Social Psychology Ch.6

attitude

an evaluation of an object in a positive or negative fashion that includes three components: affect, cognition, and behavior

likert scale

a numerical scale used to assess people’s attitudes; a scale that includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on each extreme

response latency

the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus, such as an attitude question

implicit attitude measure

an indirect measure of attitudes that doesn’t involve a self-report

cognitive dissonance theory

the theory that inconsistency between a person’s thoughts, sentiments, and actions creates an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency

effort justification

the tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time, effort, or money devoted to something that turned out to be unpleasant or disappointing

induced (forced) compliance

subtly compelling people to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, or values in order to elicit dissonance and therefore a change in their original attitudes and values

self-perception theory

the theory that people come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and the context in which it occured and then inferring what their attitudes must be

system justification theory

the theory that people are motivated to see the existing sociopolitical systemas desirable, fair, and legitimate 

terror management theory (TMT)

the theory that people deal with the potentially crippling anxiety associated with the inevitability of death by striving for symbolic immortality through preserving valued cultural worldviews and by believing they have lived up to their culture’s standards