Exam 2 Study Cards

Question 1

Attitudes

Answer 1

a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction toward something or someone
(often rooted in one’s beliefs, and exhibited in one’s feelings and intended behavior)

Question 2

Implicit Attitudes

Answer 2

unconscious evaluation of an object measured by response latency

Question 3

Explicit Attitudes

Answer 3

conscious evaluation of an object measured by self-report

Question 4

Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 4

tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions

Question 5

hypocrisy

Answer 5

a way in which we induce dissonance

motivates behavior change when people are favorable toward a behavior but don’t perform it regularly

Question 6

dissonance reduction strategies

Answer 6

1. change our behavior to make it consistent w/ our beliefs and/or attitudes
2. change our attitudes and/or beliefs to fit our behavioral outcome
3. add new cognitions that resolve the discrepancy
   * usually an unconscious process

Question 7

free choice paradigm

Answer 7

choosing between alternatives creates cognitive dissonance because the chosen alternative is never perfect, and the rejected alternative often has desirable aspects that are necessarily foregone as soon as an irreversible choice is made

Question 8

insufficient justification

Answer 8

in the absence/insufficiency of external justification for our actions, we look inward and change something about ourselves (attitudes/behaviors) to account for why acted that way

Question 9

self-justification

Answer 9

the act of justifying one’s own actions, beliefs, and feelings to convince themselves and others that it’s a logical thing to do/believe/feel

Question 10

minimal deterrence

Answer 10

when individuals lack a sufficient external justification for resisting a desired activity, they may reduce the dissonance by devaluing the forbidden activity/object

Question 11

belief perseverance

Answer 11

in the face of disconfirming facts, believers not only fail to give up incorrect beliefs, they believe and defend them more tenaciously than ever

Question 12

culture

Answer 12

enduring beliefs, traditions, behaviors, ideas shared by a large group of people that gets passed to the next generation

Question 13

social norms

Answer 13

implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs of its members

Question 14

cultural match

Answer 14

someone is culturally matched if he/she typically acts in accordance with the norms

*it feels natural

Question 15

cultural mismatch

Answer 15

someone is culturally mismatched if he/she has difficulty/confusion when navigating socially

*what others do naturally feels uncomfortable

Question 16

conformity

Answer 16

a change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure

Question 17

informational social influence

Answer 17

conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people

you may really start to believe what the majority believes

Question 18

normative social influence

Answer 18

conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance

doesn’t necessarily mean that your implicit behavior/views change based on those expectations

Question 19

Minority social influence

Answer 19

the process by which dissenters (or numerical minorities) produce attitude change within a group, despite the extraordinary risk of social rejection and disturbance of the status quo

Question 20

injunctive social norms

Answer 20

perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of in one’s culture

Question 21

descriptive norms

Answer 21

perceptions of how people actually/typically behave in situations (regardless of injunctive norms)

Question 22

obedience

Answer 22

acting in accord with a direct order or command

Question 23

persuasion

Answer 23

the process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors

Question 24

the elaboration likelihood model

Answer 24

find out

Question 25

central route to persuasion

Answer 25

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts

Question 26

peripheral route to persuasion

Answer 26

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness

Question 27

foot-in-door technique

Answer 27

a persuasion technique in which you present a very reasonable request followed by one that may be a little more outrageous (and the request you originally want granted)

Question 28

door-in-face technique

Answer 28

a persuasion technique in which you present a ridiculous request, which you know will get shot down, followed by a more reasonable request (the one you want granted in the first place)

Question 29

lowballing technique

Answer 29

a persuasion technique: people who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante and adds extra cost to the deal