Psychology SAC Flashcards
Attitude
A judgement that someone makes about an object, person, group, event, or issue.
Affective Component
A feeling or emotional reaction. E.g. Crying, stomping around.
Behavioural Component
The way we express our attitudes through action. E.g. Someone participating in recycling programs.
Cognitive Component
Beliefs and knowledge of the world used while forming attitudes. E.g. Believing it is essential to exercise regularly to maintain good health.
Congruent
All components line up (All negative, All positive)
Incongruent
Not all components line up.
Halo/Horn Effect
A positive or negative opinion is formed solely relying on initial information about a person, place, or thing.
E.g. When someone looks physically attractive and assumed to be kind, intelligent, and sociable.
Personal Attribution (Internal Factors)
A personal attribution is an explanation due to the characteristics of the person involved, such as their personality, attitude, motivation, mood, or effort.
Situational Attribution (External Factors)
Situational attribution is an explanation of behaviour due to factors associated with the situation the person is in.
Fundamental Attribution Error
It is the tendency to overestimate the influence of personal factors and underestimate the impact of situational factors on other people’s behaviour.
Self-serving Bias
When judging ourselves, we tend to take credit for our successes and deny responsibility for failure.
Saliency Bias
The persons’ behaviour tends to be more salient than the situation in which it is occurring.
Just-world belief
Bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people.
Actor-Observer Bias
It is the tendency to attribute our own behaviour to external or situational factors, yet attribute others to internal person factors.
Stereotype
A generalisation about the personal characteristics of the members of a social group that can be positive or negative.
Social Stigma
Negative labels and attitudes associated with disapproval or rejection by others who are not labelled in that way.
Discrimination
Is a positive or negative behaviour towards a social group ad its members, based solely on being a part of that social group.
Intergroup contact
Prejudice can be reduced through intergroup contact between two groups who are prejudiced against each other.
Extended contact
Sustained or ongoing contact, either directly or indirectly over a period of time.
Contact hypothesis
Certain types of direct contact between members of different groups can reduce prejudice.
Superordinate Goal
A goal that cannot be achieved by any one group and overrides other existing goals which each group might have.
Cognitive Dissonance
An unpleasant psychological state that occurs when people become aware there is inconsistency among their various beliefs, attitudes, or other ‘cognitions’.
Ways to reduce cognitive dissonance:
- Change your cognition or belief.
- Change your behaviour to suit your cognition.
- Add new cognitions.
Cognitive Interventions
A term to describe the variety of therapeutic approaches designed to address psychological problems at the cognitive level, by the activation and analysis of thoughts, experiences, senses, and memories.
Heuristic
A strategy for solving a problem or making a decision that is based on experience with similar types of problems but cannot guarantee a correct outcome.
Availability Heuristic
Involves making a judgement based on how easy or difficult it is to bring specific examples to mind.
Representativeness Heuristic
Involves categorising a person, object, event, or anything else by judging how closely it matches our idea of a typical member of the category.
Affect Heuristic
Involves making a judgement that is influenced by the emotion being experienced at the time.