attitudes and attitude change

Question 1

what is an attitude?

Answer 1

lasting organisation of beliefs/feelings/behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects/events/symbols

Question 2

what does the Three Component Model of attitudes consist of?

Answer 2

affective
cognitive
behavioural

Question 3

what is affective in the Three Component Model?

Answer 3

expression of feelings towards an attitude object

Question 4

what is cognitive in the Three Component Model?

Answer 4

expression of beliefs about an attitude object

Question 5

what is behavioural in the Three Component Model?

Answer 5

overt actions/verbal statements concerning behaviour

Question 6

which dimensions can attitudes hold?

Answer 6

simple or complex

Question 7

who proposed the function of attitudes?

Answer 7

Katz

Question 8

what are the functions of attitudes?

Answer 8

knowledge function
utilitarian function
ego-defensive
value expressive

Question 9

what is the knowledge function?

Answer 9

organise and predict the social world, provides meaning and coherence

Question 10

what is the utilitarian function?

Answer 10

help people achieve positive outcomes and avoid negative outcomes

Question 11

what is the ego defensive function?

Answer 11

protecting your self esteem from a harmful world

Question 12

what is the value expressive function?

Answer 12

facilitate own core values and self concept

Question 13

which four theories suggest where attitudes come from?

Answer 13

mere exposure effect
classical conditioning
instrumental conditioning
self perception theory

Question 14

who proposed the mere exposure effect?

Answer 14

Zajonc

Question 15

what is the Mere Exposure effect?

Answer 15

repeated exposure of a stimulus enhances preference for a stimulus

Question 16

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 16

attitudes learnt from others- repeated association means an object goes from being a neutral stimulus to providing a response

Question 17

what is instrumental conditioning?

Answer 17

attitudes learnt from others: behaviour followed by positive consequences is more likely to be repeated, and this attitude is likely to survive

Question 18

who provided evidence for instrumental conditioning?

Answer 18

Insko- ppts reported a more favourable attitude towards a topic if they received positive rather than negative feedback on the same attitude a week prior

Question 19

who proposed self perception theory?

Answer 19

Bem

Question 20

what is self perception theory?

Answer 20

gain knowledge of ourselves by making self attributions, can infer our attitudes from our behaviour

Question 21

what are the three techniques to reveal attitudes?

Answer 21

self report and experimental paradigms

physiological measures

measures of overt behaviour

Question 22

why do we want to know about attitudes?

Answer 22

they predict behaviour
they form the core of self concept

Question 23

what is the issue with measuring attitudes?

Answer 23

can be a mismatch, eg) people know smoking is unhealthy but still want to continue

Question 24

what does research suggest about the relationship between attitudes and behaviour?

Answer 24

attitudes do predict behaviour, but this relationship is weaker than envisaged

Question 25

what did LePiere's research suggest about attitudes and behaviour?

Answer 25

study on racial prejudice Chinese couple visited 250 restaurants/coffee shops/hotels and received service 95% of the time without hesitation in response to a letter of enquiry after, 92% of establishments said they wouldn't accept members of the Chinese race

Question 26

what did Wicker's research suggest about the relationship between attitudes and behaviour?

Answer 26

attitudes only weakly correlated with behaviour: in a meta analysis the average correlation was .15

Question 27

what did Gregson and Stacey's research suggest about the relationship between attitudes and behaviour?

Answer 27

small positive correlation between general attitudes and alcohol consumption

Question 28

what impacts how well attitudes predict behaviour?

Answer 28

how strong the attitude is whether it is formed through direct experience how it is measured (how specific the questions are/how closely the questions relate to the behaviours)

Question 29

what did Haddock et al find out about behaviour relating to general experience?

Answer 29

attitudes towards assisted suicide were influenced by people's experience of direct encounters

Question 30

who proposed the theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 30

Ajzen

Question 31

what is the theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 31

people make decisions as the result of a rational thought process

Question 32

what is the intention behind a behaviour impacted by according to the theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 32

attitude towards the behaviour (positive/negative) subjective norm (social expectations) perceived behavioural control (control over actions)

Question 33

who proposed cognitive dissonance?

Answer 33

Festinger

Question 34

what is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 34

unpleasant state of psychological tension generated when a person has 2+ inconsistent cognitions people then strive to reduce dissonance

Question 35

what happened in Festinger's study?

Answer 35

ppts took part in a boring counting study told to lie to the next ppt and say the experiment was fun would either receive nothing, £1 or £20 then asked for their true opinion `

Question 36

what were the results of Festinger's study?

Answer 36

those given nothing said it was boring those given £1 said they enjoyed it those given £20 said they didn't really enjoy it this is because the £20 felt justification for their lying, whereas £1 felt dissonance so changed their behaviour

Question 37

how can we reduce cognitive dissonance?

Answer 37

change behaviour change cognition add a new cognition

Question 38

which dual process models highlight the power of persuasion?

Answer 38

elaboration likelihood model heuristic systematic model

Question 39

who proposed the elaboration likelihood model?

Answer 39

Petty and Cacioppo

Question 40

who proposed the heuristic systematic model?

Answer 40

Chaiken

Question 41

what is the elaboration likelihood model?

Answer 41

central route= when the message is followed closely, considerable cognitive effort (analytical, takes time) peripheral route= when an argument is not well attended to= peripheral cues (temporary changes) these pathways are independent

Question 42

what is the heuristic systematic model?

Answer 42

systematic processing= when the message is attended to carefully- scan and consider possible arguments heuristic processing= use cognitive heuristics these pathways can be activated at the same time

Question 43

how does research on attitudes affect attempts to reduce smoking behaviour?

Answer 43

which warning is more effective: 'smoking seriously harms you and others around you?' or 'smoking kills' it depends- if smoking is a source of self esteem for someone, the smoking kills message may make them want to smoke more. however, if this isn't the case, this won't happen