Problem 4 attitudes Flashcards
Attitude
- A relatively enduring, organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols.
- A general feeling or evaluation – positive or negative – about some person, object or issue
One-component attitude model
An attitude consist of the influence towards or the evaluation of the object
Two-component attitude model
An attitude of a mental readiness to act. It also guides evaluative responses
Three-component attitude model
An attitude consists of cognitive, affective and behavioural components, stressing thought , feeling and action as basic to human experience.
Sociocognitive model
Attitude theory highlighting an evaluative component. Knowledge of an object is represented in memory along with a summary of how to handle it
Information processing
the possibilities by which people gain knowledge and form and change attitudes
Information integration theory
the theory that the attitude can be estimated by averaging across the positive and negative factors of an object
Cognitive algebra
impression formation that focuses on how people combine attitudes which have valence to get an overall (negative or positive) impression
→we acquire and re-evaluate attitudes because of new information
Attitude formation
The process of forming our attitudes, mainly from experiences, influence of others and our emotional reactions
Modelling
copy the behaviour/attitudes of a real-life person or a symbolic model
Evaluative conditioning
A stimulus will become more or less liked when it is paired with stimuli that are negative or positive
Spreading attitude effect
A liked or disliked person may spread their attitude to an second person. e.g. I like person 1, person 1 likes person 2 so I am likely to like person 2
Self-perception theory
you draw conclusions based on your own behaviour
Cognitive dissonance
Attitude change in terms of conflict between a persons beliefs, and discrepancy between behaviour attitudes, and behaviour and self-conception. (conflict between attitude and behaviour so you change one of them)
Effort justification
the firstly negative rated goal becomes good if the person puts enough effort in it (hazing in student associations)
Induced compliance
Unwellbeing is experienced when a person Is persuaded to behave in a way that is contrary to an attitude
Free-choice dissonance
when you think you have chosen something freely it can change your attitude (e.g. when you pay more for a meal but is was your decision so you are okay with it)
Multiple-act criterion
a general behaviour index which you gain by combinate or average several specific behaviours
→general attitudes predict multiple behaviours better than they predict a single behaviour
→can predict an overall/tendency behaviour
Theory of reasoned action
suggest that the behaviour is under conscious control of the person
A certain attitude that has normative support predicts an intention to act which leads to the actual behaviour
→subject norm – a product of what other persons believe (normal)
→Attitude towards behaviour - a product what a person beliefs about the behaviour of the target
→behavioural intention – an intern explanation to act
→behaviour – the action performed
→only performed if the attitude and the norm is favourable
Protection motivation theory
adopting a healthy behaviour requires cognitive balance between the perceived threat of illness and ones capacity to stick to the rules
Automatic activation
attitudes with a strong evaluative link to situational hints are more likely to come automatically to your mind (when you have direct personal experiences with something your link is strong)
Third person effect
most people think they are less likely to be influenced by advertisement than compared to others
Theory of planned behaviour
It suggests that predicting behaviour from an attitude measure is improved if people believe they have control over that behaviour
Persuasive communication
Messages intended to change an attitude and related behaviours of an audience (from whom? what ?to who?)
1. The source (sender) – from whom does the communication come? (preferred a person with high status)
2. The message (signal) – what medium is used, and what kinds of argument are involved (simple message: video is more impactful than audio and audio is better than written)
3. The Audience (receiver) – who is the target (distracted persons are more easily to persuade)
→women are more easily persuade than men)
Effect of repetition
optimum is 2-3 times a week
Sleeper effect
Persuasive messages can increase over time when e.g. you forgot the source (gender-related persuasiveness is a complex interaction of who is speaking, who is listening and whether the message is presented in sex-stereotypical way)
Individual differences
Social context acts as moderator variable that influences the personality-persuasible relationship
Compliance
Superficial public and transitory change in behaviour and expressed attitudes in response to request, coercion or group pressure (when you are forced to do a task you dont like just because you are forced to do it, no attitude change)
Cognitive consistency theories
People try to maintain an internal order and agreement among their various cognitions
Selective exposure hypothesis
People tend to avoid dissonant information
Post-decisional conflict
The dissonance associated with behaving in a counter attitudinal way. Dissonance can be reduced by bringing the attitude into line with behaviour
Balance theory
A person (P) tries to balance attitudes to, and relationship with, other people (Q) and elements of the environment (X)
Self-efficacy
What we think how much capacity we have so success in certain tasks
Moderator variable
A variable that develops a hypothesis with a view to improve its predictive power (e.g. A causes B but only when C, the moderator, is present)
Social representation
Collectively elaborated explanations of unfamiliar and complex phenomena that transform them into familiar and simple form. Objects are used as anchor for example 9/11 defines the term terror
Attitude change
significant change of an individuals attitude, which includes the communicator, communication, the medium used and the characteristics of the audience in the persuasion process. Attitude change can also occur when you have to do something what is counter your actual attitude
Elaboration-likelihood model
When people attend to a message carefully they use a central route to process it otherwise they use a peripheral route
Heuristic-systematic model
when people attend to a message carefully they use systematic processing, otherwise they process information by using heuristics or mental shortcuts
→feeling good makes is hard for us to process information systematically (can be caused of music)
→short information leads to auto-pilot which leads to heuristic processing (such as advertisement clips)
Integration
strategic attempt to get people to like you in order to get compliance with a request
Reciprocity principle
the law of doing unto others what they have done to you
→can bring pressure to you e.g. widow cleaner at traffic lights
Multiple requests
Tactic for gaining compliance. The first request functions as set-up or softener for the second real request
Foot-in-the-door Tactic
if someone agrees to a small request they will be more willing to comply with a later large request
Door in-the face tactic
Multiple-request technique to gain compliance, in which the main request is preceded by a larger request that is bound to be refused
Low ball tactic
Technique for including compliance in which a person who agrees to a request still feels committed after finding that there are hidden cost (Telekom shop employers)
Mindlessness
When you act without thinking about it. Can harm yourself or people with whom you interact
Reactance
people try to protect their freedom to act. When they perceive that this freedom has been curtailed, they act to regain it
Forewarning
Advance knowledge that one is to be the target of a persuasion attempt. Forewarning often produces resistance to persuasion
Inoculation
A way of making persons resistant to persuasion. By giving them a weak contra-argument to help them forming proper pro-arguments
→supportive defence – providing additional arguments
→inoculation defence – providing counter arguments to prepare pro arguments
