PSYCH 280 1st EditionExam #2 Study Guide Lectures: 8-14Lecture 8 (February 10th)What is the Self?What are the two functions of the self and what are the two views of self? What are the weaknesses of the self?The self is an organized collection of concepts and schemas that define how people perceive themselves. Self-concepts are the content of the self and self-schemas are the mental structuresthat we use to interpret social information and affect how we organize social information.There are two functions of the self:-Organization: self organizes world into a self-relevant idea.-Regulation (executive): self determines what we pay attention to.There are two views of self:-Independent view of self: this view of self is typical of Westerners. People who have an independent view of self define themselves in terms of individual personal traits, instead of in terms of their relationships to others.-Interdependent view of self: this view of self is typical of East-Asian cultures. People who have an interdependent view of self define themselves in terms of their relationships to other people.Weaknesses of the SelfThe self is bad at explaining our behavior and at predicting behavior. The self is also bad at predicting how long we will feel a certain emotion after a future event. There are also multiple illusions of the self:-Illusion of Uniqueness/Barnum Effect: self tends to think that a very general description of personality traits fits it.-Illusion of Transparency: self thinks that their inner-most thoughts can be “read” by others.-Spotlight Effect: the self overestimates the extent to which it will be missed when it is not present.Lecture 9 (February 12th)Consistency and POX/Balance TheoryIs consistency important? What is the balance theory?People want to appear consistent to others—we like to appear consistent (not inconsistent). This is the reason why lowballing and the “foot in the door” effect are so effective. For example,for the “foot in the door” effect to work, a person has to ask another a small favor—one that most would agree too. Next, that person has to ask the same person for a larger favor. Because of our need for consistency, that favor-doing person will want to appear consistent, and will agree to do the larger favor. The bottom line: we want to appear consistent (we NEED consistency) and this is a very powerful thing (i.e. foot in the door and lowballing effects).What is the balance/POX theory?Heider’s POX theory states that some relationships among three things can be represented by either a positive or negative sign (positive if you like that person/object/place/idea or negative ifyou don’t like that person/place/idea/object), and we want these three relationship signs to be “balanced”—i.e. when multiplied, three signs have to produce a positive sign. If these three relationships are not “balanced,” then we will try to change one relationship so they are balanced. The POX theory does NOT work when the relationship evokes jealousy or involves possessions.Lecture 10 (February 17th)Dissonance Theory and AttitudesWhat is the Dissonance Theory? What are attitudes? How can cognitive dissonance change attitudes?Dissonance Theory: cognitive dissonance (discomfort) arises whenever our behavior does not follow our cognitions (i.e. values, beliefs, etc). For example, if you don’t value cheating on a test,but you cheat on a test, you will experience discomfort (dissonance) because your behavior did not match your values (cognitions). In order to reduce dissonance, people will do one of four things:-distort or deny the behavior-change their cognition to allow the behavior-attribute the behavior to some external forces-change their behavior to match their beliefsWhat are Attitudes?Attitudes are internal justifications for our actions/behaviors. If we do not have enough external justification for our behavior, we change our attitudes to make them consistent with our behavior. It’s hard to change a negative attitude because we avoid the negative stimulus.How can dissonance change behavior?Experiencing cognitive discomfort (dissonance) can lead us to change our attitudes:-Insufficient Justification: when we do not have enough external justification for our behavior, we turn to internal justification, and as a result, change our attitude toward that behavior.-Favor Doing Effect: when we do a favor for a person we don’t like, we end up liking them more because we experience dissonance when doing the favor, and we change our attitudes due to lack of external justification.-Decisions: after making an important decision, we experience dissonance. We then tend to see X, the thing we did pick, in a better light than Y, which we didn’t pick. This reduces the post-decision dissonance we experience.-Justification Effect: the harder we work for something, the more we will like it because of dissonance—if we didn’t like it, then there wouldn’t be a reason for use to put all that hard work into creating it/reaching the goal.Lecture 11 (February 19th)Attitudes and Predicting Behavior/Mindless PersuasionCan attitudes predict behavior? What is mindless persuasion? How are people persuaded?Attitudes and Predicting Behavior:Attitudes can predict behavior if:-the attitude is based on past experience (more past experience = better at predicting behavior)-unless the attitude is accessible, it won’t be very good at predicting spontaneous behavior-the more specific the attitude, the better predictor of behavior-the stronger the attitude, the better predictor of behavior-subjective norms impact attitudes and predicting behavior (if someone’s attitude doesn’t follow social norms, then it won’t be very good at predicting their behavior)So, attitudes can predict behavior… only if the “conditions” are favorable.Mindless Persuasion:We are persuaded not because we think about things, but because we don’t think about things. As stated by the elaboration likelihood model, there are two ways we can be persuaded:-Central Route to Persuasion: if a person is motivated to pay attention to the message and has a higher need for cognition (or the message is personally relevant), they will spend time and effort thinking about the message and will be persuaded by the logic of the arguments. This type of persuasion is longer-lasting.-Peripheral Route to Persuasion: if a person is not motivated to pay attention to the message or the person is distracted/the