Chapter 7 social psych: Attitudes and Attitude Change
social identity function
the way attitude contributes to connectedness by expressing important self and group identities and functions
metacognition
thoughts about thoughts or about thought processes
attitude
a mental representation that summarizes an individual's evaluation of a particular person, group, thing, action, or idea
ambivalent attitude
an attitude based on conflicting negative and positive information
ambivalent attitude
an attitude based on conflicting negative and positive information, not sure how you feel so not easily reflected, doesnt help connectedness functions because stance not clearly portrayed
persuasion heurisitic
association of a cue that is positively or negatively evaluated with the attitude object, allowing the attitude object to be evaluated quickly and without much thought
aspects of people's reactions that are important for inferring attitudes
attitude direction: whether the attitude is favorable, neutral, or unfavorable. attitude intensity: whether its moderate or extreme
implicit attitude
automatic and uncontrollable positive or negatie evaluation of an attitude object
implicit attitude
automatic and uncontrollable positive or negative evaluation of an attitude object (involuntary expression of attitude, nervous twitch)
how do we form attitudes
by comining the important, salient, and accessible information acquired from the positive and negative pieces of affect, behavioral, and cognitive information about an attitude object - information reflected in thoughts, feelings, behavior
social identity function
contributes to connectedness by helping us define ourselves because other's interpretation of us is influenced by attitudes we hold
explicit attitude
the attitudes that people explicitly express (verbal explanation of how you feel/ who you are)
cognitive information
facts people know and beliefs they have about attitude object (high incidence of lung cancer in smokers)
affective information
feelings and emotions about an attitude object (nausea from smell of smoke)
how do attitude researchers infer attitudes?
how people react to attitude objects
behavioral information
knowledge about people's past, present, or future interactions w attitude object (knowing you always walk out of room when someone smokes)
what are the functions of attitudes
knowledge, instrumental, social identity, and impression management
explicit attitude
the attitude that people openly and deliberately express about an attitude object in self report or by behavior
elaboration
the generation of favorable or unfavorable reactions to the content of a persuasive appeal
attitude change
the process by which attitudes from and chang by association of positive or negative inforation with the attitude object
evaluative conditioning
the process by which positive or negative attitudes are formed or changed by association with other positively or negatively valued objects
persuasion
the process of forming, strengthening, or hanging attitudes by communication
impression management function
the way an attitude contributes to connectedness by smoothing interactions and relationships
impression management function
the way an attitude contributes to connectedness by smoothing interactions and relationships, if we put out happy attitude people get impression we are fun
instrumental function
the way an attitude contributes to mastery by guiding our approach to positive objects and our avoidance of negative objects
instrumental function
the way an attitude contributes to mastery by guiding our approach to positive objects and our avoidance of negative objects (we like choc ice cream thats a positive attitude so we go toward that)
knowledge function
the way an attitude contributes to mastery by organizing, summarizing, and simplifying experience with an attitude object (i know i like choc ice cream so i order it)
knowledge function
the way an attitude contributes to mastery by organizing, summarizing, and simplifyingexperience with an attitude object