Exam 2 lecture outlines

Question 1

In the early 1900’s it was assumed ____ influence _____

Answer 1

attitudes influence behavior

Question 2

La Piere (1934) classic study found what?

Answer 2

No relationship between attitudes and behavior in racial prejudice.

Question 3

Kelly and Mirer (1974) found what?

Answer 3

Consistency in attitudes and voting is presidential elections. Shifted focus to figure out when attitudes influence behavior.

Question 4

Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance theory (1959) versus Bem’s Self Perception Theory (1967), both explain what?

Answer 4

How behavior influences attitudes.

Question 5

Define attitude

Answer 5

enduring orientation or evaluative reaction to an object, idea, or person

Question 6

What are the 3 parts of attitude?

Answer 6

Cognitive, affective, and behavioral

Question 7

Define cognitive

Answer 7

Thoughts, ideas, knowledge, concerning the object; Typically, cognitive part has many elements

Question 8

Define affective

Answer 8

Feelings and emotions toward the object; More one-dimensional, less complex, more powerful than cognitive, and harder to change. Has the most influence over behavior.

Question 9

What has the most influence on attitude?

Answer 9

Affective

Question 10

Define behavioral

Answer 10

A person’s readiness to respond or act toward the object.

Question 11

What two factors increase the strength of an attitude?

Answer 11

Knowledge and rehearsal

Question 12

Reagan and Fazio’s (1977) classic study showed what?

Answer 12

Greater consistency in attitudes and behaviors in college students experiencing a housing shortage versus being on the same campus but having their own dorm room.

Question 13

Davidson and Jaccard (1979) found that attitudes about the pill predicted what?

Answer 13

Attitudes about the pill predicted pill use over a two-year period (.57), whereas general attitudes about contraception did not (.07).

Question 14

Snyder and Swann (1976): Mock jurors who had a chance to collect their thoughts on sex discrimination showed what?

Answer 14

Greater consistency between their attitudes on sex discrimination and their verdicts in a sex discrimination case as opposed to jurors not told to think about sex discrimination.

Question 15

If the attitude is internally consistent (particularly the cognitive-affective component) you get what?

Answer 15

Greater attitude-behavior consistency.

Question 16

Social context influences the ability to express our attitudes. When situational pressure is strong, we get ____ consistency

Answer 16

less

Question 17

Andrews and Kandel’s 1979 weed study showed what?

Answer 17

Attitudes towards marijuana (should it be legalized etc.) showed only weak correlation with use. What did correlate with use was the number of friends the person had that used it (situational influence).

Question 18

What do conigitive dissonance and self-perception theory have in common?

Answer 18

Both are cognitive consistency or balance theories (like Heider’s balance theory); we seek consistency in our cognitions and behaviors. Both assume behavior influences our attitudes, but the explanations are very different.

Question 19

Explain cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 19

When we do something, we don’t agree with (Counter-attitudinal) this creates an unpleasant, arousing feeling called “cognitive dissonance” that occurs because we realize that our cognitions are inconsistent or that our behavior is inconsistent with what we believe. We resolve cognitive dissonance by changing our attitudes to be consistent with our behavior. That is, we always look to rationalize our behavior.

Question 20

Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) performed a classic study of cognitive dissonance involving a boring task. What was it and what were the results?

Answer 20

Participants perform a dull task, paid either $1 or $20 to lie to another subject that task is interesting. Results: Participants rated $1 to lie rated the task as significantly more enjoyable and interesting than subjects paid $20.

Question 21

Why did participants who lied for $1 in the boring task experiment genuinely like the task more?

Answer 21

Participants who lied for $20 could attribute their behavior to the money, unlike subjects who lied for $1—these subjects felt dissonance—I lied without sufficient justification or reason. So to resolve the dissonance they felt, they changed their attitude about the ask (came to believe it was interesting).

Question 22

What does dissonance require?

Answer 22

That you have a strong attitude to begin with

Question 23

Dissonance occurs when we have _____ justification for counter-attitudinal behavior

Answer 23

insufficient

Question 24

Cognitive dissonance theory argues that to shape a child’s behavior and attitudes you should avoid what? why?

Answer 24

You should avoid big rewards and strong threats. Because if we give severe punishment or threat, this will not allow any dissonance or attitude change to take place toward the activity you are trying to discourage in your child.

Question 25

Describe Freedman’s (1965) classic forbidden toy experiment

Answer 25

2nd and 4th graders who were given a mild threat not to play with a toy rated the toy as less attractive and were less likely to play with it six weeks later, as opposed to the children given a severe threat not to play with it

• Idea being the mild threat induced a sense of dissonance: “I’m not playing with the attractive toy, I guess I don’t like it so much after all!”
• If given severe threat, child says “I’m not playing with the attractive toy only because I will be punished if I do,” so later when given the chance he or she will play with it because the child has not experienced an attitude change

Question 26

Define self-perception theory

Answer 26

The idea that we look to our behavior to determine our attitudes. Applies mostly to attitude formation, or when our attitudes are weak or inconsistent (so it’s a theory of attitude formation not attitude change like dissonance theory)

Question 27

Describe Chaiken and Baldwin’s (1981) experiment in reference to self-perception theory

Answer 27

): Subjects had either strong or weak attitudes about the environment. Subjects were asked a series of questions that made them look as they were either “pro” or “anti” the environment. (Questions like: Do you recycle every can that you get?) This was used to get them to describe their behavior as “pro” or “anti” environment.
Finding: Only those people who had weak attitudes to being with showed any attitude change as a result of the questions. That is, if they were asked pro-environment questions, they reported being more pro-environment afterwards. Those subjects with a “strong” attitude before the experiment began, were not affected (they reported the same attitude both before and after the questioning).

Question 28

Describe the over-justification effect

Answer 28

Self-perception theory argues that if you give people a reward for tasks that they find at least somewhat intrinsically interesting, this undermines or reduces their interest because people think they are doing the task for the reward as opposed to being interested in it. (They look to their behavior to infer their attitudes: “I’m doing this for the money, so I must not be very interested in it”)

Question 29

Describe the evidence for the over-justification effect

Answer 29

Amabile (1987): Effects of rewards on intrinsic interest: College students who like to write as a hobby were given a reward or no reward to write several short stories. Subjects who were rewarded later reported a reduction in their intrinsic interest in writing as opposed to those who were not rewarded.
-Note: Cognitive dissonance could not explain this effect: You are rewarding someone for a pro-attitudinal behavior.

Question 30

Describe how cognitive dissonance differs from self, perception theory

Answer 30

1. Cognitive dissonance explains attitude change, self-perception theory explains attitude formation.
2. Cognitive dissonance requires a strong attitude, whereas self-perception theory requires weak or no attitude.
3. With cognitive dissonance, counter-attitudinal behavior induces a sense of dissonance we resolve it by changing our attitude to be consistent with behavior. Must have insufficient justification for the counter-attitudinal behavior (if you don’t, you have no dissonance) With self-perception theory, we simply look to our behavior to infer out attitudes.
4. The implication of cognitive dissonance is that you shouldn’t offer punishment (severe) to stop problematic behavior because it provides sufficient justification for the child not to display the behavior. Mild punishment induces dissonance and attitude change. The implication of self-perception theory is that you shouldn’t offer rewards to encourage desired behavior (it may undermine intrinsic interest)

Question 31

What is the implication of self-perception theory?

Answer 31

That you shouldn’t offer rewards to encourage desired behavior because it may undermine intrinsic interest

Question 32

What is the implication of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 32

That you shouldn’t offer punishment (severe) to stop problematic behavior because it provides sufficient justification for the child not to display the behavior. Mild punishment induces dissonance and attitude change.

Question 33

Describe Triplett’s (1898) bicyclists and children observational study

Answer 33

Observed bicyclists and found that they would go faster in competition than when training alone. Replicated study with children reeling in line; both show social facilitation

Question 34

Describe Allport’s 1924 study about actors and audiences

Answer 34

He had subjects crossing out vowels in a newspaper column and found that people were more accurate and worked quickly if there were other people in the room (as an audience) or as a co-actor performing the same task

Question 35

True or false: Animals are also subject to social facilitation

Answer 35

True

Question 36

Describe Chen’s (1937) study on animals and social facilitation

Answer 36

He found that individual ants dug three times more sand when they were in groups than when they were alone

Question 37

Describe an example of social inhibition

Answer 37

Allport (1924) found college students wrote fewer counter-arguments, and the arguments were of less quality when others were present. Point: The presence of others clearly matters, but sometimes it helps performance and sometimes it hurts performance.

Question 38

Zajonc argues what about the “mere presence” of other people?

Answer 38

That the the “mere presence” of other people has a consistent effect—it increases arousal, motivation, and drive (thought to be innate).

Question 39

What is a critical factor in social facilitation according to Zajonc?

Answer 39

If the task requires a well-learned behavior (which is called the dominant response), increased motivation or arousal is helpful and increases performance. (The dominant response can be complex as well but highly developed—like an Olympic athlete).

Question 40

If the task requires a well-learned behavior (which is called the dominant response), increased motivation or arousal ______ performance.

Answer 40

increases

Question 41

If the task is well learned you get social _____, if the task is not well learned you get social _____.

Answer 41

facilitation; inhibition

Question 42

What is the evidence for Zanjoc’s mere presence effect?

Answer 42

Michaels et al. (1982) study of pool players: Good players showed an increase in performance from 71 to 81% accurate when watched by a group, bad players showed a decrease in performance from 36 to 25%

Question 43

What other factors besides skill influence social facilitation?

Answer 43

Evaluation apprehension and the distraction-conflict model

Question 44

Define evaluation apprehension

Answer 44

On simple tasks, awareness that we are being evaluated can motivate us, but when the task is not well learned and practiced then the evaluation apprehension hinders performance

Question 45

Define the distraction-conflict model

Answer 45

On simple tasks, the distraction caused by the presence of others may motivate us to pay even more attention to the task and cause performance to increase. On difficult tasks, the distraction caused by the presence of others may prove to be extremely distracting and stressful because the task is difficult for us and therefore, it reduces or hinders performance. (Called the distraction-conflict model: The presence of others causes arousal because it creates a conflict between 1) attention to the audience and 2) attention to the task).

Question 46

Define social loafing

Answer 46

Working as a member of a group often leads to a slacking off of individual effort

Question 47

Describe the two studies about social loafing (the rope study and clapping study)

Answer 47

• Ringelmann (1986) asked college students to pull on a rope (as you would in tug of war). The findings showed that when subjects were asked to pull alone, they pulled significantly harder than when they were asked to pull in groups of 7 or 14 people.
• Latane et al. (1979) got the same effect when he asked college men to make noise by cheering and clapping either alone or in a group. The results showed that the subjects made significantly more noise (clapping or cheering) when they were alone versus in a group.

Question 48

When does social loafing occur?

Answer 48

When people work in a group and think his or her contribution is not able to be monitored (there is no perceived accountability) people goof off. The major point here is people slack off when working in a group provides anonymity, and when their individual contributions cannot be tracked.

Question 49

Describe the evidence for the identifiability theory of social loafing

Answer 49

William, Harkins, and Latane had subjects perform the shouting or clapping task in a group. Half of the students were told their individual performance was monitored while the other half were told their output was not being monitored. Results shows that performance was much lower in the no-monitoring condition.

Question 50

Describe the free-rider effect in the context of social loafing

Answer 50

Individuals slack off because they think the group can do it without them just fine, so they think they’re not needed

Question 51

Describe the sucker-effect in the context of social loafing

Answer 51

You observe other people not putting in total effort so you reduce your effort because why should you do it if other people are not pulling their load?

Question 52

When is social loafing most likely?

Answer 52

If you believe you can’t be identified, that the task is easy or boring, or if there is little reward for the task

Question 53

Give a summary of social loafing

Answer 53

Social loafing occurs primarily when people work in a group, and the task is easy, there is little incentive (reward), when the person is not directly accountable for his or her performance, when he or she is an anonymous member of the group, when the person thinks that the group can get the job done without them putting in much effort (free-rider effect), and when the person perceives that others are not putting in enough effort and resents working harder than the other people (sucker effect).

Question 54

Define deindividuation

Answer 54

Being in a group can result in a loss of self-awareness, evaluation apprehension, and creates a sense of anonymity as a result people do things in groups that they would never do alone

Question 55

What external conditions help facilitate deindividuation?

Answer 55

• anonymity
• diffusion of responsibility
• energizing effects of others
• large group size with much activity
• novel or unstructured situation
• arousal
• altered states of consciousness (drugs)

Question 56

What happens to someone when they experience deindividuation?

Answer 56

• no concern for evaluation or consequences of behavior
• weakening of social controls (the inhibitions we learn against anti-social behavior start to decline because of the conditions that are present)
• lowered threshold for expressing inhibited behaviors
• focus on present time (forget about past or future)
• loses sense of personal responsibility for one’s actions

Question 57

How does someone behave when they experience deindividuation?

Answer 57

• impulsive, irrational, often destructive and intentionally anti-social
• behavior is highly emotional
• behavior becomes self-reinforcing and intensifies
• behavior is extremely difficult to terminate

Question 58

Describe Leon Mann’s (1981) studies of suicide baiting in the context of deindividuation

Answer 58

Found that baiting increases with crowd size and time of episode (night versus day). Shows deindividuation

Question 59

Describe Watson’s (1973) war study in the context of deindividuation

Answer 59

He studied warfare patterns in over 200 cultures. Found that cultures in which warriors deindividuated themselves by wearing masks and paint were more likely to torture their captives as compared with cultures that did not deindividuate their warriors.

Question 60

Describe Deiner’s (1976) halloween study in the context of deindividuation

Answer 60

• Children who came in groups were more likely to steal or cheat (take more than one candy) than children who came alone
• When the experimenter asked the children who they were and where they lived, they were less likely to steal as compared to children who were not asked these questions

Question 61

Describe how deindividuation plays a role in executions

Answer 61

For centuries people have been executed by firing squad—and what is commonly done is to have only be one person with a live bullet—that way no one person is made to feel responsible. The actual shooter is anonymous.

Question 62

Describe how deindividuation in cities affects vandalism

Answer 62

• Because urban city life often is associated with large numbers of people and extreme forms of crowding, this can produce a sense of anonymity and lowering of inhibitions. (I won’t get caught, they’ll never find me). This can produce a greater tendency for crime.
• Evidence: Zimbardo’s famous car experiment: A car appears stranded (hood up) in both the Bronx, New York and Palo Alto, California. Within three days the car in NY was stripped and the car in California went untouched.

Question 63

Describe Zimbardo’s famous car experiment in the context of deindividuation

Answer 63

A car appears stranded (hood up) in both the Bronx, New York and Palo Alto, California. Within three days the car in NY was stripped and the car in California went untouched.

Question 64

Give examples of a formalized societal pressure valve to channel the release of deindividuated energy.

Answer 64

Football games; the “night of fire” that takes place every Halloween in Chicago when a large number of fires are intentionally set.

Question 65

What are the 4 types of bullying?

Answer 65

Verbal, physical, social, and cyber

Question 66

What legal protection do students have against cyberbullying?

Answer 66

Anti-Bullying Laws; University Reporting and counseling centers, suicide prevention hotlines, law enforcement.

Question 67

What are the cyberbullying rates in college students?

Answer 67

Rates in College students: 15% victimized; 22% victimized by cyber-bullying, 42% have seen someone else be bullied by another student, 25% bulled through- social media site

Question 68

Cognitive dissonance is a theory of attitude _____

Answer 68

change

Question 69

Self perception theory is a theory of attitude _____

Answer 69

formation