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PSYCHOLOGY STAGE 2 > SOCIAL COGNITION > Flashcards

SOCIAL COGNITION Flashcards

1
Q

social cognition

A

includes the way people understand, and learn about how people think and behave

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2
Q

attitudes

A

How we feel and think about certain things
Attitudes influence behavior
Attitudes can be positive negative or neutral

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3
Q

attitude example

A

School: might not enjoy school, but important for education
Vegetables: not tasty, but good for your health

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4
Q

bidirectional relationship of behavior and attitudes

A

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”

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5
Q

bidirectional relationship of behavior and attitudes example

A

going home early (B) to watch a show you like 9A)

going to school (B) to receive good ATAR (A)

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6
Q

Factors affecting the attitude and behavior link

A

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:

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7
Q

the structure of attitudes

A

ABC model

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8
Q

ABC model components

A

A - affective (what we feel)
B - behavior (what we do)
C - cognitive (what we believe)

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9
Q

The function of attitudes

A 
KATZ model 
attitudes serve four important functions 
- adaptive 
- knowledge 
- self-expression 
- ego-defensive
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10
Q

The function of attitudes

ADAPTIVE

A

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

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11
Q

The function of attitudes

KNOWLEDGE

A

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)

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12
Q

The function of attitudes

SELF-EXPRESSION

A

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

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13
Q

The function of attitudes

EGO-DEFENSIVE

A

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

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14
Q

Factors affecting changing attitudes (four ways)

A

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

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15
Q

persuasion

A

persuasion is the changing of attitudes by presenting information about another attitude

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16
Q

Peripheral route to persuasion (change of attitude but not permanent)

A

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)

17
Q

the central route to persuasion (more permanent attitude change)

A

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

18
Q

The tricomponent theory assumes

A

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)

19
Q

4 factors affecting the bi-directional relationship

A

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)

20
Q

behavior affecting attitude example

A

teenager smoking although they think it’s bad they feel like they need to to be accepted by peers

21
Q

self - perception theory

A

argues that people observe their own behavior and use this observation to infer what their attitudes must be

22
Q

Yale communication model

A

conditions and circumstances under which people are most likely to change their attitude in response to persuasive messages

23
Q

impression formation

A

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

24
Q

impression management

A

the process through which people try to control the impressions other people form of them

25
Q

factors that contribute to impressions

A 
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
26
Q

impression management

self-handicapping

A

making excuses for why you present a less desirable impression
- occurs before you engage in behavior

27
Q

impression management

real-handicapping

A

when something actually happened that could potentially affect performance (illness)

28
Q

impression management

artificial handicapping

A

making an excuse for potential poor performance (lying about getting bad sleep)

29
Q

social comparisons

A

to gain self-knowledge by comparing ourselves to others

  • helps us figure out our strengths + weaknesses
  • identifies characteristics distinctive to us
30
Q

upward social comparison

A

comparing ourselves to those whose traits and behaviors are better than ours

positive: motivates us to improve
negative: risk in aiming too high

31
Q

downward social comparison

A

comparing ourselves to those who are less fortunate or who have lesser abilities

positive: self protect/enhance
negative: may not choose to improve

32
Q

linear/lateral social comparison

A

comparing ourselves to people with the same ability as us

positive: reassures ourselves about our own abilities
negative: may not choose to improve

33
Q

measuring attitudes (2 ways)

A

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
34
Q

Ethics to measuring attitudes

A
  • confidentiality
  • voluntary participation
  • informed consent

PSYCHOLOGY STAGE 2 (12 decks)

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