Week 11

Question 1

Dimensions of attitudes

Answer 1

• Strength
  - Importance & Accessibility
• Implicitness
• Complexity
• Ambivalence/ Certainty
• Coherence

Question 2

Strength

Answer 2

the durability and
impact of an attitude
(has the same
attitude persisted
over time? Is it
resistant to change?

Question 3

Implicitness

Answer 3

• Degree to which we are aware of our attitudes
• Attitudes so implicit that they regulate
behaviour unconsciously/ automatically

Question 4

Complexity

Answer 4

• Degree of reasoning that forms an attitude
• Intricacy of thoughts about different attitudes is their
Cognitive Complexity

Question 5

Ambivalence

Answer 5

Extent to which an attitude object is associated with conflicting
feelings / conflicting evaluative responses (positive & negative)
• Low positive or low negative attitude  hardly any impact on
behaviour (doesn’t care either way)
• High positive or high negative  impacts on behaviour

Question 6

Coherence

Answer 6

• Extent to which an attitude (particularly cognitive and evaluative)
is internally consistent

Question 7

Persuasion – Elaboration Likelihood

Answer 7

Two routes through which receiver may process
message content
• Central Route: message recipient highly attentive and
processes information through careful thought and
rational thinking
• Peripheral Route: bypasses rational process and
appeals to other processes such as heart or stomach
e.g. Fast Food or beer ads not presenting a rational
message but appealing to senses

Question 8

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Answer 8

When behaviour is inconsistent with our attitudes or
we receive information that is inconstant with our
attitude experience cognitive dissonance – leads to
attitudinal change (Festinger, 1957)
• Inconsistency between cognitions results in an
aversive psychological state called dissonance
(negative psychological tension) [Psychological as
opposed to logical inconsistency] e.g. “I love
chocolate” V “Chocolate is damaging my health.

Question 9

Types of Schemas

Answer 9

• Event schemas / scripts
• associated with a particular situation, they tell us what to expect
E.g., what to expect at a B & S Ball vs. 5 year old birthday party

• Person schemas
• knowledge structures about specific people / types of people
• stereotypes - classifying people according to social categories (gender,
religion, ethnicity)
• Implicit personality theories – what characteristics go together to form a
particular personality type (e.g., extraverts – enjoy company of others, loud,
fun)
• Schemas / Roles for people – mother, father….
• ABOUT GROUPS OF PEOPLE

• Self-schemas
• Self concept
• Future oriented schemas – what we would like to become

Question 10

Social Cognition -Attributions

Answer 10

• The ‘why’ of social interactions
• We want to understand why other people behave the way
they do
• We don’t just passively observe behaviour – Continually
attribute reasons why something is occurring
• Much of our understanding of social events is based on
our analysis of the causes of other people’s actions and
their consequences

Attribution
• the process of inferring the causes of one’s own and
others’ mental states and behaviours

Question 11

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 11

• Tendency to attribute another person’s behaviour to his
or her own dispositional qualities, rather than to the
situation

Question 12

Actor-observer Bias

Answer 12

• Tendency to attribute our own behaviour to external

factors and others’ behaviours to dispositional causes

Question 13

Self-serving Biases

Answer 13

• Tendency to attribute successes to stable, internal

factors and failures to temporary, external factors