Chp 13.2: Social Thinking and Perception

Question 1

attributions

Answer 1

judgments about the causes of our own and other people’s behaviour and outcomes

Question 2

What are the 2 types of attributions:

Answer 2

Personal (internal): Infer that people’s behaviour is caused by their characteristics (I got an A cuz I’m smart)
Situational (external): infer that aspects of the situation cause a behaviour (I got an A cuz it was easy)

Question 3

What types of information determine the attribution we make? (3)

Answer 3

Consistency (over time answer is the same)
Distinctiveness (eg. Only disliking a particular course)
Consensus (most people agree with an opinion)

Question 4

What types of info lead us to form a situational rather than personal attribution?

Answer 4

When all consistency, distinctiveness and consensus are high

Question 5

What types of info lead us to form a personal rather than situational attribution?

Answer 5

When consistency is high and the other 2 (distinctiveness, consensus) are low

Question 6

Transient conditions

Answer 6

Depending on mood, rather than to stable personal or situational factors

Question 7

Which part of the brain is related to situational information?

Answer 7

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Question 8

Which part of the brain is related to personal information?

Answer 8

Medial prefrontal cortex

Question 9

Actor-observer bias

Answer 9

How we perceive our own behaviour & how other people perceive our behaviour may be quite different

Question 10

fundamental attribution error

Answer 10

a tendency to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the role of personal factors when explaining other people’s behaviour
• Attributions for others’ behaviours -> more personal
• Attributions for our own behaviours -> more situational
• Situational attributions require more thought & effort

Question 11

self-serving bias

Answer 11

the tendency to make relatively more personal attributions for success and situational attributions for failure
(Take more personal credit for success)

Question 12

primacy effect

Answer 12

(impression formation) our tendency to attach more importance to the initial information that we learn about a person

Question 13

stereotype

Answer 13

a generalized belief about a group or category of people

Question 14

What creates our mental sets on the way we perceive people?

Answer 14

Eg. By saying the host is cold (attitude), it activates a set of concepts and expectations (your schema) for how a person is likely to behave. Person’s behaviour can be interpreted in many ways but you ‘fit’ his behaviour into a particular schema that is already activated

Question 15

self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 15

when people’s erroneous expectations lead them to act in a way that brings about the expected behaviours, thereby confirming the original impression

Question 16

attitude

Answer 16

a positive or negative evaluative reaction toward a stimulus (e.g., toward a person, action, object, or concept)

Question 17

Attitudes can have three components

Answer 17

• Affective: feelings & emotions towards an attitude object
• Behavioural: tendency to act in a particular in response to the attitude object
• Cognitive: beliefs & ideas about an attitude object
-
Affective:
“I hate it when other students use FB.”
Behavioural:
“I do not use FB in class”
Cognitive:
“I think it is distracting when other students use FB in class.”

Question 18

Attitude dimensions (3)

Answer 18

• Attitude strength
• Attitude accessibility
• Attitude ambivalence

Question 19

Attitude strength

Answer 19

• Stronger attitudes are harder to change

* Can have strong influence on behaviour

Question 20

Attitude accessibility

Answer 20

• How often we think about the attitude object
• How quickly the attitude comes to mind
• Positively correlated with attitude strength

Question 21

Attitude ambivalence

Answer 21

• Hold both positive and negative attitudes toward the attitude object
• Harder to predict behaviour

Question 22

theory of planned behaviour

Answer 22

view that our intention to engage in a behaviour is strongest when we have a positive attitude toward that behaviour, when subjective norms (our perceptions of what other people think we should do) support our attitudes, and when we believe that the behaviour is under our control

Question 23

Discuss three broad conditions under which attitudes best predict behaviour.

Answer 23

attitudes influence behaviour more strongly when counteracting situational factors are weak

• attitudes have a greater influence on behaviour when we are aware of them and when they are strongly held
• general attitudes are better at predicting general classes of behaviour, and specific attitudes are better at predicting specific behaviours

Question 24

Factors that influence the relation between attitudes and behaviours

Answer 24

1. Dimensions of attitudes are not always taken into account
2. The way in which attitudes are measured
3. Situational influences

Question 25

theory of cognitive dissonance

Answer 25

the theory that people strive to maintain consistency in their beliefs and actions, and that inconsistency creates dissonance—unpleasant arousal that motivates people to restore balance by changing their cognitions
( eg. Thinking themselves as a truthful person vs I just told a lie: cognitive dissonance)
-
Dissonance does not always lead to attitude change

Question 26

Counterattitudinal behaviour

Answer 26

Behaviour that is inconsistent with our attitude

Question 27

self-perception theory

Answer 27

the theory that we make inferences about our own attitudes by observing how we behave
(Eg. I received only $1 to lie, which isn’t must, so my lie may not be a lie)

Question 28

communicator credibility

Answer 28

how believable a communicator is

Question 29

What are the two major components of credibility in a communicator?

Answer 29

Expertise

Trustworthiness

Question 30

What characteristics of a message can increase persuasiveness?

Answer 30

Two-sided refutation approach: seems less biased

Question 31

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Answer 31

There are two routes to persuasion
• Central route
• Peripheral route

Question 32

central route to persuasion

Answer 32

• occurs when people think carefully about a message and are influenced because they find the arguments compelling  high elaboration

Question 33

peripheral route to persuasion

Answer 33

• occurs when people do not scrutinize a message and are influenced mostly by other factors, such as a speaker’s attractiveness or a message’s emotional appeal->low elaboration

Question 34

What determines the route to persuasion in a person?

Answer 34

The route that is used depends on the person’s motivation and ability to process information
(Focused – central, distracted- peripheral)

Question 35

Reason for fundamental attribution error

Answer 35

• we have more information on the present situation when making judgments about ourselves
• perceptual principle of figure-ground relation:
  when watching others, they are the “figure” that stands out from the background/ when we behave we don’t watch ourselves and are part of the background, the situation we are in stands out