SP: Attitudes and behaviour summary

Question 1

How does the role people have relate to other’s attitudes

Answer 1

Attitude change depends on the roles people have

Question 2

What is the relationship between attitude and behaviour?

Answer 2

Behaviour also affects attitudes and behaviour depends on attitudes.

Question 3

What actions can only change attitudes?

Answer 3

Actions only guide attitudes if the actions are voluntary. People often make inferences from their actions to attitudes, because actions and attitudes are associated.

Question 4

What is the theory of self perception?

Answer 4

The theory of self-perception states that people infer attitudes from their own behaviour and the situations in which those actions occur.

Question 5

What is meant by the foot in the door technique? Explain the mechanisms behind this

Answer 5

First asking people to go along with a smaller request and if they comply, they will be more likely to go along with a bigger request later. The performance of the smaller request triggers self-perception processes and people want to be consistent with their attitudes and since their attitude is based on the first small request, they are more likely to go along with the big request.

Question 6

What is the requirements for the foot in the door technique to be effective? (2)

Answer 6

The first small request has to be voluntary and distinctly enough to infer attitudes from it. Foot-in-the-door effects are strongest when people’s cognitive resources have been exhausted.

Question 7

When are action-attitudes inferences most likely to occur?

Answer 7

when attitudes are unformed or unimportant.

Question 8

What are the four steps necessary for actions to produce cognitive dissonance and attitude change

Answer 8

People realize their action is inconsistent with their attitude (1) and that their action is freely chosen (2). This leads to uncomfortable physiological arousal (3) and people then attribute this uncomfortable arousal to the inconsistency in action and attitude (4). Cognitive dissonance is eliminated if the inconsistency is resolved.

Question 9

What are the three justifications that produce attitude change?

Answer 9

Insufficient justification
Effort justification
Post decisional regret justification

Question 10

How effective is attitude change brought about by dissonance?

Answer 10

Attitude change brought about by dissonance reduction can be long-lasting.

Question 11

Name four alternatives to reducing cognitive dissonance

Answer 11

Reducing the dissonance at any of the four steps by attributing the behaviour to different causes.Alcohol and drug use may be ways in which some people avoid or reduce the tension cognitive dissonance creates. People can also reduce dissonance by reaffirming their positive sense of self-worth and integrity. Changing behaviour is also a good way to reduce dissonance.

Question 12

What is meant by the hypocrisy effect?

Answer 12

The change in behaviour that occurs to reduce cognitive dissonance after realizing that you advocate behaviour but do not perform it yourself.

Question 13

What factor tends to influence the reduction opportunity for cognitive dissonance people choose

Answer 13

First one to present itself or motivation factors

Question 14

What other strategy is used for dissonance reduction?

Answer 14

Trivialising behaviour

Question 15

What type of people usually use positive affirmation to reduce dissonance?

Answer 15

Self-affirmation is mostly used by people that have a lot of affirmational resources (e.g: a lot of positive self-concepts).

Question 16

What is the effect of attitude on behaviour?

Answer 16

Attitudes can guide behaviour without much thought. The better established the attitude, the better guide to behaviour.

Question 17

How may attitudes bias perception?

Answer 17

In ways that make attitude- consistent behaviour more likely.

Question 18

What is meant by an intention?

Answer 18

A commitment to reach the desired outcome or desired behaviour

Question 19

What does the theory of reasoned action state?

Answer 19

Attitudes and social norms combine to produce behavioural intentions, which in turn influence behaviour.

Question 20

What is the effect of forming specific intentions?

Answer 20

better achieves the behavioural goal.

Question 21

What are implementation intentions?

Answer 21

Implementation intentions refer to a plan to carry out specific goal-directed behaviour in a specific situation. People mentally monitor behaviour and intentions.

Question 22

What are the two intentions which increase the extent to which attitudes guide behaviour

Answer 22

Attitude accessibility and correspondence with the specific situation

Question 23

When are attitudes and behaviour less consistent?

Answer 23

There is a decreased consistency between attitude and behaviour when factors other than people’s attitudes are made salient before a choice

Question 24

What behaviour do implicit and explicit attitudes have advantages in predicting?

Answer 24

Implicit attitudes predict uncontrollable behaviour better and explicit attitudes predict controllable behaviour.

Question 25

When do people not perform on attitudes?

Answer 25

if they cannot perform the required behaviour

Question 26

What does the theory of planned behaviour state?

Answer 26

The theory of planned behaviour states that attitudes, social norms and perceived control combine to influence intentions and thus behaviour.

Question 27

What is the role of inter personal cooperation own attitudes?

Answer 27

Although attitudes are personal, they often require interpersonal cooperation to carry through on them.

Question 28

What is meant by a habit?

Answer 28

a repeated behaviour automatically triggered in a particular situation.