Attitudes and stereotypes

Psychology- social studies

attitude

evaluation a person makes on an event, object, or others

attitude formation

how evaluations of the actions/feelings of others are formed

implicit attitude

automatic, unconscious evaluation. influenced by behaviours

explicit attitude

response based on conscious judgement and self report. voluntary and easy to detect

components of the tri-parte model

Affective (emotions), Behaviour (actions that show attitude), Cognitive (thoughts/beliefs that form from our experiences). ‘full’ attitude must contain all components

limitations of the tri-parte model

some experts believe that all 3 aren’t needed for a full attitude. the A and C can be there and B might not, but attitude is still present

Attribution Theory

framework explaining how individuals assign causes to their own and others' behaviours, focusing on internal and external factors.

dispositional attribution

assigning the cause of the behaviour to internal characteristics (personality)

situational attribution

assigning the cause of behaviour to situations outside of a persons control (we like to use this one on ourselves)

fundamental attribution error

attributing a person’s behaviour to an internal cause rather than situational (we often attribute ourselves incorrectly)

self serving bias

attributional distortions that enhance self esteem by blaming outside factors

social identity

sense of self in terms of group membership

social categorisation

placing people in groups based on shared characteristics. determines if a person is apart of an ingroup/outgroup

ingroup

group an individual associates with

outgroup

group an individual doesn’t belong to

intergroup conflict

disagreement between members of 2 or more groups (usually over limited desirable resources

cognitive dissonance

uncomfortable situation involving conflicting attitudes/behaviours (behaviour doesn’t align with values)

theory of cognitive dissonance

we have an inner drive to hold our attitudes/behaviour in harmony. when there is an inconsistency, something must change. (only people in a state of cognitive dissonance can take steps to reduce it)

steps to reduce dissonance

1. reduction (changing one of the inconsistent behaviour)

2. avoidance (avoiding situations/info that increases dissonance)

3. rationalisation (justify behaviour)

group

2/more people who interact with and influence each other for more than a few moments (dont have to be friends)

stereotype

cognitive schemata used to quickly process large amounts of info. form of social categorisation and can be learnt

prejudice

preconceived negative judgement of a group

discrimination

unequal treatment of people that have the same rights

direct discrimination

being treated unfairly of a characteristic they have(intentional)

indirect discrimination

being unfairly disadvantaged because of a characteristic, by a rule that applies to everyone (unintentional)

just world phenomenon

people get what they deserve. creates discrimination for the minority as they have lower status and are seen as ‘lazy’

social categorisation

categorising people into groups (us v them)

intergroup competition

conflict when groups compete for limited, desirable resources. (can lead to hostility and violence)

social influence

prejudice can arise from important people around you (like friends/family)

intergroup contact

contact between members of different social groups. more people within the group interact, less prejudice. breaks down barriers of negative stereotypes

contact hypothesis

intergroup contact reduces prejudice. not always successful, completed over time with shared goals and equal status

superordinate goals

goals both groups want to achieve but need to cooperate in order to do so. if failure, could result in worse conflict

mutual interdependence

groups depend on each other to meet their goal

equal-status contact

members of both groups have equal power

social identity theory

member of an in-group will stereotype member of outgroup by assuming they are all similar. boosts self image, puts outgrip member in poor light