Psychology - Attitudes and Stereotypes test

define attitude and example

an evaluation made up of feelings, beliefs and behaviours towards a person, social group or object.

eg - A smoker who believes its bad for health (attitude)

define attitude object and example

the target of judgment related to an attitude, such as a person, social group or object.

eg - A doctor who still smokes (behaviour)

explicit attitude

conscious judgment held towards an attitude object

implicit attitude

unconscious judgment held towards an attitude object

cognitive dissonance

The discomfort felt when attitudes and behaviours do not match.

Seen when there are difficult choices, or when people participate in behaviour that is contrary to their attitude.

examples of cognitive dissonance using attitudes and attitude objects

smoking - the smoker (person), believes that it is bad for health yet they still smoke. To decrease dissonance (discomfort), they state they only smoke on weekends.

Attitude - Negative Object - Cigarettes

What is the model of attitude structure and what is the aim

Affect (prejudice) - Feelings towards an attitude object

Behavioural (discrimination) - Actions towards attitude object

Cognition (stereotype) - Thoughts about attitude object

Aim - To predict future attitudes and behaviour

What are 3 of the effects of dissonance on behaviour

Avoidance - People inclined to avoid encountering situations and new info that could increase dissonance. Eg - Ignoring scientific evidence, fake news.

Reduction - Reducing the action increasing cognitive dissonance.

Rationalisation - Trying to justify behaviour. Eg - I only smoke on weekends, while he smokes everyday.

What is the attribution theory?

Process of attaching meaning to behaviour, or the behaviour of others by looking for cause to explain the behaviour.

Define situational attribution

External - Assigning the cause of behaviour to environmental factors external to the person, social situation, or social pressure.

Eg - They’re driving slow because of the view.

Define dispositional attribution

Internal - Assigning the cause of behaviour to internal factors within the person, such as personality characteristics and motivation.

Eg - They’re driving like that because that’s their personality, reckless.

what is the social identity theory

Being apart of a social group/s allows people to feel a sense of social identity

what is social identity?

A sense of self in terms of group membership. It can be both positive and negative, depending on societal evaluation.

What is social categorisations?

Process of placing people we come across in groups based on characteristics.

Ingroup - People who share our characteristics

Outgroup - People who are different to us

Social identity characteristics

members of an in-group will stereotype members of outgrips, and say negative things towards them. In order to boost their own self image/esteem.

However, people in out group will usually state they are in the in group.

Social identity developed by who

Social identity - by society

Ingroups/outgroups - by individuals

what is social identification

adopting identity of the group that has been joined

what is social comparisation

comparing the joined group with the other group

what are some strengths of the social identity theory

It helps explain why people often have more sympathy for people they are similar to.

Help explain how bias related to in-groups and out groups in society often lead to intergroup conflict.

what are some limitations of the social identity theory

The theory doesn’t address intergroup conflict caused by competition for resources such as jobs or land.

The theory claims comparable groups are likely to experience intergroup conflict, however, groups similar in social status have cooperated instead. Eg - Aussies and Kiwis like to poke fun at each other, but intergroup conflict ceases to exist.

what is a stereotype?

An oversimplified belief about an out group pertaining to either positive or negative thoughts about its members.

what is prejudice (affect)

negative feelings held toward members of an out group (fear, disgust, discomfort)

what is stereotype in the sense of cognition

positive or negative thoughts about members of an out group (french people are romantic or old people are incompetent)

what is discrimination (behaviour)

unjustified negative behaviours towards members of an out group based on their group membership (exclusion)

what is direct discrimination and an example

When an individual is treated unfairly because of a characteristic they have or are assumed to have

eg - a real estate agent not offering a house to a single mother with 2 kids but offering to a couple with no kids.

is direct and indirect discrimination intentional?

direct - intentional

indirect - non intentional at times, may be oblivious

what is indirect discrimination and an example

when an individual who has particular characteristics are unfairly disadvantaged due to conditions or regulations that apply to everyone.

eg - public building with no ramp access disabled people who use wheelchairs.

What is discrimination of gender called and example

Sexism - prejudice and discrimination against people based on their gender.

A man telling a woman she can’t work for him simply because she is a girl.

What is discrimination of age called and example

Ageism, may be seen by social service health care providers who under treat the elderly, or employers refusing to hire people below/above a certain age.

What is discrimination of race called and example

Racism, a person being denied service at a restaurant due to the colour of their skin.

Race is a social construct referring to the division of people into groups based of physical characteristics. Eg - Asian Australian.

What is discrimination of ethnicity called and example

Ethnic discrimination, an individual who is bilingual being told to always speak English at their job including break times.

example of discrimination of disabled people

Someone feeling uneasy in the presence of a person with a physical disability - prejudice.

Public transport or a taxi service denying access to someone because of an assistance dog - discrimination.

example of discrimination of people with a mental illness

An employer refuses to negotiate reduced work hours for an individual with a mental illness - discrimination.

What are 3 ways in which an attitude can be measured?

Observational method - observing peoples behaviour while they are unaware.

Qualitative self-report - Very time consuming and costly, but it provides lots of information with written or spoken responses. Anonymous responses usually generate honest + accurate response.

Quantitative self-report - Less time consuming and gives an idea about the direction of attitudes. Usually, fixed responses are set, like a rating scale (1 - 10).

What is the just world phenomenon? (Cause of prejudice)

Where someone assumes that people get what they deserve. Eg - Someone sees a homeless person and assumes they are too lazy to get a job.

What are some factors that affect the formation of attitudes?

Family, friends, peers, teachers, media, past experiences, religion, parents, feedback on attitude and social comparison.

What are some causes of Prejudice?

Social influence - Children often learn prejudice from family, teachers, peers and friends. Since those feelings are the social norm, they will conform to these attitudes.

Intergroup competition - Eg, economic threat of immigrants arriving in countries where there is high competition over access to jobs.

Social categorisation - Unconsciously identify individuals that are part of their in-group =, and those in the out group.

Just world phenomenon - Assumption that people deserve everything that happens to them.

How are 4 ways prejudice can be reduced?

Inter-group contact - Contact between members of different social groups. Eg - putting people from different social groups together; sitting with different people.

Cognitive interventions - Try to change the way people think about members of an ‘outgroup'.

Equal-status contact - Members of both groups have roughly the same power.

Mutual interdependence - Groups depend on each other to meet their goals; they have a co-dependant relationship.

ethnical guidelines breached in Robbers Cave Experiment

Informed consent - The boys were only 11 years old.

Protection from harm - The boys were fighting, and put under stressful situations.

Deception - Kids and parents weren’t aware that they were experimented.

Beneficence - The risks outweighed the benefits of the study.

Right to withdrawal - Weren’t aware they are in an experiment, so they couldn’t withdraw from the experiment.

Experimenter bias - No double or single blind.

Sampled students - All males, of the same ages, no female students, didn’t give correct answers.

Function of stereotype

• Helps people assess social situations to avoid possible dangerous situations.

• Frees up mental cognitive processing that can be used to perform other mental tasks.

• Allows large amount of info to be quickly and simply processed.

what is the biased belief that people get what they deserve in life because they somewhat brought it on themselves.

The ‘just world phenomenon’

What was the aim of the Robbers Cave Experiment?

To examine how intergroup competition leads to prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination towards an outgroup.

what was Festinger’s theory and some factors that affect it

Cognitive dissonance.

Factors affecting it:

• More value an individual places on the contrasting cognitions, the greater the magnitude of dissonance.

• The max level of dissonance an individual can manage before needing to reduce comfort.

what was the aim of the forced compliance study

to investigate whether making people perform a dull task would create cognitive dissonance through forced compliance behaviour.

what is the dependant and independent variable

dep - the strength of the attitude

in - the amount of reward used to encourage the participants to make a statement conflicting with their personal belief

which group experienced greater cognitive dissonance

The group only paid $1 and who were asked to change their opinion, as they changed their own to match the belief to the action.

what are the three stages of the in group and out group theory, in correct order.

Social categorisation - the unconscious process of categorising people into groups based on shared characteristics.

Social identification - adopting the identity of the group that has been joined.

Social comparison - comparing the joined group to the other '‘out group’.

The Robber’s Cave Experiment key findings

Group formation - Both groups had a leader emerge, had team symbols and names, jokes, nicknames and even ‘The Eagles’ were known for crying when getting hurt, while ‘The Rattlers’ were tougher.

Intergroup formation - Questionaires were used to survey how each group perceived the other, in groups depicted the outgrips as being ‘sneaky’ and ‘obnoxious’, while their own team members were ‘brave’ and friendly.’

Intrgroup cooperation - Bringing the groups together to watch movies + eat meals = conflict. Having superordinate goals so they worked together, was successful and reduced prejudice + form positive relationship.

Pros of the Robber’s Cave Experiment

• Gives us an example of the social identity theory, where social identification applies, affects the behaviour and personal identity of members.

what are some pros and cons of Festingers theory

Pros - Can be tested, eg - Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance.

Cons - Cognitive dissonance itself cannot be observed, but only measured.