Week Seven Introduction/Methods, Attitudes in Social Psychology Flashcards
Components of social influence (CPPG)
Cultural influence
Pressure to conform
Persuasion
Groups of people
Components of social relations (PAAHI)
Prejudice
Aggression
Attraction
Intimacy
Helping
Define social psychology
Scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others (Allport, 1954a)
What are the two arguments that have been proposed for how feelings and mood should be measured?
They are discrete mood states (Lazarus, 1991)
On continuum from bad to good (Tellegen, Watson and Clark, 1999)
Feelings can be accurately measured physiologically. True or false?
False, measures indicate only intensity of arousal
What was the key takeaway from Johnstone et al. (2006) study?
Feelings can be measured in way that doesn’t depend solely on asking how one feels
What was the Johnstone et al. (2006) study aiming to measure?
Brain responses to vocal expressions to anger and happiness, whether specific brain regions showed preferential engagement in processing of one emotion over the other
What was the key finding from Johnstone et al. (2006)’s experiment?
Greatest change showed in middle temporal gyrus for happy tone when corresponding with happy face
How can a research get a more accurate measurement of behaviour?
Measuring or asking about the behaviour more than once (because they vary)
What was the key takeaway of the study by Fein et al., 1998?
Social context to strongly influence people’s judgement of information e.g. presidential candidates
What was the key finding of the study by Fein et al., 1998?
Audience reactions to the presidential candidate produced large shifts in participants judgement of performance
What evidence is there to suggest that psychology is a science?
It follows certain value and methods
Uses scientific METHOD to construct and test theories
Scientific theory states no theory is true simply because it is logical
Define subject effects
Participant’s behaviour an artefact of experiment rather than being a spontaneous and natural response to manipulation
Define experimenter effects
Where experimenter influences participants to suit their hypothesis
Define demand characteristics
Features that demand a particular response
What happens in participant observation?
Experimenter becomes active member of group themselves e.g. joins gang
Define independent variable
Feature of situations that change on their own accord or can be manipulated by an experimenter to have effects on the dependent variable
What is unique about correlational research?
Allows us to study topics we can’t manipulate ethically or practically
What is a positive feature of experiments?
Make cause-and-effect statements
Have high external validity (extent to which findings can be generalised to other situations)
Outline Milgram’s obedience experiment
Voltage shock
What is a key takeaway from the definition of what an attitude is?
Directed AT something
Outline the components of attitudes
Cognitive = includes beliefs (which are associated with emotion)
Affective/evaluative = likes/dislikes
Behavioural = intention to act in specific ways
Define the general functions of attitudes
Save us cognitive energy by not having to come up with how we should relate to something every time we are exposed to it
- similar to how schemas or stereotypes operate
What was the key finding of La Piere (1934)
Behavioural intentions vary significantly from behavioural outcomes
How can attitudes be improperly measured?
By asking about them vaguely compared to what you are trying to study
What does the theory of reasoned action (late 1970s) say about behaviour?
Person’s behaviour determined by their intention to perform behaviour, intention determined by attitudes and subjective norms
Name some issues associated with the theory of reasoned action
Well designed to predict behaviours only under our control
Define the theory of planned behaviour (PB comes after training - reasoned action)
Predicting behaviour from attitude measure is improved if people believe they have control over that behaviour
Findings of study by Crano, 1997
Attitudes towards busing were strong predictor of who people voted for if they had personal interest in area e.g. children who attended local schools
What is the main point made by Heider’s balance theory?
People prefer attitudes that are consistent with each other over those that are inconsistent
How is this consistency attempted to be maintained?
Person (P) tries to maintain consistency in attitudes to, and relationships with other people (O) and elements of the environment (X)
Issues with Heider’s balance theory
Doesn’t take into account the severity of the issue e.g. football teams vs political views
Heider believes everything must be consistent, but research shows we can easily compartmentalise
Define cognitive dissonance
Where behaviours engaged in are inconsistent with our attitudes
What is a consequence of attempting to maintain cognitive consistency?
Maladaptive and irrational behaviour
What is an example of how dissonance can help to induce attitude change?
Feelings of hypocrisy…
- publicly advocating some behaviour or attitude vs acting in way inconsistent with this
What was the key finding of Dickerson et al. (1992) study
The hypocrisy condition (high dissonance) conserved water usage by reducing their shower time compared to others
What was the key finding of Stone et al. (1994)
High dissonance increased likelihood of condom purchase
Outline the Elaboration-Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo’s, 1986)
Examines variables affecting persuasion e.g. source, message, audience and contextual variables
Is the Elaboration-Likelihood model more descriptive or explanatory?
Descriptive
Define the heuristic-systematic model
Describes how attitudes can change in two different ways (systematic - central processing) or heuristics (peripheral)
What does systematic relate to?
People scanning and considering available arguments
What does heuristic relate to?
Appraising something in short/simple way e.g. mental shortcuts like automatic stereotypes
What was the key finding of Langer (1978)’s study?
That we are more likely to have someone do a favour for us if we provide them with a reason
