PSYC 2600- Unit 2 Test

Attitudes

Evaluations of people, objects, and ideas

Cognitively Based Attitude

An attitude based primarily on people’s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object

Affectively Based Attitude

An attitude based more on people’s feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object.

Classical Conditioning

The phenomenon whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus that does no t, until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus

Operant Conditioning

Behaviors we freely choose to perform become more or less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward or punishment

Behaviorally Based Attitude

An attitude based on observations of how one behaves toward an object

Explicit Attitudes

Attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report

Implicit Attitudes

Attitudes that exist outside of conscious awareness

Attitude Accessibility

The strength of the association between an attitude object and a person’s evaluation of that object, measured by the speed with which people can report how they feel about the object

Theory of Planned Behavior

When behavior is not spontaneous (you have time to think), it depends on attitude, but also subjective norms and perceived behavioral control.

The idea that people’s intentions are the best predictors of their deliberate behaviors, which are determined by their attitudes towards specific behaviors, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control

Persuasive Communication

A message advocating a particular side of an issue

Yale Attitude Change Approach

The study of conditions under which people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages, focusing on the source of the communication, the nature of the communication, and the nature of the audience

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A model explaining two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change:

• central

• peripheral

Central Route to Persuasion

When people have both the ability and the motivation to elaborate on a persuasive communication, listening carefully to and thinking about the arguments presented

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

When people do not elaborate on the arguments in a persuasive communication but are instead swayed by more superficial cues

Fear-Arousing Communication

Persuasive messages that attempt to change people’s lives by arousing their fears

Heuristic-Systematic Model of Persuasion

Two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change:

• systematically processing the merits of the argument

• OR using mental shortcuts or heuristics

Subliminal Messages

Words or pictures that are not consciously perceived but may nevertheless influence judgments, attitudes, and behaviors

Attitude Inoculation

Making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small does of the arguments against their position

• like a vaccine

Reactance Theory

The idea that when people feel their freedom to perform a certain behavior is threatened, an unpleasant state of resistance is aroused, which they can reduce by performing the prohibited behavior

Cognitive Dissonance

When people behave inconsistently with their attitudes and cannot find external justification for their behavior, this can lead to attitude change.

Sleeper Effect

Over time, a message can become more persuasive/credible.

• Remember the argument, not the discounting cues

Requirements:

1. You think about the message.

2. You’re presented with a discounting cue.

3. You have to acknowledge the inaccuracy.

Primacy & Recency Effects

Affect persuasiveness

Study: Rudman, Phelan, and Heppen, Overweight vs Underweight

Implicit: childhood

Explicit: recent experiences

• Attitudes towards overweight was predicted by childhood weight, and explicit attitudes were predicted by current weight.

Study: La Piere, Chinese Couple

Travel with Chinese couple, yada yada

• Behavior does not always routinely follow attitudes.

• Attitude only predicts behavior in certain conditions

  • Spontaneous or planned

  • Specificity

Study: Davidson & Jaccard, Birth Control Questions

Asked attitude on birth control.

• The more specific the question, the more accurate the attitude was in predicting behavior

Study: Tests 10 Years from Now

High Personal Relevance: strength matters (central)

Low: speaker matters (peripheral)

Study: Copper, product liability trial

Biologist witness.

IV1: argument confusing or clear

IV2: credentials good or bad

• understand argument: don’t pay attention to credentials

• confusing: relied on credentials to determine merit of argument

When you’re unable to pay attention, you’re more swayed by peripheral cues.

Study: Smoking pamphlet and movie

Fear movie on smoking, pamphlet on how to quit

• Those with both had higher rates of quitting.

Study: Products and types of attitudes for ads

Cognitive products get cognitive ads, affective products get affective ads.

• Corresponding type of ads are most effective

Study: Headphones

Shake or nod head to “test headphones.”

IV1: Yes or no

IV2: Strong or weak argument

• Strong: nod agree more than shook

• Weak: nod gave confidence that it was weak and made them agree less than shook

Body and environment influence attitude change.

Study: Lipton Tea

Subliminal can work in a lab setting

Study: Shoe, cultural attitudes

Americans: independent ad

Koreans: intedependent ad

Study: Prevent Cigarette Programs

Programs where kids practice saying no to cigarettes makes them less likely to smoke

• Attitude inoculation

Study: Graffiti

“Don’t write under any circumstance” —> more graffiti

“Please don’t write” —> less

• Reactance Theory

Self-Concept

The overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes.

Interdependent View on the Self

A way of defining oneself in terms of one’s relationships to other people, recognizing that one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others

Introspection

The process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives

Self-Awareness Theory

The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values

Causal Theories

Theories about the causes of one’s own feelings and behaviors; often we learn such theories from our culture (ex: “absence makes the heart grow fonder”)

Self-Perception Theory

You don’t know how you feel (attitude) until you see how you behave.

The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs.

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

The idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate explanation for it

Misattribution of Arousal

The process whereby people make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do

Intrinsic Motivation

The desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting not because of the external rewards or pressures

Extrinsic Motivation

The desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures, not because we enjoy the task or find it interesting

Overjustification Effect

The tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons

Task-Contingent Rewards

Rewards that are given for performing a task, regardless of how well the task is done

Performance-Contingent Rewards

Rewards that are based on how well we perform a task

Fixed Mindset

The idea that we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change.

• People like when their performance validates their mindset

  • Get an A bc smart, not an A bc prof dumb (Not you)

Growth Mindset

The idea that achievement is the result of working hard, trying new strategies, and seeking input from others.

• Less of a rush, but stick through to do better.

Social Comparison Theory

Leon Festinger.

The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people

• Effortful, we seek out people to compare ourselves to.

Upward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability.

• Picking an ATTAINABLE role model so you are motivated to improve.

Downward Social Comparison

Comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability

• At least I didn’t do as bad as him!

Self-Control

The ability to subdue immediate desires to achieve long-term goals.

Implementation Intentions

People’s specific plans about where, when, and how they will fulfill a goal and avoid temptations

Impression Management

The attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen

Ingratiation

The process whereby people flatter, praise, and generally try to make themselves likable to another person, often of higher status

Self-Handicapping

The strategy whereby people create obstacles and excuses for themselves so that if they do poorly on a task, they can avoid blaming themselvesWomen less likely to self-handicap

Study: Spending time thinking about yourself

People who spent more time thinking about themselves reported more bad moods

Study: College students predict what would influence daily mood

Most got it wrong; they were relying on causal theories

Study: Shacker & Singer, epinephrine

Some participants unknowingly given epinephrine and then answer survey w/ insulting questions. Other “participant” rips up the survey. Participant infers their arousal is from being angryIf they were told the drug would increase heart rate and shakiness, they attributed the arousal to injection insteadIf the other participant was joking around, the arousal meant they were euphoric.People look for the most plausible explanation for their arousal, but it’s not always the right one.

Study": Dufton & Aron, bridge questionnaire

Sign questionnaire after crossing bridge, men who just crossed misattributed their heart and arousal to the woman and called her back later.

Study: new math game

Overjustification effect, kids lost interest after reward was gone

Fixed Mindset

Set amount of an ability that cannot be changed

Growth Mindset

Ability can change; achievement is hard work, help, & improvement

Study: Yeager, growth mindset

Can growth mindset be taught? Students given growth mindset module at beginning of school year

• Underachieving students improved in grades and advanced math sign ups went up

Study: Brailovskai, adults on Facebook

Adults who use Facebook for ~1 hour a day use it for 20 min less. Report higher life satisfaction and less depression.

• Upward social comparison

Behavioral Self-handicapping

Act in ways that reduce the likelihood that you will succeed so if you fail you can blame it on the obstacles.go out and party instead of study

Attribution Theory

The study of how we infer the causes of our own and other people’s behavior.

• Trying to figure out a reason why people do the things they do

• Internal or external attributions

Belief in a Just World

A defensive attribution wherein people assume that bad things happen to bad people and that good things happen to good people

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to stick with an initial judgement even in the face of new information that should prompt us to reconsider

Bias Blind Spot

The tendency to think that other people are more susceptible to attributional biases in their thinking than we areEx: Study where you have to rate yourself vs others on how likely to self-serve or victim blame, everyone rated themselves low and everyone else higher

Consensus Information

The extent to which other people behave the same way toward the same stimulus as the actor does

Consistency Information

The extent to which the behavior between one actor and one stimulus is the same across time and circumstances

Covariation Model

Theory for how we determine which attribution to make.

The theory that to form an attribution about what caused a person’s behavior, we note the pattern between when the behavior occurs and the presence or absence of possible casual factors

• Consensus

• Distinctiveness

• Consistency

Decode

To interpret the meaning of the nonverbal behavior other people express, such as deciding that a pat on the back was an expression of condescension and not kindness

Distinctiveness Information

The extent to which one particular actor behaves in the same way to stimuli

External Attribution

The inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation they are in, with the assumption that most people would respond the same way in that situation

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people’s behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the role of situational factors

Internal Attribution

The inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character, or personality

Perceptual Salience

The seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention

Self-Serving Attributions

Protect our self-esteem. Tendency to make internal attributions for success, but blame failure on external.

Explanations for one’s successes that credit internal, dispositional factors and explanations for one’s failures that blame external, situation factors.

• Most likely to do it when we fail at something we feel we can’t improve at/

Two-Step Attribution Process

Analyzing behavior first by making an automatic internal attribution (automatic) and only then thinking about possible situational reasons for the behavior (controlled)

1. Characterization

2. Correction

• We don’t always make an external attribution; we just consider it.

Fritz Heider

“Founder of Attribution Theory”

• People are amateur scientists trying to piece together people’s behavior with the evidence they have

Jones & Harris: Castro Essay

Students read essay about Castro. Told either the author picked what side to argue or was assigned a side.

• Both groups said the author supported the side they wrote, despite if they knew the author was assigned the side.

  • Fundamental Attribution Error

Taylor & Fiske: Conversation Experiment

Students observe two people having a conversation.Seats were arranged so you could only see one face, or both equally.They rated the person who’s face they could see as having led the conversation (people who saw both faces rated them equally)

• Perpetual Salience

Confession Video Study

• Police officer and judges shown confession video (only detective, only suspect, or both equal)

• The one’s who were shown only the suspect thought the suspect confessed more voluntarily

• Salience of subject caused fundamental attribution error

  • Biased decisions/rulings?

Masuda Study: Person in Group Smiling Picture

Person in group smiles, People around smile or don’t smile

• Americans: rate happy no matter what

• Japanese: rate less happy when people around aren’t smiling

  • eye movement: they spent more time looking at other characters

Ying-Yi Hong Study: Students in Hong Kong and Fish Picture

Students primed with either Chinese or American images.Those primed with American said fish is leading (dispositional attribution)Those primed with Chinese said fish is being chased (situational attribution)

Harold Kelley

Covariation Model

• Not a lot of data: internal attribution

• More data: attribution depends on environment-behavior consistency

Perceptual Salience

The seeming importance of information that is the focus of people’s attention.

• Situational factors (ex. having a bad day) can be hard to see, so people have low perceptual salience for them

Independent Self

A self defined in one’s own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Western.

Interdependent Self

A self defined in terms of one’s relationship to others. East Asian.

Study: Fazio, Intro vs Extroverted

Participants asked to respond to questions that tap into their introversion or extraversion.

• IV: What do you do to liven up a party? VS What do you not like about parties?

Rate on introversion or extraversion assessment (DV).

• People who wrote introvert essay rated themselves less extraverted.

• If you already know you’re extraverted, you rate yourself extraverted.

• But if you’re unsure, you look to the examples of behavior where you’re extraverted.

  • Bringing the environment into the idea of self.

  • You can be influenced to see yourself differently based on what you’re seeing outside.

Carol Dweck

Mindset theories

Lateral Social Comparison

We want to accurately evaluate the self, so we seek out someone who’s reasonably close/similar to you.

Ex: Want to know how you did on Psych, so seek out first year who took AP Psych

Study: Social Sensitivity Test

Participants were given a faux “social sensitivity” test.

• People want to have this trait and think they have it better than others.

IV1: Your score on the test (random high/low score)

IV2: Told everyone did better or worse than you

DV: The % of people who asked to see everyone’s relative scores.

• Those who scored badly and were told mot others did way worse wanted to see everyone scores the most (70%).

• Everyone else didn’t really care.

  • Find who did worse than you → Downward social comparison

Reported Self-Handicapping

Report handicap ahead of time so people actually buy into it. Handicap isn’t real.

Ex: say you’re sick before an exam

Study: Drugs on Intellectual Performance, Bergas And Jones

Researchers say they’re testing how a drug affects intellectual performance.

• Give logic questions

• Offer drug

• Logic questions again

IV: Difficulty of logic problems (possible or impossible)

Everyone told they got 16/20 on the first test.

• If you got solvable, 13% chose dumb drug

• If you got impossible, 70% chose dumb drug

  • Blame the next low score on the drug.

    • Fear. You don’t want people to think you’re dumb.

    • Self-handicapping

Subjective Norms

How other people are going to think about your behavior (people who are important to you, friends, family, etc.)