Psychology - Social Cognition Flashcards
What are the 4 ways to describe an attitude?
- Positive, the evaluation of the thing is positive overall
- Negative, the evaluation of the thing is negative overall
- Ambivalent, the evaluation is both equally positive and negative
- Neutral, the evaluation has not been formed or is mostly non-existent
What is the tripartite model of attitudes? (ABC)
(also known as structure of attitudes)
Affective component: emotions associated with the attitude. E.g. I feel towards this thing
Behavioural component- past behaviours and future intentions associated with the attitude. E.g I when the thing is involved.
Cognitive component- Beliefs and thoughts associated with the attitude. E.g I think about this thing.
What are the four functions of an attitude?
Attitudes can perform one or more of the following functions:
Utilitarian: guides us towards rewards and away from punishments
Self-expressive: expresses who we are to others. Holding and expressing this attitude informs others about our values and self.
Ego defensive: protects our self-esteem from the realities we do not like.
Knowledge: Makes the world more predictable. Helps us know how to act in new or unfamiliar situation. Helps us make decisions quickly and easily.
What is the central route of persuasion?
The central route of persuasion attempts to change an individual’s attitude by providing facts or arguments.
What is the peripheral route of persuasion?
The peripheral route of persuasion attempts to change an individual’s attitude by using association and emotion.
What are factors that influence persuasion?
The source (who is delivering the message): A source that is more attractive, authentic, credible and/ or high status the more persuasive the message can be.
The audience (who is receiving the message): Intelligence, age and self-esteem can influence how resistant an individual is to the message. Furthermore, the audiences existing attitudes can influence their willingness to be persuaded.
The message (content of persuasion): Longer, complex and though provoking messages can be very convincing but only if the audience is willing to engage. If the audience is not willing to engage shorter and less though provoking messages are more effective.
What is a bidirectional relationship?
Attitudes influence behaviour and behaviour influences attitudes. The relationship between attitudes (social cognition) and behaviour is described as bidirectional.
Example: Bob has a negative attitude towards school. When it came to time to apply to universities Bob decided not to bother because “University is just more school”
What factors can effect the attitude-behaviour link?
Strength: strong attitudes are those that are firmly held and provoke strong emotional responses. The stronger the attitude the more likely it will influence behaviour.
Accessibility: the accessibility of an attitude refers to the ease with which it comes to mind. In general, highly accessible students tend to be more influential.
Specificity: the more relevant/related an attitude is to the behaviour the more influential it is likely to be.
Ambivalence: the more an attitude is complicated with both positive and negative cognition/ arguments the less influential it is.
What is cognitive dissonance theory?
Cognitive dissonance occurs when our attitudes do not align with our behaviour (or vice versa). This results in feelings of mental discomfort (stress). Cognitive dissonance with stronger attitudes often results in more intense and persistent feelings and mental discomfort.
How can cognitive dissonance be changed?
- Change the attitude to match the behaviour
- Change the behaviour to match the attitude
- Obtain new information that allows the attitude to be discontinued.
What is self perception theory?
Self perception theory states that when we observe the behaviours of others we make judgements about the motivations of those behaviours
What is social comparison theory?
Social comparison theory states that people naturally compare themselves to others.
It says we do this to gain knowledge about ourselves and our abilities.
What is upward social comparison?
Upward social comparison occurs when we compare ourselves to someone who we consider to be better than ourselves in a particular domain. The benefit of doing this is that it gives us motivation to peruse our goals.
Example: Bob has a you tube channel where he talks about movies. He has 229 subscribers. Bob can compare himself to Lindsay Ellis who also has a movie based you tube channel but with over 892,000 subscribers. This informs and motivates Bob to keep building his channel
What is downward social comparison?
Downward social comparison occurs when we compare ourselves to those we consider less able or fortunate in a particular domain. The benefit of doing so is that it improves our self-esteem.
Example: Sandra works casually and earns $30.00 an hour. She compares herself to her cousins one who is unemployed and the other who earns $20.00 an hour. This makes her feel better about herself and her job.
What is self handicapping and what are the two forms?
Self handicapping occurs when an individual is concerned about their performance in a task and creatives an excuse for failure.
- Real self-handicapping - where an individual purposely sabotages their chances of success.
- Feigned self-handicapping – where an individual deceives others about their chances of success.
