, fair, and legitimate.

Question 42

What is terror management theory?

Answer 42

the theory that people deal with the potentially crippling anxiety associated with the **inevitability of death **by striving for **symbolic immortality **through preserving valued cultural worldviews and by believing they have lived up to their culture’s standards

Question 43

how does dissonance relate to commitments?

Answer 43

difficult to admit we were worng and move on from commitments so we change attitude

Question 44

how is dissonance seen in the brain?

Answer 44

prefrontal cortex affected when Ps have dissonance becasue this area is involved in decision making and reasoning

dissonance reduced = pleasure circuits activated

Question 45

What is the hypocrisy paradigm?

Answer 45

arouse dissonance by having people publicly promote a socially desireable behaviour and remind them they have not always done this behaviour