Social Psychology Flashcards
What is cognitive dissonance?
when there is a mismatch between attitude and behaviour which we are motivated to remove by changing either attitude or behaviour
What do attitudes reflect
what think about something how we feel about it what we plan to do about it
define attitude with relevance to expectancy:
value models focus on evaluations of the likelihood and desirability of different outcomes e.g. expectancy: smokers get yellow teeth value: I don’t like yellow teeth
How do public commitments affect attitude?
By making a public commitment the person is more likely to change behaviour.
however the message for change must be persuasive enough to trigger the change.
In order to to be persuasive the message must:
- Get to the recipient (place it where the target will see it )
- be attention grabbing
- be understood by the recipient - complexity/ language
- be accepted as relevant and important
- be retained, translated into an intention, and acted upon
Characteristics in the messenger that makes the recipient more likely to be persuaded
- credible
- trustworthy
- attractive
How does fear affect attitude?
a certain amount of fear may motivate people, but it can be counterproductive
… if people lack the knowledge, skills and confidence
needed to change their behaviour
Loss and Gain framing: what is it better for?
loss-framing may be better for illness-detecting behaviours
gain-framing may be better for health-promoting behaviours
What are the two definitions of self?
- personal self - how I perceive myself
- social self - how others perceive me
What are the two forms of identity?
- personal identity - everything that makes me unique
- social identity - the things I share with members of groups that are important to me
Define self-esteem
Feelings and evaluations about ourselves
How can Health impact disease?
Self-esteem can also be lowered in certain illnesses - e.g. depression
Positive self-esteem is reflected in promotion of a positive self-image (to ourselves and others)
How do we maintain a favourable self-image?
Favourable social comparisons
- downward comparisons with people whose situations are worse than our own
- upward comparisons to highlight similarities between ourselves and people we consider superior
How does appearance affect healthcare?
appearance is important for individual and group identity (Goffman, 1959)
we use others’ appearance for shorthand evaluation of them (e.g. status in jaywalking study)
looks can be deceiving - e.g., HIV
doctors’ attire influences patients’ trust and confidence in them
How does self image link to cognitive dissonance?
perceived discrepancies between our ideal self and actual self can be used to motivate behaviour change
in some cases, discrepancies between ideal and actual self-images can lead to unhealthy behaviour such as eating disorders
attribution for behaviours and health
efforts to maintain a positive self-image are influenced by the attributions we give for ours and others’ behaviour
- internal attributions = belief that a person’s behaviour is internally motivated - it is voluntary and reflects the person’s attitudes and beliefs.
- external attributions = belief that a person’s behaviour is due to external factors such as luck, chance, or someone else demanding it
how do we use attributions?
we tend to use biased attributions
we tend to make internal attributions for our successes we tend to make external attributions for our failures
fundamental attribution error - what is it and how does it affect healthcare?
we tend to attribute others’ situation to internal/ dispositional causes rather than external/situational causes
attribution errors can affect clinical care through their impact on doctor-patient relationship
we must ensure that we consider external and situational factors in attempts to understand and explain illness
health locus of control:
Internal
Powerful others
External
Internal
what an individual does affects their health
= more likely to seek information, and initiate and persist with healthy behaviour
Powerful others
strongest influence on health is other people (e.g. Dr)
= more likely to seek/follow professional advice, but less likely to initiate change
External
health and illness are largely due to fate or luck
= unlikely to take action to protect/promote health
what are stereotypes?
Stereotypes are generalisations that we make about specific social groups and members of those groups
e.g. nationality, occupation, religion
What is prejudice and how does it effect healthcare?
Prejudice toward particular social groups is commonly based on inaccurate stereotypes of group members
prejudice = judging before having relevant facts
History is replete with clashes between groups based on erroneous stereotypes and prejudice
