Chapter 6 - Attitudes

Question 1

attitude

Answer 1

• a positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea that is expressed at some level of intensity
• like, love, dislike, hate, admire, detest are kinds of words that people use to describe their attitudes

Question 2

attitudes are represented not as a continuum of intensity but as…

Answer 2

• dimensions – vary in strength along positive and negative dimensions, we can react to something with positive affect, negative affect, ambivalence, apathy and indifference

Question 3

process of attitude formation is often…

Answer 3

quick, automatic, and implicit

Question 4

dispositional attitudes

Answer 4

• tendency to like or dislike things

Question 5

two ways that our attidues reveal things about who we are as individuals

Answer 5

1) dispositional attitudes (positive versus negative attidues, tendency to like versus dislike things)
2) the extent to how quickly and strongly someone reacts to things they form attitudes about

Question 6

How do attitudes form?

Answer 6

• some genetic component
• learned – most often form as a result of our exposure to attitude objects, history of reward and punishment, attitudes that parents, friends, and enemies, express, social and cultural context in which we live

Question 7

attitude scales

Answer 7

a multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person’s attitude toward some object

Question 8

bogus pipeline

Answer 8

• a phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions

Question 9

central route to persuasion

Answer 9

the process by which a person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced by the strength of its arguments

Question 10

cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 10

• theory holding that inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce

Question 11

elaboration

Answer 11

the process of thinking about and scrutinizing the arguments contained in a persuasive communication

Question 12

evaluative conditioning

Answer 12

• process by which we form an attitude toward a neutral stimulus because of its association with a positive or negative person, place, or thing (brands use celebrities and sex symbols to increase positive attitudes towards brand)

Question 13

Stephen Kraus (1995) found in a meta-analysis what association between attitudes and future behavior?

Answer 13

• attitudes significantly and substantially predict future behavior

Question 14

facial electromyograph (EMG)

Answer 14

an electronic instrument that records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and attitudes

Question 15

implicit association test (IAT)

Answer 15

a covert measure of unconscious attitudes derived from the speed at which people respond to pairings of concepts– such as black or white with good or bad

Question 16

implicit attitudes

Answer 16

an attitude, such as prejudice, that one is not aware of having

Question 17

inoculation hypothesis

Answer 17

the idea that exposure to weak versions of a persuasive argument increases later resistance to that argument

Question 18

insufficient deterrence

Answer 18

a condition in which people refrain from engaging in a desirable activity, even when only mild punishment is threatened

Question 19

insufficient jusitification

Answer 19

• a condition in which people freely perform an attitude-discrepant behavior without receiving a large reward

Question 20

unless you can deny your actions, you’ll feel…

Answer 20

• pressured to change your attitude about the task

Question 21

need for cognition (NC)

Answer 21

a personality variable that distinguishes people on the basis of how much they enjoy effortful cognitive activities

Question 22

peripheral route to persuasion

Answer 22

the process by which a person does not think carefully about a communication and is influenced instead by superficial cues

Question 23

persuasion

Answer 23

the process by which attitudes are changed

Question 24

psychological reactance

Answer 24

the theory that people react against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive

Question 25

sleeper effect

Answer 25

- a delayed increase in the persuasive impact of a non-credible source - occurs because people often remember the message content but forget the "discounting cue" (the reason to distrust it)

Question 26

theory of planned behavior

Answer 26

- the theory that attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control influence a person's intention and thus behavior (when we perceive the behavior to be in our control)

Question 27

subjective norms

Answer 27

- our beliefs about what others think we should do

Question 28

specific attitudes combine with ____ to produce behavior (according to theories of reasoned action and planned behavior)

Answer 28

social factors

Question 29

(David Boniger - 1995) found that attitudes people held most passionately were those that concerned issues that (3):

Answer 29

1) directly affected their own self-interests 2) related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious values; and 3) were of concern to their close friends, family, and social in-groups - attitudes are stronger when people are around those that are like-minded

Question 30

By what is the strength of an attitude indicated?

Answer 30

- amount of information - how information was acquired -- more stable and predictive of behavior when born of direct personal experience

Question 31

Attitudes can be strengthened by the attack against it from a persuasive message. What does this mean?

Answer 31

- people hold attitudes with varying degrees of certainty, and they become more confident in their positions after they successfully resist changing that attitude in response to a persuasive communication

Question 32

Strong attitudes are highly attributable to...

Answer 32

awareness, which means that they are quickly and easily brought to mind