Social Cognition – Attitudes (Tri-Component Model) & Stereotypes

VCE Psychology Unit 2 – Area of Study 1 (AOS1): "How are people influenced to behave in particular ways?"
Focus: roles of person perception, attributions, attitudes and stereotypes in how we interpret, analyse, remember and use social information (decision-making & interpersonal interaction).

An attitude is simply how a person feels or judges an object, person, group, event or issue.
- This judgment can be positive, negative, or neutral.
- Attitudes can be very strong or just mild, and they usually last a long time.
Key properties
- Attitudes are learned from experiences, not something we are born with.
- They show what we've learned from our own life and our culture.
- Attitudes can change, grow, or stay the same over time.

Socio-cultural means how social and cultural things (like groups, habits, traditions, and beliefs) affect us.

This very important model says that a 'full' attitude has $3$ connected parts that must all be present and agree with each other.

This refers to our feelings or emotions.
Feelings can be:
- Positive (like, favour)
- Negative (dislike, hate)
- Neutral (don't care)
Examples
- "I love dogs."
- "I hate country music."
- "I'm not interested in politics."

This is about the actions we take that show our attitude.
It's like the saying "actions speak louder than words."
Example actions
- If you care about animals, you might volunteer at an animal shelter.
- If you're not interested in politics, you might avoid political events.

This is about our thoughts and beliefs about something.
Beliefs come from our experiences and what we learn; they can be true or false.
- For example: "A good work ethic is essential for future success." (a belief about school)
- A false belief: "All psychologists and psychiatrists do the same work."

Example: Having a positive attitude toward school
- Affective: You feel excited to go to school.
- Behavioural: You study hard and join in activities.
- Cognitive: You believe that schooling helps you learn important life skills.

In the real world, what we feel/believe often doesn't match our actions. Our attitude and behavior can be very different or only slightly related.
Some experts think only feelings (A) and thoughts (C) are needed for an attitude, and that actions (B) aren't always part of it.
Examples of when parts don't match
- Cricket: You dislike watching it (A) and think it's too long (C), but you still go to a match with friends (B).
- Dental hygiene: You believe it's important (C) but dislike the dentist (A), so you refuse to make appointments (B).

Scenario: Alva dislikes the store (Affective), Naja camps overnight for shoes (Behavioural), Riku thinks the price is poor value (Cognitive).

A stereotype is a set of beliefs we have about a group of people, ignoring how different individuals in that group might be.
The act of using stereotypes is called stereotyping – it's like putting people into simple categories.

Stereotypes act like a shortcut for our brains: they give us quick ideas about what to expect from new people, guiding our first reactions.
The danger is that stereotypes ignore that everyone is unique and are often based on little or no real proof.
- "Empirical evidence" means facts gathered by watching or testing things.

Stereotyping can lead to stigma, which is a negative label that causes disapproval or rejection.
When someone is stigmatized, they might feel shame, disgrace, have low self-esteem, or be left out socially (like the ongoing stigma around mental health).

Coming up next: cognitive dissonance and cognitive biases (more ways to understand why attitudes and behaviors sometimes don't match).