Week 4: Cognition & Emotions: Attitudes Flashcards
Are general positive or negative evaluations of objects.
Attitudes
Are enduring beliefs about important aspects of life that go beyond specific situations.
Values
Attitudes VS Values
Attitudes: Concrete & specific
Values: Abstract & generalized
Help us make quick decisions without analyzing every detail.
Attitudes
They give us an overall impression of whether we like an object or not.
Attitudes
They help us come up with fast answers to complex questions.
Attitudes
Ideally help us to approach positive outcomes or to avoid negative outcomes.
Attitudes
Functions of Attitudes
1) Utilitarian: approach positive, avoid negative
2) Symbolic: affirm values, express social identity, affirm values
3) Practical: help us make quick decisions
Sources of Attitudes
1) Mere exposure
2) Learning
3) Culture
4) Stereotypes
The more often people are exposed to an object or subject, the more they like it.
When you see, hear, or otherwise perceive something repeatedly, then it is easier for us to process the information.
People prefer the familiar over the unfamiliar.
Limitations: Only effective for initially neutral or positive stimuli.
Mere Exposure
Are beliefs about groups which can be positive or negative and accurate or inaccurate.
Stereotypes
Plays a significant role in shaping our attitudes, particularly through concepts like independent and interdependent self.
Culture
Source of Attitude that can be shaped by rewards and punishments associated with stimuli.
Learning
They help us organise knowledge in an efficient way that saves time and eff ort in making complex decisions and judgement.
Attitudes
A good example of attitudes resulting in potentially bad or even dangerous outcomes.
It is a negative eff ect of prejudgment of a group and its individual members.
Predjudice
A particularly problematic phenomenon closely related to prejudice
Stigmatization and Stigma by Association
A tendency for people to devalue someone because of their association with a stigmatised individual.
Stigma by Association
People’s interpretations of events around them
Appraisals
Negative stereotypes applied to individuals, often leading to discrimination.
Stigma
Are experiences like hearing voices, for instance, or sometimes seeing things that other people can’t see.
And these experiences are actually common and present to different degrees throughout the general population.
Psychotic Experiences
It’s not the events that happen to us or the internal experiences that we have that lead us to problems and symptoms of mental health problems. But it’s actually the way in which we think about them.
So it’s the appraisals or the interpretations that we have of the events that happen to us and our internal experiences that lead to problematic outcomes.
The Basic Cognitive Model
The kind of clinical symptoms that people have are not simply statements of experience.
There’s an appraisal and interpretation stage in between.
The Basic Cognitive Model
A term used to describe a person’s ability to maintain focus, concentration, and overall mental clarity.
Cognitive Grip
Perceiving things that aren’t there.
This can involve seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling things that others can’t.
Hallucinations
Fixed, false beliefs that are not based on reality.
They are disturbances in thought content, not perception.
These thoughts persist despite evidence to the contrary.
Delusions
Feeling sensations in the body that aren’t real, like bugs crawling on the skin.
Somatic Hallucinations
Feeling touch sensations that aren’t real, like being touched when no one is there.
Tactile Hallucinations
Smelling things that aren’t there.
Olfactory Hallucinations
Believing that someone is putting thoughts into your head against your will.
Thought Insertion
Believing that your thoughts are being taken away from you.
Thought Withdrawal
Believing that others can hear your thoughts.
Thought Broadcasting
Feeling detached from your body or emotions.
Dissociation
Believing that people are following or watching you.
Persecutory Delusions
Are unusual or extraordinary occurrences that deviate from what is typically considered normal or expected. These experiences often defy easy explanation and can range from the mildly surprising to the profoundly inexplicable.
Anomalous Experiences
Maladaptive Appraisals
1) Intentionalizing
2) Personalizing
3) Internalizing
4) Conspiracy Theories
5) View experiences as more striking, distressing, threatening
Attributing an event to someone’s deliberate action.
Internalizing
Believing a personal connection to an event.
Perzonalizing
Blaming oneself for an event.
Internalizing
A famous model that describes how attitudes change in response to information.
According to this model, there are two ways in which people process the information:
1) Central route
2) Peripheral route
Elaboration Likelihood Model by Petty and Cacioppo
Involves careful consideration of message content and leads to enduring attitude change.
Central Route Processing
Relies on superficial cues and leads to temporary attitude change.
Peripheral Route Processing
Motivation & Route Processing
High motivation leads to central processing, while low motivation leads to peripheral processing.
People hold attitudes that they are not even aware of.
These are evaluations whose origin is unknown to the individual and they aff ect implicit responses.
Implicit Attitudes (unconscious)
Normal Attitudes.
Evaluations whose origin we know and that eff ect explicit responses.
Explicit Attitudes (consious)
Simple rules that are used to form an attitude judgement with little cognitive effort.
Heuristics
Are mental shortcuts used to make quick judgments.
They are not guaranteed to be accurate but often provide a reasonable approach.
Heuristics
2 Types of Heuristics
1) Representation
2) Availability
Base attitudes on level of similarity between a target and a population.
Representations / Representative Heuristic
An event that is easy to remember or imagine seems more likely.
Availability Heuristic
Are outcomes that are close to winning but ultimately result in a loss.
Creates beliefs that you are more likely to succeed next time.
Near win / Near miss
Is the belief that a particular outcome is more likely to occur after a series of opposite outcomes.
Limitation: Each attempt is an independent event, and past outcomes do not influence future ones.
Gambler’s Fallacy
