CHAPTER FOUR: BEHAVIOUR AND ATTITUDES

Question 1

attitude

Answer 1

a favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction toward something or someone, exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings or intended behaviour

Question 2

when attitudes predict behaviour

Answer 2

facial muscle responses, implicit association test; principle of aggregation; theory of planned behaviour

Question 3

implicit associations test (IAT)

Answer 3

uses reaction times to measure how quickly people associate concepts

Question 4

principle of aggregation

Answer 4

when the effects of an attitude become more apparent when we look at a person’s aggregate (average) behaviour

Question 5

theory of planned behaviour

Answer 5

knowing people’s intended behaviour, self-efficacy and control

Question 6

role playing

Answer 6

actions expected of those who occupy a particular social role (teacher, soldier, business person)

Question 7

immoral and moral acts

Answer 7

both sometimes result from gradually escalating commitments

Question 8

social movements

Answer 8

• public conformity often leads to public acceptance
• “one does what one is; one becomes what one does”
• humans have an inner need to make their beliefs and acts consistent with each other

Question 9

why does our behaviour affect our attitudes

Answer 9

• self-presentation
• cognitive dissonance
• self-justification
  -self-perception

Question 10

self-presentation

Answer 10

• impression management: being concerned with making a good impression in order to gain social and material rewards, to feel about ourselves or to become more secure in our social worlds
• wanting to appear consistent with our attitudes

Question 11

cognitive dissonance

Answer 11

• we feel tension (dissonance) when we are aware that we have two thoughts that are inconsistent, and behaviours and attitudes that are inconsistent
• selective exposure minimizes dissonance (people tend to expose themselves with info that agrees with their POV)

Question 12

self-justification: cognitive dissonance

Answer 12

• dissonance after decisions; when we choose between two equally attractive or unattractive alternatives, the undesirable features of the chosen one and the desirable features of the unchosen one stay in our brain
  (think of choosing to cars example)
• having an individualistic self-concept can lead to dissonance following a personal choice or have a collectivistic self-concept can lead to dissonance after a choice is made for the group

Question 13

self-perception

Answer 13

• when we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer them by looking at our behaviour and the circumstances under which it occurs

Question 14

self-affirmation theory

Answer 14

• people often experience self-image threat after engaging in undesirable behaviour and compensate for it by affirming another aspect of the self