Social Psychology Unit 2
Justify behavior by changing our cognition
Decide your behavior is justified so you don't feel bad; no longer a sign of stupidity Government is out to get tobacco companies, so the data is incorrect, it is fine to smoke cigarettes
Dispositional vs. Situational Attributions
Dispositional: internal; caused by your personality or your traits; you did it because you were nice Situational: external; caused by environmental circumstance or the situation you are in; you did it because others were watching
Explicit vs. Implicit Attitudes
Explicit: consciously accessible, easy to verbalize and report; factual; often cognitive based; Attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report; measure by asking Implicit: unconscious associations, difficult to verbalize, generally involuntary and uncontrollable; often affective based; Attitudes that exist outside of conscious awareness; measure by IAT or implicit associations tests Both can impact behavior Often, cognitive aspect goes along w/ behavioral and affective aspect; are in line w/ each other and allow us to make reasonable predictions based off of any of them When they are out of alignment, knowing about the implicit can help make predictions Implicit attitudes are formed early and may be a better predictor than explicit in certain situations
What is "flow"?
Flow is what people feel when they are highly absorbed in a task and have the sense that they are making progress, such as when they are playing sports, engaged in creative activities such as writing, composing, or performing, or simply working on an enjoyable puzzle. Flow is such a pleasurable and absorbing state that people often lose track of how much time has passed and exactly where they are. When people achieve their goal—the game is over or they complete a work of art—the flow stop
How can you increase the chance people will reduce dissonance by changing their behavior?
Getting them to see their own hypocrisy, getting them to experience dissonance, and getting them to change their behavior
Two-Step Process of Attribution
1. Make internal attribution; assume behavior is due to person; occurs quickly and spontaneously; often stop here, especially if we're tired, not interested, distracted 2. If we are interested, motivated, have the energy/time, we may consider the situation and adjust our initial attribution; requires effort, conscious attention; may fail to make enough adjustment still Understanding ourselves in a social context We vary who we are based on a social setting, but have a central core Certain parts/aspects can be emphasized at different times
How to promote/build self-efficacy in children
Give them opportunities that they have to work at alone, but can be successful in Give them good role models that show they can do it Pick challenges; too easy or parent helps, they won't trust or believe they are capable; but challenging enough and independent work shows the child they are capable
Schachter and Singer Experiment
Given same degree of physiological arousal and different environments, a happy environment where they were playing games and "happy stooge" or an angry environment with an insulting questionnaire and "angry stooge" Suproxin makes vision better was cover story 2 independent variables: Level 1: epinephrine informed; told them about what the shot will do (though they did not know it was not suproxin) it will make you shake, your heart pound, and your face flush Level 2: epinephrine ignorant: did not tell them there would be side effects Level 3: Placebo; shot of saline and told no side effects Results: Level 1: did not get angry when exposed to angry stooge because they had an alternate explanation for their arousal (the drug) or happy with fun stooge Level 2: became angry along with angry stooge and became happy and joined in w fun stooge Placebo: were not aroused Implications: emotions are somewhat arbitrary, emotions depend on our explanations for arousal
Global vs. Specific Attributions
Global: happens across the board; you always do this Specific: was specific to this time; it only happened in this one instance
Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
Growth: "when you are learning" - the idea that our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow; intelligence can be developed Fixed: "when you are flawless" - the idea that you have a fixed amount of an ability that cannot change; intelligence is static
Performance-Contingent Rewards
Rewards that are given for performing a task, regardless of how well the task is done Given based on how well task is performed maintains intrinsic interest better than task contingent; less damaging to intrinsic motivation grades, paychecks with commissions can create performance anxiety if you are not good at it but enjoy it, you can get discouraged, like for a novice
Intrinsic Motivation
internal motivation, individuals are motivated to do something because they like it; they enjoy it and find it pleasing, need no to offer them something to do it the desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external rewards or pressures
How does advertising work?
By making a product seem more personally relevant
Task-Contingent Rewards
Rewards that are based on how well we perform a task Given for performing a task, regardless of quality
Subliminal Messages
Words or pictures that are not consciously perceived but may nevertheless influence judgments, attitudes, and behaviors
Observational Learning
"learn through exposure: We acquire by watching Particularly interested in copying groups that we like Social tuning How strongly are you identified w/ your gender; provided free samples, some said "women really love these", some said " men really love these"; if it said latter, men liked it more and women liked it less; vice versa for people who strongly identified w/ gender; those who were not as strongly identified w/ gender recognized they tasted the same
Do public service ads work?
A meta-analysis of studies that tested the effects of a media message (conveyed via television, radio, electronic, and print media) on substance use among youths was encouraging (Derzon & Lipsey, 2002). After a media campaign that targeted a specific substance, such as tobacco, kids were less likely to use it. Television and radio messages had even bigger effects than messages in the print media (Ibrahim & Glantz, 2007), providing some hope for the success of media campaigns to promote healthier behavior.
What else has advertising has been shown to impact?
Advertisements transmit cultural stereotypes in their words and images, subtly connecting products with desired images, feelings, and desires advertisements can also reflect, reinforce, and perpetuate stereotypical ways of thinking about others as well as gender stereotypes and gender roles and body style preferences
Schemas Differ From Culture to Culture
American artistic type: creative, intense, temperamental, unconventional Americans assume what is beautiful is good Chinese Shi gu type: worldly, devoted to family, socially skilled, reserved
What is Attitude?
An evaluation of people, objects, or ideas
Observe Self
Look to behavior to decide what we think we feel
Four Main Dissonance Reduction Techniques
Change our behavior to fit our cognition, Justify behavior by changing our cognition, Find new cognitions that either support me or that behavior, Distract or reduce awareness of the situation/avoid situations that remind you of it/trivialize the situation
3 Learning Types of Attitude Formation
Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, and Observational learning
Interdependent Self-Concept
Collectivist A way of defining oneself in terms of one's relationships to other people, recognizing that one's behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others Identity: social, defined by connections with others Self esteem varies based on how the person connects to others and how they view you; defined by the people in your circle What matters: We; group goals and solidarity, social responsibilities and relationships We needs and goals is put before I needs Approves: connectedness and interdependence Harmony, getting along Disapproves: egotism
Why is it Hard to Change Implicit Personality Theory?
Confirmation bias: more likely to notice/remember information that supports your belief Belief Perseverance: takes more evidence to change a belief than it did to form it Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: your belief influences others' behavior to confirm your belief Primacy Effect: first things you are exposed to are what you most likely to remember Fundamental Attribution Error: tendency to overestimate the influence of dispositional factors or the extent to which other people's behavior is due to internal factors and underestimate the role of situation factors
Controllable vs. Non-Controllable Attributions
Controllable: you were able to dictate how the situation went; you did it on purpose; you purposely bumped into a person Non-Controllable: you were unable to dictate how the situation went; behavior happened by accident; you tripped and bumped into someone
Distract or reduce awareness of the situation or avoid situations that remind you or trivialize the situation
Create new crisis in your life so you don't focus on it, avoid it, or belittle the problem Say something mean to your mom so you don't come home for a week acknowledge smoking kills, but think that most people in my family die young anyways, so it's not that important or impactful
How to increase the chance that behavioral change will be used to reduce dissonance
Hypocrisy Paradigm: make it obvious to people they are saying one thing while doing another, they can talk themselves out of the behavior before they justify it; sometimes we want to increase dissonance by putting it right in their face that their attitude and behavior do not match arousal of dissonance by having individuals make statements that run counter to their behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between what they advocated and their behavior The purpose is to lead individuals to more responsible behavior Actually go and advocate for an attitude or behavior that is against beliefs Elliot Aronson Study: Students had to deliver a speech to high school students about the importance of using condoms when they themselves did not use condoms and some changed their attitudes on condoms
When do we compare...?
If we want motivation or role model, we compare up, look to people who are doing better than I am to use them as guides which can either motivate or make us feel bad (short end of stick) AKA Upward Social Comparison: comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability If I want to feel better, we compare down, look to those who are doing worse than us; why we like to see others doing poorly which makes us feel more normal or more accomplished AKA Downward Social Comparison: comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability If I want accurate information, we compare to the standard; want to be accurate, informational conformity
Types of Schema
If you see something that triggers one of those personality types, you assume the rest of the traits exist w/in that person too sometimes this is true, but we also know individual variation exists, which leads to errors when we over assume a stereotype Warmth: friendly, understanding, compassionate, helpful, trustworthy, generous Competence: can do, dominant, powerful Stingy: irritable
Impression Formation
Impressions we form of other people We observe their behavior We take that information and infer based off of that snipped of information to determine feelings, traits, or motivations Happens in under a second
Find new cognitions that either support me or support that behavior
Includes self-affirmations makes you feel better about yourself in the face of data that should make you feel bad If smoking relaxes me, I am getting a benefit from it My family has been smoking for 50 years and they do not have cancer, so I must have the genes for it even if its bad for others
Cultural Patterns of Self Concept
Independent vs. Interdependent
Independent Self-Concept
Individualistic A way of defining oneself in terms of one's own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people Identity: personal, defined by goals and traits; about what I want and what characteristics and traits I believe I have What matters: Me; personal achievement and fulfillment, rights and liberties Am a combination of my goals, achievements, rights, liberties Approves: independence and uniqueness; That what makes me special and good and who I am; told I am special because I am unique Disapproves: conformity
3 Ways to Learn About Yourself
Introspection Observe Self Understanding Our Emotions
Why Social Perception is Important
It tells us what people are like, what they do, and why they do it
How to promote lasting attitude/behavior change in children
Mild or moderate reward over big reward more than once because there is less external justification and more attitude change using a threat that is big enough to comply, but not enough to externally justify because harsh punishment works, but only temporarily Use performance based rewards; reward them for doing things well If the child likes to do it, they should already do it, but if needed, use the rewards sparingly and only for really good performance Reduce performance anxiety by avoiding putting pressure on them
Predicting our Behavior
Often better at predicting our behavior than we are Planning fallacy Dating Skills test scores
How others judge us
Often hang with those that feel the same way, even about ourselves Looking for self-verification and comfort so if we don't like ourselves, its comfortable to be with people who are also iffy on you, its uncomfortable to always be with people who love you Verification makes us feel right Attractiveness is exception Confirmation bias decreases impact of other people; discount what people say that disagrees with our opinion and put more weight on what fits what we already believe about ourselves
What type of ad might change an affectively based attitude?
One targeting affectively based attitudes with emotions soda advertisements do not stress facts and figures. As one advertising executive noted, "The thing about soda commercials is that they actually have nothing to say" ("Battle for Your Brain," 1991). Instead of presenting facts, soft drink ads play to people's emotions, trying to associate feelings of excitement, youth, energy, and sexual attractiveness with the brand
What type of ad might change a cognitively based attitude?
One targeting cognitively based based attitudes with facts use logical, fact-based arguments To people who suffer from frequent heartburn, the topic clearly has direct personal relevance so the company should convince people that your product will reduce heartburn the best or the fastest
What is Social Perception
Our attempt to understand others which helps us predict what others will do next. Being able to judge other people helps us feel safe and helps us feel we understand the world
What is Self-Perception
Our attempt to understand ourselves How do we determine who we are and how we feel about ourselves Our beliefs about self-impact what we see and do and what comes back at us What am I like? Why am I like that? What am I likely to do in the future?
How do the roles we play impact self-perception?
Over time, the number roles we play increases, as you get older your world expands, as your world expands yourself concept gets more complicated Some we are born into some we chose like are you an American? vs. are you a student? When we take on a new role, we are nervous but the more we engage, the more comfortable we get and the less we feel like fakers Fake it till you make it, more like fake it till you become it: the more you do something, the more you can see yourself doing that
What is Self-Concept?
Overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes your understanding of yourself; basic understanding of yourself; your self schema (framework) that impacts what you see and how you interpret an idea of the self constructed from the beliefs one holds about oneself and the responses of others physical characteristics: tall, short, fat, thin, personality traits: are you kind, are you caring, are you selfish abilities: what are you good at roles: are you a significant other, a parent, an employee values: do you value money, fairness, relationships evaluations: Self-esteem vs. self-efficacy
Classic Festinger Dissonance Reduction Study (1959)
Participants had to do really boring tasks, afterwards the researcher comes in and asks them to lie to the next person to come in and say its so fun 1/3 were paid $1 to stay; found it the most enjoyable 1/3 were paid $20 to stay; found it neutral 1/3 were asked to rate the task; found it least enjoyable
Jecker and Landy Study (1969)
People coming in and they think they will be paid 1/3 received no favor from the experimenter, ended up feeling pretty indifferent about the experimenter 1/3 did a favor for the psychology department, do it for free for the department, ended up liking the experimenter the least; actually thought poorly of him 1/3 did a favor for the researcher, give the money they receive to the experimenter, ended up liking the experimenter the most; thought relatively highly of him
How to Avoid the Overjustification Effect
Preserve internal interest and avoid over-justification when using performance contingent rewards rewards only undermine interest if interest was initially high Cannot risk undermining interest if it is low to begin with
How Can we Use First Impressions to Our Advantage
Public speaking: ensure opening is strong, portraying traits that trigger positive implicit personality theories Job Interview: Dress, eye contact, body posture, that impact evaluations but may even be resume or phone call before they meet you When you are in a good mood, you are more likely to remember good things Handshake quality: affects assessment of personality and final hiring recommendations; decisions about things like assertiveness and competence Power Posing: others respond to posture; fake it till you make it, fake it till you become it
Forbidden Toy Study (1963)
Room full of really cool toys, had kids judge the toys, then told kids they couldn't play with the one they rated the highest 1/2 was a low threat, I'll be a little bit annoyed; the toy was found less attractive Change in attitude, had insufficient external justification, look to justify it internally by changing attitude 1/2 was high threat, I'll tell everyone you're a baby; afterwards, the toy was still highly attractive no change in attitude, had sufficient external justification for resisting toy so they still liked it
Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
Schachter 1964 we infer our emotions by observing our behavior and our environment; feel aroused, look to ourselves and environment to explain behavior Experience basic core physiological arousal then seek an explanation for the arousal by looking at what you're doing, facing, experiencing
Self-Esteem vs. Self-Efficacy
Self-esteem: do you like yourself Self-efficacy: do you believe you are capable
Freedman follow up study (1965) to the Forbidden Toy Study
Similar set up and circumstances, looked to see how long the effects lasted by bringing those children back in Showed the effects lasted weeks, mild threat were less likely to play
How does self-concept develop?
Social contact is crucial to development of self-concept: roles that we play with others impacts how we define our self which then in turn impacts how we interact with the social world roles we play/identities we form, comparison to others
What is the relationship between attitude and behavior
Sometimes attitude drives behavior, sometimes it's the other way around, and sometimes it is unpredictable and disconnected Wicker study (1969) Meta study found expressed attitudes are not good predictors of behaviors, even though people believe they act according to attitude (Cheating, church, racism, environment)
Temporary vs. Chronic Attributions
Temporary: Variable over time; at this point in time, that is how you behave Chronic: Stable over time; you always behave in this way
Actor Observer Effect
Tendency to attribute our behavior to situational causes but that of others to dispositional ones or the tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes
Correspondence Bias (fundamental attribution error)
Tendency to believe that people's behavior corresponds to their dispositions; distort what you see when trying to come up with what is happening and why; immediately go for person and discredit the environment ALWAYS FOR OTHERS, NEVER FOR YOURSELF Underestimate external, environmental, situation influences and overestimate internal, personal, dispositional factors Much more common in America than other countries Assumes people do what they do because of the kind of people they are, not because of the situation they are in
Affective Forecasting
The extent to which people can predict the intensity and duration of their emotional reactions to future events people's predictions about how they will feel in response to a future emotional event how are you going to feel in the future?
Classical Conditioning
The phenomenon whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus that does not, until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus "learn by association" we like/dislike things paired with those we already like/dislike Afraid of thunder, associate lightning with thunder, start to be afraid of lightning Loud noises startle us, know lightning comes before thunder, start startling to lightning Automatic, but can be manipulated Advertising companies know you like celebs and sex, associate their product with those
Operant Conditioning
The phenomenon whereby behaviors we freely choose to perform become more or less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward or punishment "learn through consequences" Attitudes that lead to positive outcomes strengthened and those that lead to negative outcomes weakened Freely chosen Associate something w/ positive outcome, keep doing it Racist family, say something racist, receive subtle cues that that is okay while Non-racist family, say something not racist, receive cues that that is okay Associate something w/ negative outcome, avoid it Racist family, say something non-racist, receive cues that that is not okay while Non-racist family, say something racist, receive cues that that is not okay
Misattribution of Arousal
The tendency for people to incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing When we mistakenly attribute psychological arousal for something that is not the real cause of it Process whereby people make mistake in inferences in what is causing them to feel the way they do Arousal from one source enhances the intensity of how the person interprets other feelings Can happen from caffeine, exercise, frightening situation which arouse you without your knowledge and you attach it to something else Happens when people experience intense emotions like Movie actors, natural disasters, crisis, people going through something, roller coasters Woman is the same person, but men associated arousal from scary bridge to attraction to her
Do subliminal messages work in advertising?
There is evidence, however, that people can be influenced by subliminal messages under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, so maybe advertisers can figure it out one day in the laboratory, there is no evidence that subliminal messages can get people to act counter to their wishes, values, or personalities (Neuberg, 1988). Thus, it is highly unlikely that the appearance of RATS in the Bush campaign ad convinced any Gore supporters to vote for Bush
Impact bias
We tend to overestimate enduring impact of emotional events for two reasons: Immune neglect: tendency to neglect speed and strength of "psychological immune system" which enables recovery and resilience after bad events Hedonic adaptation: we adjust to a changing "typical" faster than we think we will making the new normal more tolerable than we would have guessed if it is lower, and less exciting than we would have expected if it is higher (adjustment is faster if new normal is better than old)
Cultural Differences
Western Cultures: North America, Western Europe, Australia; individualistic, stress individual autonomy, person is self-contained, independent, prefer dispositional attributions, think like personality psychologists and look for individual differences Eastern Cultures: Asia, South America, Africa, Collectivist, emphasize group autonomy, sense of self comes from group belongingness, prefer situational attributions, think like social psychologists and look for the impact of the group on the individual
When do attitudes predict behavior?
When social influences on what we say are minimal: low pressure, don't believe people are watching, more likely to act in a way that matches When other influences on what we do are minimal: low conflict, weather is good, more likely to act in a way that matches When attitude tapped is specific: Ask about recycling and not love of environment; do you love the environment? Then study recycling behavior When attitude is accessible: Strong, reminded, made self-aware, likely to act consistently
Self-Perception Theory
When unsure of our feelings or attitudes, we infer them by observing our behavior The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs First, we infer our inner feelings from our behavior only when we are not sure how we feel Second, people judge whether their behavior really reflects how they feel or whether it was the situation that made them act that way Do I like Suzie? I hadn't really thought about it, but I hang out with her every day so I must like her. Includes using own facial expressions; we show what we feel, and we can also come to feel what we show
How to promote growth mindset in children
With success, praise effort to show if the kid faces a challenge, they will put in effort for the outcome If you praise performance, they believe it is something they "have", a skill that is appraisable teaches them to problem solve and supports failure by encouraging them to trouble shoot, show them failure is an opportunity to learn, not an uncovering or exposure
Gender Patterns of Self Concept
Women: discuss interpersonal problems and relationships; young girls are more emotionally intimate with individual friends; focus on interaction Relational interdependence: focus on close relationships Men: talk about anything but their feelings; young boys are more connected to the group Collective interdependence: focus on memberships in larger groups
Advertising
a concerted effort to change the way that consumers think about and act toward a certain product works more than we think
Self-Persuasion
a long-lasting form of attitude change that results from attempts at self-justification
External Justification
a reason or an explanation for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual to receive a large reward or avoid a severe punishment
Self-Affirmation
a way of reducing dissonance by reminding oneself of one or more of one's positive attributes
Behavior component of Attitude
actions; what you do; self-perception theory/cognitive dissonance Sometimes helps us form attitude, sometimes helps change attitude Prejudice: discrimination; treating people differently because they are a part of that group Car: test drive and buy
Split Cable Market Tests
advertisers work in conjunction with cable companies and grocery stores, showing a target commercial to a randomly selected group of people keep track of what people buy by giving potential consumers special ID cards that are scanned at checkout counters they can tell whether people who saw the commercial for ScrubaDub laundry detergent actually buy more ScrubaDub—the best measure of advertising effectiveness The results of over 300 split cable market tests indicate that advertising does work, particularly for new products
3 Components of Attitudes
affective, behavioral, cognitive ABC
Attributions
assumed cause of a behavior, why we think behavior happened which is used to understand others, predict how they will act, and decide how we feel about them We like when the world makes sense, we try to make up reasons why people do what they do even if we are wrong Make up attributions for others as well as for ourselves
Attitude Formation
attitudes you already have are going to influence the formation of new attitudes, often uses all learning types Genetic Basis and Social experience impact it as well as the learning types
Deciding Becomes Believing Effect
finding new reasons to like our choice and new reasons to dislike our non-choice after the fact decision first, then cognition; post decision dissonance reduction leads to more extreme position Make a choice, then in order to get rid of dissonance, I actually convince myself to feel even better about the decision that I did initially After the fact, find new reasons to support our choice and new reasons to dislike our non-choice; upgrade what we picked and downgrade what we didn't pick
Self-Serving Bias
attribution distortions, self-handicapping, above average effect, bias blind spot, false consensus, false uniqueness distort reasons we think things happen to us in a way that makes us feel better about ourselves; tend to take credit for success (internal, intrinsic), but blame others (external, extrinsic) for our failures If we do something well, we are more likely to take credit and use dispositional attribution that allows us to relish in success If we make a mistake or mess up, we are more likely to blame everything or everyone else which protects us from feeling bad in failure and allows us to stay happy in our illusion but takes away motivation to better ourselves and causes conflict with others (in part because of lack of accountability and delusions) Common in Western Cultures
Behaviorally Based Attitudes
based on behavior when we're not sure of our attitude, we look to our behavior (self-perception theory) We engage in a behavior that doesn't match our attitude, so we shift our beliefs (cognitive dissonance) Can manipulate this if we want to see change by forcing people to engage in counter attitudinal behaviors which will likely make them change their beliefs or attitudes
Cognitively Based Attitudes
based on the belief about the properties of an attitude object No emotions, no values Less common than people think Most people buy vacuums based on its qualities
Developmental Patterns of Self-Concept
becomes more concrete and more complex as you get older Early: physical and concrete (high self-esteem) Later: personality and evaluation (more realistic evaluation but
Self-Handicapping
built in excuse in case we don't do well; we look even better if we do well in spite of Is potentially sabotaging your ability to do well, allowing you to not being accountable, can lead you to associate the bad behavior with succeeding; make inappropriate associations, and the outside world doesn't know your handicaps
Change our behavior to fit cognition
changing what we do to be more aligned with our beliefs, but is often too late or there are other roadblocks Smoking cigarettes causes addiction
Affectively Based Attitudes
connected to gut reactions; does it feel right, does it look right, does it fit with my values Values, feelings, aesthetics, conditions, not reasoning Not just like/dislike: anger, guild, fear, content, pleasure Politics, religion, pre-marital sex, abortion, death penalty
Perceptual Salience
disproportionate impact of information that is the focus of attention; what is most obvious; what seems most obvious will be disproportionately emphasized and have a disproportionate impact on our perception of the world and what we are thinking Salience: how noticeable or observable something is
Extrinsic Motivation
doing it for external reason, not because we just like it, but because it gets us something from the outside world; get a reward, praise, recognition, money the desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures, not because we enjoy the task or find it interesting Can confuse us because if we already like doing something and we get a reward for something, we don't know why we are doing it anymore and can reduce intrinsic motivation, even make them like it less
Thin Slicing
draw meaningful conclusions based on a brief sample of skill and or personality by making assumptions about traits that go together Some people rely on it than others; some depend on stereotypes more and some are more open minded and thoughtful It is applying other pieces of knowledge based on the first thing we see
Affective component of Attitude
emotional reaction Prejudice: what you feel towards them Car: feel excited or angry
Social Comparison Theory
figure out who we are by comparing the idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to others everything is relative so we look to others to compare who we compare to depends on our goal
Examples of Justification of Effort
go through med school, become a doctor, then realize you hate being a doctor but you put so much work in, so you justify it when members go through a difficult initiation procedure, they are more loyal and like the organization more because they worked hard to get in and they believe they are smart, so it must have been reasonable to go through the hazing College students joined a discussion group on psychology of sex. 1/3 went through extremely demanding and unpleasant initiation, 1/3 went
Why does Justification of Effort occur?
happens because "only stupid people would work hard for something bad and if I worked hard, because I am smart, it must be good" look harder for good aspects, take the ambiguous and interpret it as good, minimize my interpretation of the bad Happens outside of awareness to protect self-esteem
Predicting our Feelings
have difficulty predicting the intensity and duration of future emotions Okay at predicting direction, but not length or strength of emotion in negative direction Affective forecasting Don't always know reasons for our feelings either
What 4 factors play a role in people's report of happiness?
having satisfying relationships with other people, becoming engaged in something you love, pursuing experiences more than things, and helping others
How might helping others increase our happiness?
helping increases positive interactions with other people helping others makes us feel like good people—that is, it improves our self-image
Understanding our Emotions
how do we know what we feel about something; most of think it is automatic and that we know how we feel without thinking about it, but sometimes we attach the wrong emotion to something
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
if we show what we feel, we are more likely to feel that; test w/ Botox, half got Botox and half of them got facial cream that didn't paralyze face, those w/ Botox experienced less extreme emotions facial movement can influence emotional experience. For example, an individual who is forced to smile during a social event will actually come to find the event more of an enjoyable experience
What can you do if you are targeting a cognitively based attitude that is not currently relevant to the individual?
if you are trying to sell a heartburn medicine to people who experience heartburn only every now and then and do not consider it a big deal, you might succeed in changing their attitudes via the peripheral route, such as by having attractive movie stars endorse your product such attitude change triggered by peripheral cues does not last long NEED TO: make your product personally relevant Promoting Listerine as a mouthwash but no one at the time knew what mouthwash was successfully played on people's fears about social rejection and failure. coined the phrase "Often a bridesmaid, never a bride"
When are attitudes unlikely to predict behavior?
implicit and explicit don't match Social pressure is high in contrary "I don't believe it's important to go to church every week, but everyone around me does, I will likely go" Other influences are strong (Snow storm, flu, family event)
What evidence supports the idea that you should take cultural setting into account when you are designing your ads?
in many cultures, women are expected to assume the role of wife and mother and have limited opportunities to pursue other careers. In the United States and other countries, these expectations are evolving, and women do have more opportunities than ever before. But conflict can still result when expectations change for some roles but not for others assumed by the same person. In India, for example, women were traditionally permitted to take only the roles of wife, mother, agricultural laborer, and domestic worker Western culture, and especially American culture, currently values unrealistic thinness in the female form Western cultures tend to stress independence and individualism, whereas many Asian cultures stress interdependence and collectivism. Maybe these differences influence the kinds of attitudes people have and hence how advertisements affect those attitudes To examine this possibility, researchers created different print ads for the same product that stressed independence (e.g., an ad for shoes said, "It's easy when you have the right shoes") or interdependence (e.g., "the shoes for your family") and showed them to both Americans and Koreans (Han & Shavitt, 1994). The Ameri-cans were persuaded most by the ads stressing independence, and the Koreans were persuaded by the ads stressing interdependence.
Introspection
look inward; ask myself what is driving my behavior (thoughts, feelings, motives) we are not aware of all of our motives and it is vulnerable to distortions and errors; often make mistakes Explaining our behavior, predicting our behavior, and predicting our feelings
How do the false consensus effect and the false uniqueness effect help us maintain a positive view of our self?
make us feel better b/c our failures are normal, and our virtues set us apart tend to underestimate how common our positive qualities are, we see ourselves as desirable
What do we know about money, materialism, and happiness?
money itself does not make people happy, especially if it breeds materialism people often strive for things that are unlikely to make them happier (e.g., earning lots of money) and overlook things that will make them happier (e.g., spending time with close friends and loved ones)
Above Average Effect
most people see themselves as better than average on a variety of dimensions, but it is statistically impossible because only half can be better than average we tend to value more things we feel we are particularly good at and put less value on things we are not good at
Theory of Planned Behavior
need to know about attitude as well as subjective norms and do they believe they have control over behavior; Know about specific attitude, what they believe of context they are in, and how much control they believe they have Subjective norm: how you think those you care about will see the behavior Perceived behavior control: how easily you think you can do it
Moral Hypocrisy
present as moral but act in ways to avoid its costs Most people believe they are moral, but if given a chance, they will do something to avoid the costs of being moral Batson Study (2000s): 2 jobs, 1 fun and a chance to win $, 1 boring, one picked; 5% said it was fair to give themselves the better jobs, but 80% assigned the better job to themselves New study, coin flip, should be 50%, but 90% got the better job New new study, coin flip in front of a mirror, 50% Either b/c they figured it was one way or brought them back to reality
Social Tuning
part of our identity is defined by others take on behavior or alter self to become more like those you like and less like those you don't adapt another person's personality is unconscious In an experiment, the psychologists manipulated clothes and attitude of research assistant. The assistant was either perceived as nice and kind w/ a blank tshirt, nice and kind w/ an anti-racism, rude and abrupt w/ blank tshirt, and rude and abrupt w/ anti-racist
How does "flow" contribute to happiness?
people are happier when they are working at something they enjoy and making progress when people are working toward a goal, they are often in a highly desired state called flow, which occurs when people are "lost" in a task that is challenging but attainable People may be very gratified with what they have accomplished, but they are no longer "lost" in the pursuit of their goal when people are working toward a goal but are not certain that they will obtain it, it is hard to think about anything else After a goal is obtained, however, people's thoughts invariably turn to other matters
Studies that regard helping others and happiness
people who were given $20 and asked to spend it on another person ended up happier than people who were given $20 and asked to spend it on themselves (Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2008)
Who is most likely to engage in dissonance reduction techniques and why?
people with high self-esteem because the decision is important and is harder to change the higher the self-esteem, the more motivated they are to preserve their self-concept or positive self-esteem
Implicit Personality Theory
the way in which a newly formed impression that relates to what is already known about the other person
Reasons-Generated Attitude Change
search brings to mind easy to verbalize reasons, the things we list then can get over emphasized, they become the attitude, may or may not match "true" or preexisting attitude, preexisting hard to verbalize feelings make bubble back up or resurface and, if they are inconsistent, they can lead to regret or reverting to old situation attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for one's attitudes People assume their attitudes match the reasons that are plausible and easy to verbalize
What is the Justification of Effort?
tendency to increase liking for something we worked hard to attain; most hard work produces the desired outcome, sometimes, you get what you worked for and you don't like it, enter dissonance If your initial judgement is that the outcome is useless, you find a way to justify your effort to shift your belief and convince yourself it was worth it we tend to like and be loyal to things we worked hard to get more than we are to those we didn't work for, even if it turns out (at least initially) that the ones we worked for are not so great
Social relationships and happiness
the best predictor of whether someone is happy is the quality of his or her social relationships In one study, for example, extremely happy college students were compared to their less-happy peers, and the main thing that set them apart was that happy people spent more time with other people and were more satisfied with their relationships having high-quality relationships is a major source of happiness
Bias Blind Spot
the cognitive bias of recognizing the impact of biases on the judgment of others, while failing to see the impact of biases on one's own judgment "we may all do it, but you do it more than I do"
Self-Awareness Theory
the idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values
Internal Justification
the reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself one's attitude or behavior
Overjustification Effect
the tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons when we unconsciously start to believe we are doing something because we are getting an external reward, but we forget that we actually enjoy that activity, and would do it without the external reward
False Consensus Effect
the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors we overestimate how common our opinions are (what I like) because "reasonable people agree with me; if you don't like things I do or disagree with my opinion, you are unreasonable" How common our undesirable/unsuccessful behaviors or faults are by justifying it by saying everyone does it because "I'm not so bad if others do it too"
Cognitive Dissonance
the uncomfortable idea or confusion when ideas clash or don't agree; the discomfort we feel when we do something against our image of ourselves the discomfort people feel when two cognitions (beliefs and attitudes) conflict, or when they behave in ways that are inconsistent with their conception of themselves Discomfort is experienced when thoughts/behaviors conflict, painful if we act in a way that is inconsistent w/ typical positive self-image, makes us highly motivated to change we distort the truth to feel good we want to feel smart, competent, reasonable, wise, and decent; want a stable, positive self-image and will find ways to justify our behavior, especially if we have been unreasonable or immoral it is unconscious or else it wouldn't work all decisions involve dissonance because virtually all decisions have good aspects and bad aspects there are always good aspects of non-chosen, need to feel good about decisions, need to reduce predictable dissonance Bigger threats to self-image lead to more need for change to feel good and make that effort
Do subliminal messages work in general?
there is no evidence that the types of subliminal messages encountered in everyday life have any influence on people's behavior one study randomly assigned people to listen to subliminal self-help recordings designed to improve memory or to one designed to raise their self-esteem (Greenwald et al., 1991). Neither of the recordings had any effect on people's memory or self-esteem. Even so, participants were convinced that they had worked, which explains why you can still today find subliminal self-help audio
Cognitive component of Attitude
thoughts/beliefs; fact based Prejudice: stereotype Car: Gas mileage, safety features
Explaining our Behavior
we come up with reasons to explain our behavior so the world makes sense; medium accuracy
Justifying Cruelty
we don't just hurt those we don't like we also come to dislike those we hurt; cruel behavior is dissonant with our view of the self as decent; if we can come to believe the victim deserved it, we don't have to feel badly because we justify We are motivated to find reasons to dislike our victims or reasons to think they deserve bad treatment after the fact and are especially likely to do this if coaxed into the cruel behavior than forced b/c it requires less justification if you had no choice once this cycle starts it can lead to more evil behavior mistreatment: the more we dislike them or think they deserve it, the easier it is to hurt them again How we learn to feel okay about mean behaviors
False Uniqueness Effect
we underestimate how common our "special abilities" are or how common our abilities, talents, and desirable or successful behaviors are "I am special, my qualities are unique"
Self-Effacing (modesty) Bias
when I do well, I give credit to others, whether they deserve it or not Common in Japan/China, collectivist cultures and is the opposite of self-serving bias
Less is More Effect
when we can't find an external reason for our counter attitudinal behavior, we create an internal one; can no longer find an external reason to do something, find internal one; Change attitude to match behavior if we can't justify the inconsistency externally LESS EXTERNAL REASON TO DO SOMETHING LEADS TO MORE ATTITUDE CHANGE self-justify by changing our attitude on things we did that we can't justify externally the harder it is to justify a behavior externally (to believe we did it for a reward or because of coercion, the more likely we are to find a way to justify it internally if we have outside reasons to justify why we did what we did we are not at risk of feeling stupid, so we do not need to change our attitude
Motivation and Reward
when we get rewarded for something we already like, we risk the over justification affect Unconsciously start to believe we are doing it for extrinsic reward not for intrinsic reward; shift to the thought that we are doing something for a reward and forget we like it I like a behavior (reading), start getting a reward (pizza) for the behavior (reading); when you remove the reward (pizza), the behavior (reading) dissipates as well
Justifying Kindness (Ben Franklin) Effect
why did I do something nice for someone I don't like if we do something nice for someone we don't like, and we can't justify it externally, we experience dissonance, so we change how we feel internally to get rid of the dissonance Ben Franklin knew this one guy didn't like him, so he made the guy do nice things for him like lend Ben his book. He had no legit reason to say no, so he kept doing the favors for Ben and the guy eventually started liking him
