EXAM 3 SOCIAL PSYCH Unit 7 Attitudes Bold terms from the reading Make sure you have done the reading well from Chapter 7 Test questions from the book will probably be heavier for this unit since we will only spend one day lecturing on it Beliefs pieces of info facts opinions about something Attitudes global evaluations toward some object or issue You like dislike something you are in favor of or opposed to some position If you think it s cloudy outside that is a belief if you dislike the clouds attitude Dual Attitudes different evals of the same object explicit or implicit Implicit Attitude automatic and non conscious Explicit Attitude controlled and conscious These may conflict Unconsciously you may like something you consciously like rap Different measures of implicit attitudes involve measuring reaction times to stimuli Implicit Association Test IAT Measures attitudes and beliefs that people are unwilling or unable to report Words images put into categories bad good Stigma an attribute that is perceived by others as broadly negative Mere Exposure Effect the tendency for people to come to like things simply because they see or encounter them repeatedly Classical Conditioning type of learning in which through repeated pairings a neutral stimulus comes to evoke a conditioned response Pavlov Unconditioned stimulus a stimulus meat that naturally evokes a particular response salivation Unconditioned response salivation Neutral stimulus a stimulus pavlov s bell that initially evokes no response Conditioned stimulus a neutral stimulus through repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus comes to evoke a conditioned response Conditioned response a response that through repeated pairings is evoked by a formerly neutral Operant conditioning a type of learning in which people are more likely to repeat behaviors that they have been rewarded and less likely to repeat behaviors that have been punished stimulus Skinner Social Learning observational learning imitation a type of learning in which people are more likely to imitate behaviors if they have seen others rewarded for performing them and less likely imitate behaviors that others have been punished for to Bandura Hitting bobo doll in experiment when see others hit the doll first Key to social learning Attitude Polarization the finding that people s attitudes become more extreme as they reflect on them Even just thinking about an issue can move a person towards holding a more extreme attitude Balance Theory AKA P O X Theory because it focuses on situations containing 3 elements triads 1 The person P 2 The other person O 3 Attitude object X The person s understanding of the relationship of these elements was either balanced or unbalanced Balanced is the term for consistency You and your professor both hate exams you hate taking them and he hates grading them If you multiply the signs together it is positive balanced Cognitive Dissonance Theory the theory that inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviors produce psychological discomfort leading people to rationalize their behavior or change their attitudes Leon Festinger Proposed that inconsistencies produce an unpleasant mental state called cognitive dissonance they feel bad People want to maintain consistency so when they catch themselves being inconsistent Experiment where you are paid 1 or 20 to tell a lie the people that were paid 1 actually came to believe the lie they were telling because they thought they willing to do it for so little money so they must like wheat bread or they believe were the lie Effort Justification the finding that when people suffer or work hard or make sacrifice they will try to convince themselves that it is worthwhile People want to believe all their hard work is worth it Hazing on campus Aronson Mills sex topic on racy stuff Post Decision Dissonance cognitive dissonance experience after making a difficult choice typically reduced by increasing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and decreasing the attractiveness of the rejected alternatives Every decision includes trade offs justifying choices reduces dissonance Tyranny of Choice the idea that although some choice is better than none more choice is not always better than less choices Choices seem to be good too many can be bad info overload overwhelm people People end up unhappy as the number of choices increases Maximizers and sacrificers better to be a sacrificer Accessibility how easily something comes to mind A B Problem the problem of inconsistency between attitudes A and behaviors B Contradiction between people s attitudes and their actual behaviors Belief Perseverance the finding that once beliefs form they are resistant to change even if the info on which they are based is discredited Coping general term for how people attempt to deal with trauma and go back to functioning normally Assumptive Worlds the view that people live in social worlds based on certain beliefs Assumptions about reality misfortunes Cognitive Coping the idea that beliefs play a central role in helping people cope with and recover from Downward Comparison comparing oneself to people who are worse off Additional points to make sure you know from the reading In addition to all the bold terms questions will be drawn from the entire section entitled do attitudes really predict behaviors 1 What crisis did Wicker s critique provoke in the field Wicker wrote an article arguing that attitudes were a trivial peripheral phenomenon Attitudes do not cause behavior or even predict it This provoked a crisis because many social psychologists had spent their careers studying attitudes and they were disturbed to hear that attitudes were just little ideas flitting around inside people s minds that had no connection to what people actually did Attitude researchers defended themselves seeking ways to show how attitudes actually might have a closer link to behavior 2 Know how people responded to the crisis i e be able to describe all the scenarios for which it was discovered that people s behaviors do actually map onto their attitudes reasonably well 1 General Attitudes and Specific Behaviors toward First response in defense was that the gap between general attitudes and specific behaviors was too big Researchers might ask what someone s attitude was giving blood Someone might be in favor of helping others but be afraid of needles In contrast researchers measured attitudes towards giving blood these attitudes were better
View Full Document
Unlocking...