attitudes

Question 1

define attitude

Answer 1

a long lasting evaluation a person makes about an object, person, group, event or issue.

Question 2

what are the characteristics of an attitude?

Answer 2

• attitudes persist over time and are relatively stable
  -attitudes have a direction: can be positive, negative or neutral.
• attitudes vary in intensity

Question 3

what are the 4 ways attitudes are learn through?

Answer 3

1- direct personal experience
2- observation- interaction with others
3- conditioning- punishment and reward
4- social norms- cultural values& beliefs, social roles, media

Question 4

describe implicit vs explicit

Answer 4

implicit attitudes are attitudes that are at the unconscious level, are involuntary formed and are typically unknown to us.
awareness- not aware of implicit attitude
change- likely to be resistant to change
measurement - involve indirect measurement.

explicit- are evaluations that are at the conscious level, are deliberately formed and are easy to self report.
awareness- people are aware of their explicit attitude
change- more dynamic and can change over time
measurement- involve direct measurement

Question 5

what is a implicit attitude?

Answer 5

implicit attitudes are attitudes that are at the unconscious level, are involuntary formed and are typically
unknown to us.

awareness- not aware of implicit attitude
change- likely to be resistant to change
measurement - involve indirect measurement.

Question 6

what is a explicit attitude?

Answer 6

explicit- are evaluations that are at the conscious level, An attitude that you deliberately think about and report
e.g., you could tell someone whether you like math.

awareness- people are aware of their explicit attitude
change- more dynamic and can change over time
measurement- involve direct measurement

Question 7

what are the functions of the attitudes?

Answer 7

need/ want- people develop specific attitudes to fulfil needs

knowledge function- individuals need to understand the external world in a meaningful way to become a functional member of society

value expression- enables individual to express their central values and beliefs

self image protection- helps people protect their self image from harm, shame, threat

Question 8

what is the tripartite model of attitude formation?

Answer 8

A three-element model on how attitudes are formed throughout life.
Attitudes are formed from affective (or emotion),
behavioural (or actions) and
cognitive (thoughts and beliefs)

component- affective
explanatory word- feelings- an individual has towards a person, place, object, event or issue.

component- behavioural
explanatory word- actions- Actions (the way in which an attitude is expressed through our actions).

component- cognitive
explanatory word- beliefs -Beliefs and understandings a person holds about a person, object, place, event or issue.
e.g When we see a large spider, we think it is poisonous. Our attitudes in this situation will lead us to a behaviour that we believe will make us safe.
Affective: scared of the spider.
Behaviour: scream and run away.
Cognitive: Spiders bite and might are poisonous.

Question 9

define cognitive dissonance according to festingers cognitive dissonance theory.

Answer 9

the state of psychological discomfort arising from awareness of inconsistency amongst beliefs and actions or between two inconsistent cognitions
e.g. when people smoke (behaviour) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition), they are in a state of cognitive dissonance.

Question 10

describe the process of cognitive dissonance according to festinger

Answer 10

1- become aware of the cognitive dissonance
2- take responsibility for the dissonance
3- feel discomfort from the dissonance
4- work to resolve the dissonance

Question 11

what are the factors determining the magnitude of dissonance experienced

Answer 11

free choice- the more free choice one has in making a decision, the more dissonance one will suffer

belief disconfirmation- Exposure to information contrary to strongly held beliefs may increase devotion to those beliefs e.g., stubbornness.

forced compliance- When a person is forced to do something, little dissonance is aroused. The person can rationalise the action by saying ‘I had no choice’.

effort justification- The greater the effort or sacrifice involved the greater the dissonance.

Question 12

what increases the magnitude of dissonance

Answer 12

• increases as the degree of difference among cognitions relating to the attitude increases.

the more you notice things that don’t match your belief, the more uneasy you feel about it.

Question 13

what leads to a decrease in the magnitude of dissonance?

Answer 13

The more supportive cognitions that counterbalance the discrepant cognitions of an attitude the less the dissonance

Question 14

what is the effect of cognitive dissonance on behaviour

Answer 14

Avoidance: ignoring the dissonance. A person may avoid people or situations that remind them of their dissonance, discourage people from talking about it, or distract themselves from it with consuming tasks.

Reduction: belittling the importance of the cognitive dissonance.

Rationalization: claiming the behavior is rare or a one-off event, or by providing rational arguments to convince themselves or others that the behavior is OK.

Question 15

what are the responses to cognitive dissonance to reduce it

Answer 15

1Changing the belief
2Changing the behaviour
3Changing the perception of the action

Question 16

what are the strengths of festingers cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 16

Dissonance theory revolutionized social psychology by emphasizing the role of cognition in social behaviour.

Question 17

what are the limitations of festingers cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 17

Cognitive dissonance cannot be directly observed,

Does not fully explain how people decide which of the available strategies they will use to reduce dissonance.

Fails to address the issue of individual differences in the arousal of, and tolerance for, cognitive dissonance.

Fails to address the observation that on many occasions people do not work to reduce dissonance.

Question 18

what do the applications of dissonance theory include?

Answer 18

1. Psychotherapy Effectiveness- Dissonance processes partially account for the effectiveness of psychotherapy. individualsfreely choosethe form of therapy to engage in, and thenexpend much effort, time and money to achieve therapeutic goals.

2.Consumer Behaviour- Consumers often experience dissonance after making an expensive purchase- look for positive and advoid negatives

Question 19

what is forced compliance behaviour ?

Answer 19

When someone is forced to do (publicly) something they (privately) really don’t want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn’t want to do this) and their behavior (I did it).

Question 20

what is a attribution?

Answer 20

the process of assigning a cause to our own behaviour and the behaviours of others.

Question 20

what is a dispositional attribution?(internal)

Answer 20

behaviour is attributed to an internal characteristic of the person e.g lazy, risk taker, hard worker

something within the person we observe- internal e.g. personality

e.g. hands in assignment late- teacher may think they are lazy due to observations

Question 21

what is a situational attribution?(external)

Answer 21

behaviour of an individual is attributed to an external cause e.g. peer pressure, threats, home environment

caused by something outside- external e.g. their situation

Question 22

describe the Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 22

People tend to attribute other people’s behaviour to personal factors (dispositional) rather than consider the external factors (situational)

Question 23

describe Attributions about selfSelf-serving bias

Answer 23

tend to make situational attributes the major cause

uses positive/dispositional attributes to account for positive behaviours visa versa

Question 23

what is self serving bias?

Answer 23

The tendency to make situational attributions the major cause of our own behaviours - Taking personal credit for own success -Avoiding personal responsibility for failure and assigning external factors as causative agents.