Lecture 4 - Prejudice Flashcards
What is attitude ?
An attitude is a disposition to respond favourably or unfavourably towards an object, person, institution or event They can be of a cognitive, affective, behavioural nature
What is hypothetical construct?
Explanatory variable which is not directly observable
Features of attitude
Evaluative Directed at external objects
What are the 3 components of attitude?
Cognitive Affective Behavioural
Cognitive - verbal
Belief
Cognitive - non verbal
Perceptual reactions
Affective- verbal
Feelings
Affective - non verbal
Physiological reactions
Behavioural - non verbal
Overt behaviours
Simple attitude
Your behaviour is consistent with your attitude
Complex attitude
Your behaviour is not consistent with your attitude The stronger and more personally relevant an attitude is, the more likely it is to predict behaviour
Attitude accessibility
Ease of retrieving an attitude from behaviour
What is implicit stereotype?
Unconscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group Influenced by experience Based on learned association between various qualities and social catergories
What is attitude seen as ?
Class of behaviour
What is the mere exposure effect?
Repeated exposure has effect of strengthening response to object The more we are exposed to something, the more we grow to like it/object/ person depending on initial feeling
Zajonc 1968)
Used example of Chinese characters. Participants did not know meaning but came to like them/ thought they were positive the more they were exposed to them
What are the 3 forms of attitude formation?
Mere exposure effect Classical conditioning Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning
Positive/negative reinforcement for behaviour Behaviour that lead to positive outcomes or prevent negative outcome is strengthened
Classical conditioning
Consistent pairing of attitude object with other stimuli which are evaluated positively/negatively Through repeated association a formerly neutral stimulus can elicit a reaction which was previously elicited only by another stimulus
Explicit attitude
An attitude that a person is consciously aware of an can report
Implicit attitude
An attitude that influences a person’s feelings and behaviour at an unconscious level
What is implicit association test?
Measures how quickly a person associates concepts or objects with positive or negative words
Implicit association test
Measures people’s implicit (unconscious,inaccessible) associations between different concepts (e.g. ‘male’ and ‘female’. Shows attitudes and belief that people may be unwilling/unable to report
Why is it important to do IAT?
- Unwillingly embarrassed to say what is on their mind 2. Think it is private. 3. Self-deception 4. Don’t know
1sr step of IAT
Categorise stimuli into 2 categories Black appears on top LH corner and white appears on RH corner Middle of screen a word (1st name will appear) The person is asked to alert word into appropriate category by pressing LHS or RHS
2nd step of IAT
Complete similar sort of producer e.g. pleasant (LHS) or unpleasant (RHS) Middle of screen world would appear that is pleasant or unpleasant
3rd step of IAT
Individual are ashes to complete a combined task that include bother categories in the first 2 task e.g. “black/present” LHS and “white/unpleasant” in RHS
4th step of IAT
Repeat task but with repetition of words and images
5th step of IAT
Repeat of 1st task but with words reversed e.g. black would be in RHS and white on LHS
6th step of IAT
Repeat of 3rd step except object and subject would be of opposite pairing e.g. black/unpleasant + white/pleasant
7th step of IAT
Repeat of 5th step but with more repetition of words and images
1sr step of IAT
Categorise stimuli into 2 categories Black appears on top LH corner and white appears on RH corner Middle of screen a word (1st name will appear) The person is asked to alert word into appropriate category by pressing LHS or RHS
2nd step of IAT
Complete similar sort of producer e.g. pleasant (LHS) or unpleasant (RHS) Middle of screen world would appear that is pleasant or unpleasant
3rd step of IAT
Individual are ashes to complete a combined task that include bother categories in the first 2 task e.g. “black/present” LHS and “white/unpleasant” in RHS
4th step of IAT
Repeat task but with repetition of words and images
5th step of IAT
Repeat of 1st task but with words reversed e.g. black would be in RHS and white on LHS
6th step of IAT
Repeat of 3rd step except object and subject would be of opposite pairing e.g. black/unpleasant + white/pleasant
7th step of IAT
Repeat of 5th step but with more repetition of words and images
What is cognitive dissonance?
Uncomfortable mental state due to contradiction between 2 attitudes or attitude and behaviour
What can cognitive dissonance cause ?
Anxiety and tension
Postdecisional dissonance
Cognitive dissonance also arises when we have positive attitudes about different options a bit must choose one option
How does post-dissonance occur ?
Automatically. Little cognitive processing Without awareness
What is insufficient justification?
Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’a behaviour when external justification is insufficient
Classic Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) study
Frustrating peg and spoil test and then asked to relay to incoming student (confederate) that they will be participating in AWESOME experiment Found: 20 dollar - no cognitive dissonance 1 dollar changed attitude because of cognitive dissonance (insufficient justification)
Blascovich et al 1997
Social cognition:
Takes racist people more time to recognise faces
Categorise blocks based on colour, no difference
Categorise people based on race
The high prejudiced people took a longer time to sort individuals and the low prejudiced people were pretty quick
Payne 2001
White participants had to identify hand-tools and hand gun
Each photo preceded by white or black face
Results:
Faster to detect a hand gun when preceded by a black face
Faster to detect a hand tool when preceded by white face
What is implicit stereotype
Relatively inaccessible to conscious awareness and/or control
What is authoriarian personality types?
A person who has extreme respect for authority, who is very obedient to those who have power over them. They may also be hostile to those of a lower status
When is authoritarian personality formed?
During childhood
Why does this personality type form?
Due to harsh parenting sytle such as extremely strict discipline
An exception of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards
Severe criticism of perceived failings
These experiences create resentment and hostility in the child
But they can’t express this against their parents due to fear of punishment
Psychological essentialism
Both an implicit and explicit psychological claim
A bias in how we think about individuals and categories
How certain traits are perceived as an essential part of the object, even when this may not be true
Prentice and Miller 2006 (psychological essentialism)
People are aware of different groups, but do not know why they are different
Differences between groups are not obvious so people have the tendency to understand unique characteristics but cannot consciously analyse them to avoid prejudice
Eagly 1987 (social roles trigger correspondence bias)
Different groups fill different roles in society
People attribute their behaviour to dispositions, not situation
What are attitude formed out of?
Psychographic component
Cannot be seen
Measurement of attitude
Observational studies
Self report methods
Observational studies
Measuring attitude through watching and describing behaviour as it occurs
Indirect measure - observe what someone does and assuming the underlying attitude associated with behaviour
Self report methods
Written or spoken answers to questions asked by the researchers
Data received is called subjective data as it depends on how accurately participants answer questions
Questionnaires
Surveys
Interview
Rating scale
When are attitudes and behaviour likely to be consistent?
Strength of attitude
Accessibility of attitude
Social context of attitude
Perceived control over behaviour
Strength of attitude
Thought about Well known Easily accessible Personally relevant Has a strong emotional component Well informed with information being gained from personal experience Stable and consistent over time
Accessibility of attitude
Attitude easily comes to mind
Has been thought about
Well known and stored in memory
Believed that accessible attitude are closely related to behaviour and guide and predict it
Factors influencing attitude
Formed over long period of time through learning Classical conditioning Operant conditioning Modelling Repeated exposure
Social context of attitude
The actual and social context of attitude affects behaviour of individuals
Behaviour dependent on social surrounding
Perceived control over attitude
Modelling
Can modify or adapt behaviour by observing other people, particularly those close to us or those who are respected or admired
Repeated exposure
Attitude can form by being exposed to an issue, person or event repeatedly
What is principle of cognitive consistency?
we have an inner drive to hold all of our attitudes and behaviour in harmony and avoid disharmony
What happens when there is inconsistency between attitudes or behaviour?
Something must change to eliminate the dissonance
Postdecisional dissonance
Changing our discrepant behaviour
Changing our cognition through rationalisation or denial
Adding a new cognition
What is the conclusion of Festinger and Carl Smith study
Being paid 1 dollar is not sufficient incentive for lying and so those who paid 1 dollar experienced dissonance. They could only overcome that dissonance by coming to believe that the tasks were interesting and enjoyable
Being paid 20 dollar provides a reason for turning pegs and there is no dissonance
What are advantages to this study
Lab experiment
Scientific can be repeated
What are disadvantages to this study
We cannot physically observe cognitive dissonance
We cannot objectively measure it
The term dissonance is subjective
Individual difference in whether or not people act as their theory predicts
Low ecological validity
Biased sample
When do we also experience dissonance?
If we put effort into a task which we have chosen to carry and the task turn out badly
Aronson and Mills
To investigate the relationship between dissonance and effort
Method of aronson and mills
Female students volunteered to take part in a discussion on psychology of sex
Mild embarrassment condition: participant read aloud to a male experimenter a list of sex related words like Virgin and prostitute
Severe embarrassment conditions: read a lot obscene words and a very explicit sexual passage
Conclusion: when people feel embarrassed they feel dissonance
Verbal self report
Primarily measuring evaluative / affective component
Thurston scale (1928)
Made up a statement about a particular issue
Each statement has a numerical value
Likert Scale (1932)
Series of statement followed by a series of responsive alternative
Guttman scale (1944)
Measure one factor/ subject
Followed by yes/no
Semantic differential scale (1957)
Rate a topic on a standard set of bipolar adjective with opposite meaning
I.e. sweet and bitter
7 point scale
Fishbein expectancy value (1974)
Success in predicting behaviour is determined by asking whether we would perform a given act/series of given act
Use questions that are quite specific
