Attitudes & Stereotypes

- functions of attitudes - tripartite models - cognitive dissonance - attribution theory - social identity - stereotypes - prejudice and discrimination

The formations of attitudes

• past experiences

• media

• friends

• teachers

• peers

• family

• cultural background

• religion

Attitude

• favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction towards an object/person/group/issue/concept

• eg. having certain likes and dislikes

How is attitude formed?

• formed through repeated exposure which eventually formulate attitudes

• eg. repeated exposure through ads, causing people to make judgements on whether they like or dislike it

• it is a subjective belief

• cognitive schemata

Explicit Attitude

Attitudes formed deliberately and that we are conscious of and willing to self report.

social identity theory

social groups allow sense of social identity which makes up part of one’s self image

social identity

adopting the group’s identity that has been joined

social categorisation

• categorising people based on shared characteristics

• occurs immediately upon first meeting

social comparison

• comparing the joined group with other groups

• can lead to intergroup conflict

strengths of the social influence theory

• explains the sympathy felt for others who are similar to you

• explains ingroup bias

weaknesses of the social influence theory

• comparable groups experience conflict, but cooperation is seen

• does not address intergroup competition based on the resources

stereotypes

• cognitive schemata used to quickly and simplify the processing of large amounts of information

• oversimplified beliefs about an outgroup (can be positive or negative)

evolutionary perspective

stereotypes help asses social situations and consequently avoid danger

prejudice

• social categorisation can lead to prejudice (negative feelings about an outgroup)

• focused on affective component

• does not always lead to discrimination

reducing prejudice

• intergroup contact

• contact hypothesis

• superordinate goals

• mutual interdependence

intergroup contact

prejudice proposes the more interaction, the l;ess prejudice

contact hypothesis

• takes times for good results

• not always successful

• certain conditions muct be met

superordinate goals

• a goal both groups want to achieve

• only achieved through cooperation

• if achieved, the conflict is reduced, if not, conflict increases

mutual interdependence

• groups depend on each other tp meet theior goals

• they are co-dependednt

discrimination

• focused on the behavioural aspect

• over generalised stereotypes (whether positive or negatives) can lead to acts of discrimination

• negative feelings only develop to discrimination if it is acted upon intergroup behaviour

intergroup behaviour

• interactions of groups

• prejudice develops from environmental influences (learned behaviour)

social influence

if one seeks to be part of a social group that accepts prejudice as the social norm, the person develops the same attitudes, prejudice, and behaviour

intergroup competition

competition over access to things can lead to intentionally inciting prejudice against an outgroup

just world phenomenon

• assumption that everything happens for a reason

• a cognitive bias where people make dispositional attributes by blaming victims of misfortune

attitude

• formed through repeated exposure

• positive/negative evaluative reaction towards something

explicit attitude

occurs at a conscious level, deliberate, and easy to self report

implicit attitude

no conscious awareness, involuntary, automatic

implicit bias

• consciously rejects stereotypes

• unconscious negative associations

reduce implicit bias

• learn about it/acknowledge

• form deep connection

• learn about the people

problems with implicit bias

• unequal treatment of people due to certain characteristics

• hard to indicate whether or not it is prejudicial as it is not explicit

cognitive dissonance

when inconsistency is perceived between acquired information, tension occurs

reduce cognitive dissonance

• avoidance

• reduction

• rationalisation

avoidance

avoid encountering

reduction

balance between reality and expectations

rationalisation

justify behaviour