SOCIAL COGNITION Flashcards
social cognition
includes the way people understand, and learn about how people think and behave
attitudes
How we feel and think about certain things
Attitudes influence behavior
Attitudes can be positive negative or neutral
attitude example
School: might not enjoy school, but important for education
Vegetables: not tasty, but good for your health
bidirectional relationship of behavior and attitudes
How we feel and what we think (attitudes) influence what we do (behavior)
What we do (behavior) influences what we think and feel (attitudes)
“Attitudes influence behavior and behavior influences attitude”
bidirectional relationship of behavior and attitudes example
going home early (B) to watch a show you like 9A)
going to school (B) to receive good ATAR (A)
Factors affecting the attitude and behavior link
direct experience: experiencing the event firsthand will form stronger, more permanent attitudes
indirect experience: experiencing an event through someone else, attitudes are less personal, and easily changed
attitude strength: based on strong emotions, thus, often based on direct experience
attitude accessibility: how easily an attitude comes to mind
attitude specificity: attitude towards specific aspects of the concept
Ambivalence: the idea that we can have both positive and negative responses to the same thing (eg. positive attitude to taste negative attitude as it is high in fat)
Social situation:
the structure of attitudes
ABC model
ABC model components
A - affective (what we feel)
B - behavior (what we do)
C - cognitive (what we believe)
The function of attitudes
KATZ model attitudes serve four important functions - adaptive - knowledge - self-expression - ego-defensive
The function of attitudes
ADAPTIVE
maximizing rewards, minimizing unpleasant feelings
guide our behavior towards goals and away from punishments
eg. taking notes in class to improve grades and avoid test anxiety
The function of attitudes
KNOWLEDGE
How we process information in our social world
Make our world predictable
eg. going to the same restaurant and ordering the same thing (you know it’ll be good)
The function of attitudes
SELF-EXPRESSION
Allows us to express who we are through:
- talking about ourselves
- the clothing we wear
- our hobbies
eg. wearing Port Adelaide jumper to express what team we support
The function of attitudes
EGO-DEFENSIVE
protecting our ego by avoiding feelings of guilt, anxiety, hurting someone’s feelings
eg. saying someone looks good but really you think they don’t
Factors affecting changing attitudes (four ways)
source: more often persuaded by experts (trustworthy), attractiveness, louder speakers emphasing the message
message: aim to evoke emotional response, music, sound effects
audience: people who are less intelligent r more susceptible to attitude change
18 - 25 more susceptible to attitude change through advertisements. after this age, attitudes more resistant to change
channel: direct experience result in stronger attitude
young easily influenced by media
older influenced by newspaper, radio etc
persuasion
persuasion is the changing of attitudes by presenting information about another attitude
Peripheral route to persuasion (change of attitude but not permanent)
occurs when the listener decides to agree with the message based on other cues besides the strength of the argument
- source is an expert
- attractiveness of speaker/images
- bright colors
aimed at a young audience and have a negative self-image (easier to persuade)
the central route to persuasion (more permanent attitude change)
logic-driven using data and facts to persuade the listener
- message is clear and credible
- supported by experts
- audience thinks carefully about the content
better aimed at adults/people with greater intelligence
The tricomponent theory assumes
that all three attitude components must be present before it can be said that the attitude exists
eg. you might avoid a spider (b) because you are scared of spiders (a) and believe spiders can harm you (c)
4 factors affecting the bi-directional relationship
attitude strength
- stronger attitudes have a stronger influence on behavior and are more resistant to change
attitudes accessibility
- highly accessible attitudes come to mind more quickly and are remembered better
attitude specificity
- more specific the attitude, more it influences behaviour (jogging but hates all other exercise)
social situation
- affects how freely we express our attitudes (sometimes don’t express in fear of negative responses from others)
behavior affecting attitude example
teenager smoking although they think it’s bad they feel like they need to to be accepted by peers
self - perception theory
argues that people observe their own behavior and use this observation to infer what their attitudes must be
Yale communication model
conditions and circumstances under which people are most likely to change their attitude in response to persuasive messages
impression formation
the impression we form of other people
- usually made within the first minute of meeting someone (what they say, how they say it, appearance, body language, etc).
usually, more negative impressions are more dominant in our minds
impression management
the process through which people try to control the impressions other people form of them
factors that contribute to impressions
verbal communication: 2 levels semantic - the content of what a person says expressive - the way it is being said eg. using slang in a job interview will result in a negative impression
non-verbal communication: visible cues when communication - distance - gestures - eye contact - posture
impression management
self-handicapping
making excuses for why you present a less desirable impression
- occurs before you engage in behavior
impression management
real-handicapping
when something actually happened that could potentially affect performance (illness)
impression management
artificial handicapping
making an excuse for potential poor performance (lying about getting bad sleep)
social comparisons
to gain self-knowledge by comparing ourselves to others
- helps us figure out our strengths + weaknesses
- identifies characteristics distinctive to us
upward social comparison
comparing ourselves to those whose traits and behaviors are better than ours
positive: motivates us to improve
negative: risk in aiming too high
downward social comparison
comparing ourselves to those who are less fortunate or who have lesser abilities
positive: self protect/enhance
negative: may not choose to improve
linear/lateral social comparison
comparing ourselves to people with the same ability as us
positive: reassures ourselves about our own abilities
negative: may not choose to improve
measuring attitudes (2 ways)
behavior observations: watching and describing behavior as it occurs
- advantage: less subjective, more valid
- disadvantages: attitudes and behavior not consistent sometimes with one another, difficult to measure the strength of attitude
Self-report methods: written or spoken answers to questions given by the researcher
- advantage: simple, suitable for people with good verbal skills
- disadvantage: social desirability common, participants may misunderstand questions
Ethics to measuring attitudes
- confidentiality
- voluntary participation
- informed consent
