Attitudes and Stereotypes Extended Response

What is an attitude?

an attitude is a learnt, stable and relatively enduring evaluation of a person, object,

event or idea that can affect an individual’s behaviour (positive or negative)

Functions of attitudes?

Attitudes can function in different forms it includes Explicit Attitudes and Implicit Attitudes.

Explicit Attitudes?

are where people openly state their attitude and behave in a way

that reflects this attitude. e.g:

Attitude: Exercise is good for my health

Action: Visit the gym often

Implicit Attitudes

are involuntary, uncontrollable and sometimes unconscious. It is

possible for individuals to be unaware that they hold a particular attitude until their

actions reveal it. e.g:

Attitude: Moths are harmless

Action: A person freaks out and runs away from the moth

Your behaviour goes against your attitudes involuntarily and unconsciously unaware of

their particular attitude until an actions reveal it.

Tripartite model of attitude structure

Psychologists have proposed various theories and models explain/describe

what attitudes are, how often they are formed and the circumstances under

which they may change. The most influential model is the tripartite model – this model proposes that any attitude has three related components – the effective, behavioural and cognitive, referred to as the ABC’s of attitudes

The Affective Component

refers to the emotional reactions or feelings an individual has towards an object, person, group, event or issue. This can be positive (I love rap music), negative (I hate rap music) or neutral (I don’t really mind rap music either way)

The Behavioural Component

refers to the way in which an attitude is expressed through our actions

The Cognitive Component

refers to the beliefs we have about an object, person, group, event or issue. Our beliefs are linked to what we know about the world, and they develop with our experiences throughout our lives. Some beliefs may be factual, some may be based on superstitions, some may not be proven (e.g. do aliens exist?)

Consistency between components

The tripartite model of attitude proposes that all three components must be present

before it can be said that an attitude exists.

e.g. you avoid spiders (behavioural), because you are terrified of spiders (affective)

because you believe that spiders can harm you (cognitive).

Inconsistency between the components

Some psychologists believe that sometimes a person’s behaviour does not always

reflect the attitude they hold – that is inconsistent with the affective and cognitive

components

e.g. you hate watching cricket (affective) because you believe it takes FAR too long

(cognitive), but you go watch a match because your friends are going (behavioural)

Theory of Cognitive Dissonance definition

def- cognitive dissonance is the unpleasant feeling of psychological tension that comes when we perceive that out attitudes are inconsistent with our behaviour.

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance extra stuff that is still important (2 paragraphs)

People experience cognitive dissonance when they behave in a way that is contradictory to their attitude. Cognitive dissonance happens when there is inconsistencies between the three components.

Cognitive dissonance leads to the motivation to reduce the dissonance, the stronger

the discrepancy (difference) between thoughts, the greater the motivation to reduce it.

Depends on how important it is to you.

Ways that cognitive dissonance is reduced?

1. Rationalisation can reduce such discomfort by explaining away the discrepancy

in question, as when people who take up smoking after previously quitting

decide that the evidence for it being harmful is less than they previously thought.

2. Reduction – where the person stops or reduces doing the thing that causes them

dissonance.

3. Avoidance – where a person avoids the things that causes them dissonance

completely.

Magnitude as a factor of Affecting Cognitive Dissonance (how strong an attitude is and the strength of the inconsistencies)

• A strong attitude is an attitude that is usually thought about, well-known and

easily accessible. It tends to be personally relevant and have a strong underlying

emotional component

• The stronger the attitude, the more likely it is that it will be stable and consistent

over time, be resistant to change, and influence behaviour

• Stronger attitudes are more likely to predict behaviour than weaker attitudes.

Responses to cognitive dissonance

a) Change behaviour

b) Changing existing beliefs

c) Change perception

Criticisms/Limitations/Strengths of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• It has advantage of being testable by scientific means (experiments)

• We cannot physically observe cognitive dissonance, and therefore we cannot objectively measure it (re: behaviourism). Consequently, the term cognitive dissonance is somewhat subjective.

• There is also some ambiguity (vagueness) about the term ‘dissonance’ itself.

Study: Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance, what is the experimenter’s name and date this study was published?

Festinger and Carlsmith, 1959

Study: Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance Aim of experiment?

Aim: Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) investigated if making people perform a dull task

would create cognitive dissonance through forced compliance behaviour.

Study: Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance method of experiment?

In their laboratory experiment, they used 71 male students as participants to

perform series of dull tasks (such as turning pegs in peg board for an hour)

They were the paid either $1 or $20 to tell a waiting participant (a confederate) that the

tasks were really interesting. Almost all of the participants agreed to walk into the

waiting room and persuade the confederate that the boring experiment would be fun.

What is a confederate?

an actor that already knows the true intentions of experiment

Study: Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance result of experiment?

Results: When the participant were asked to evaluate the experiments, the participants

who were paid only $1 rated the tedious task as more fun and enjoyable than the

participants who were paid $20 to lie.

Study: Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance conclusion of experiment?

Conclusion: Being paid $1 is not sufficient incentive for lying and so those who were

paid $1 experienced dissonance. They could only overcome that dissonance by coming

to believe that the tasks really were interesting and enjoyable. Being paid $20 provides a

reason for turning pegs, and there is therefore no dissonance.

What was the name of the researcher who published the Attribution Theory and the date?

They were first described in 1958 by researchers Fritz Heider

Attribution Theory definition?

Attributions are inferences that we make about the causes of events, the behaviour of

others or our own behaviour

What else did researcher Fritz Heider mention on this theory?

• He said that people tend to see the cause of a behaviour or action as being either located within the person (internal) or outside the person (external)

• The attribution theory formed from the idea that people have an innate need to try and understand why things happen the way they do

• When we observe another’s actions, we make decisions about the intention of the action and the responsibility

• The attribution we use tends to be determined by whether we are performing an action, or if we are observing someone else. This is known as the actor-observer bias.

Types of attributions in the attribution theory?

Dispositional (internal) attributions and Situational (external) attributions

Dispositional (internal) attributions

Things like an individual’s traits, ability, motivation, attitude, mood and effort

When we think about the behaviour of others we tend to consider internal factors of their

personality. This is called dispositional attributions.

Situational (external) attributions

When we think about our own behaviour, we tend to consider the environment and external factors.

We buy a pair of shoes, impulsively, but when we are questioned, we blame the pushy shoe

lady. We want to protect our egos and so we blame someone else.

What was the researchers name who developed the Social Identity Theory and the date it was published?

In 1970, Henry Tajfel developed the social identity theory

What is the Social Identity Theory?

In 1970, Henry Tajfel developed the social identity theory, which states that we use groups to

form our social identity. Groups are an important source of pride and self-esteem.

When we belong to a group, we experience a sense of belonging -> this provides us with an

identity in the world that we may not have otherwise had.

Benefits of the Social Identity Theory + example

• To maintain self-esteem, we increase the status of the group.

• We can also increase our image by comparing it against other groups and being

discriminatory towards them

e.g. living in Perth is the best! Melbourne and Sydney are awful. Who would want to live there?

What did Tajfel propose, what are the 3 main processes of the Social Identity Theory?

Tajfel (1979) proposed that there were 3 mental processes that we use to determine and

maintain who is part of our in-group and out-group

1. Social categorization

2. Social identification

3. Social comparison

Social Categorization + example

Social categorization is where we sort people and objects so that we are able to understand ad

identify them. We extend this to ourselves as well, so that we are able to understand our

environment and act appropriately

e.g. if you meet someone from Melbourne, you may assign them to a group ‘Victorian’. When

you do this, you are also assigning ideas to them, such as ‘they must enjoy cold weather’.

Social Identification + example

Social identification is where we adopt the behaviour, attitudes and beliefs of the group we

belong to

e.g. if you identify as being a student you will probably study more, attend school and complain

about homework. If you are an athlete, you will most likely go to gym, attend training sessions, eat a good diet, and care about your weight and muscle gain.

Social Comparison

Social comparison is where we compare our in-group with other groups to affirm our identity.

Tajfel states that we maintain self-esteem when our groups can be compared positively with

other groups. This helps in our understanding of prejudice as once two groups have identified as being different, it is important for them to maintain this difference, so that the members of each group can maintain their self-esteem. Groups can compete for resources, as much as they are competing to maintain identity.