Unit 6: Chapter 6-Attitudes

Question 1

Define attitudes.

Answer 1

A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea.

Question 2

How are attitudes measured with self-report techniques? Discuss the problems with using this technique.

Answer 2

Surveys/attitude scales (eg. Likart) -people will have different attitudes based on very specific wording (climate change vs. global warming)

Question 3

How are attitudes measured with covert techniques?

Answer 3

MRI
EMG-(facial recognition)
Implicit Association Test (IAT)- A covert measure of unconscious attitudes derived from the speed at which people respond to pairings of concepts—such as black or white with good or bad.

Question 4

What are implicit attitudes, and how are they measured?

Answer 4

Attiudes that people may not even be aware of having.
Using IAT (the black/gun association test you did-it’s about speed)

Question 5

To what extent can the specificity of attitudes predict behaviour?

Answer 5

Not to the extent that explicit attitudes can predict behaviour with the exception of socially sensitive topics where one may be motivated to conceal explicit attitudes.

Question 6

Identify the components of the theory of planned behaviour. How are the components related to one another?

Answer 6

The theory that attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a person’s actions.

Subjective norms-

PBC-

Question 7

Identify three indicators of the strength of an attitude.

Answer 7

(1)
directly affected their own self-interests;

(2)
related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious values; and

(3)
were of concern to their close friends, family, and social in-groups.

Question 8

How is the strength of an attitude linked to behaviour?

Answer 8

1. If a person is more informed it will stengthen the attiude
2. If they encounter stronger arguments against their position it will strengthen their attitude
3. The easier that information is to recall the more it will strengthen
4. If the attitude comes from ersonal experience and reliable sources it will strengthen the attitude.

Question 9

Define persuasion.

Answer 9

The process by which attitudes are changed.

Question 10

Give a few examples of persuasive communication that you encounter in your daily life.

Answer 10

ads
little political stickers and things

Question 11

Distinguish between the central route and the peripheral route to persuasion.

Answer 11

C-The process by which a person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced by the strength of its arguments.
P-The process by which a person does not think carefully about a communication and is influenced instead by superficial cues.

Question 12

What are the factors that influence which route of processing will be used?

Answer 12

whether or not the person speaking has the means and willingness to talk the central route or not.

Question 13

Identify the key attributes of the source of a persuasive message.

Answer 13

Source

Question 14

How does the source of a message influence the likelihood that people will be persuaded by the message?

Answer 14

Credibility (nothing to gain and expertise)
Likeablity (similarity and physical attractiveness)

Question 15

When is the source of a message less important than the content of the message?

Answer 15

level of personal involvement

Question 16

What is the sleeper effect?

Answer 16

A delayed increase in the persuasive impact of a non-credible source. (mostly only if the information is received before the source is revealed)

Question 17

Describe how the presentation of information in a message, including the timing of presentation, can affect the message’s effectiveness in persuasion.

Answer 17

If you believe that the information presented first has more impact, you’d predict a primacy effect. If you believe that the information presented last has the edge, you’d predict a recency effect
Message discrepencey- you want a less radical, more gentlre position to convince an opposition

Question 18

To what extent are fear appeals and positive emotions effective in persuasion? Explain.

Answer 18

Fear works well, butyou need to show the way people can avoid the cause of their fear in your message

Positive feelings activate the peripheral route to persuasion, facilitating change and allowing superficial cues to take on added importance

Question 19

List several characteristics of the audience or recipient of a message.

Answer 19

Need for cognition-(some people have more need for complexity in what they are presented)

Self-monitoring-those with low self monitoring are less influenced by image related appeals (celebrities selling cologne)

Regulatory fit-arguments that “feel right”

Forewarning and resistance-how much the audience is ‘prepared’ for an argument that they disagree with.

Question 20

Explain how each of these characteristics can influence the extent to which the recipient is persuaded by a message.

Answer 20

[on card above]

Question 21

Explain the processes by which being forewarned about a persuasive message represents being “forearmed.”

Answer 21

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. But why? Two processes are at work here.

(1)
They were informed of the position the speaker would take and (they prepare mental agrguments against the position)

(2)
they were told that the speaker intended to change their opinion.
(Try me! attitude)

Question 22

Describe how role-playing can influence one’s attitudes.

Answer 22

If you play the part, you start to believe it (like Tanya the rich school girl who became the revolutionary)

Question 23

Describe the principles of the original cognitive dissonance theory as proposed by Festinger in 1957.

Answer 23

Theory holding that inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce

Question 24

Explain how cognitive dissonance theory explains how we can justify insufficient reward.

Answer 24

We convince ourselves that the reward is greater or the effort is lesser than it is.

Question 25

Explain how cognitive dissonance theory explains undue effort

Answer 25

The more time, money, or effort you choose to invest in something, the more anxious you will feel if the outcome disappoints

Question 26

Explain how cognitive dissonance theory explains difficult decisions.

Answer 26

"Since bets and votes cannot be taken back, people who had committed to a decision were motivated to reduce post-decision dissonance. So they convinced themselves that the decision they made was right."

Question 27

According to the “new look” of cognitive dissonance, what are the steps necessary for arousal to be experienced and for dissonance to be reduced?

Answer 27

First, the attitude-discrepant behavior must produce unwanted negative consequences. The second necessary step in the process is a feeling of personal responsibility for the unpleasant outcomes of behavior. The third necessary step in the process is physiological arousal. (needs to feel the tension to be reduced) A person must also make an attribution for that arousal to his or her own behavior.

Question 28

What are the alternative views to cognitive dissonance as an explanation for self-persuasion? (list them)

Answer 28

Self-Perception Theory Impression Management Theory Self Esteem Theory

Question 29

Explain Self-Perception Theory

Answer 29

...This sort of self-persuasion is not fueled by the need to reduce tension or justify our actions. Instead, it is a cool, calm, and rational process in which people interpret ambiguous feelings by observing their own behavior. (I don't really understand this)

Question 30

Explain Impression Management Theory

Answer 30

... says that what matters is not a motive to be consistent but rather a motive to appear consistent

Question 31

Self Esteem Theory

Answer 31

...perhaps Festinger and Carlsmith’s participants needed to change their attitudes toward the boring task in order to repair damage to the self, not to resolve cognitive inconsistency