Social Psych: Attitudes

biased assimilation, polarization

Two findings of Lord, Ross, and Lepper's study on reading evidence for or against capital punishment as deterrent to murder.

direction (valance), intensity

Two key dimensions of attitudes.

accessibility, specificity/compatibility

Two key factors for attitudes to predict behaviour

attitude

A cognitive representation that summarizes an individual's evaluation of a particular attitude object.

theory of planned behaviour

Ajzen: Expansion of the first version of the theory. Attitude toward the behaviour, perceived control, and subjective norms all influence behavioural intentiosn, which in turn leads to actual behaviour.

attitude object

Anything that someone can hold an attitude toward. Could be a person, group, object, action, idea, etc.

ambivalent attitudes

Cases where we have both positive and negative feelings associated with an attitude object (e.g. cake is tasty but unhealthy)

upward comparisons

Comparing yourself to people who are better off than you. Makes you feel shitty. Silver medalist.

downward comparisons

Comparing yourself to people who are worse off than you. Makes you feel good. Bronze medalist.

attitude accessibility

Fazio, Powell and Williams: Measured how quickly people were able to give their evaluation of treats and then saw what they chose to take home as a prize. Fastest RT to say they liked an object predicted choosing it.

social comparison theory

Festinger: People evaluate their personal qualities by comparing themselves to others. Makes most sense to make comparisons with similar others (informative).

theory of reasoned action

Fishbein and Ajzen: Two-factor theory ; attitudes toward the behaviour and subjective norms jointly influence our behavioural intentions, which in turn predict our actual behaviour.

based on direct experience, based on elaborate processing, personally important, well-established and frequently used

Four conditions that make attitudes more likely to be accessible and readily come to mind.

utilitarian, ego-defensive, value-expressive, knowledge

Four key functions of attitudes.

utilitarian (instrumental)

Function of attitudes: Alert us to rewarding objects or situations we should approach, and punishing objects or situations we should avoid. (e.g. food preferences)

ego-defensive

Function of attitudes: Enables us to maintain cherished beliefs about ourselves by protecting us from awareness of our negative attributes or from facts that contradict our beliefs. (e.g. You get made fun of in gym and develop a negative attitude towards all sports)

knowledge (object appraisal)

Function of attitudes: Help organize our understanding of the world, guiding how we attend to, store, and retrieve info. (Typically pay attention to info consistent with preexisting attitudes)

value-expressive (social identity)

Function of attitudes: Help us express our most cherished values, especially in groups where they will be supported and reinforced. Sharing attitudes = connectedness.

relevant, attainable

In Lockwood and Kunda's "Superstars and Me" experiment, upward comparisons inspired and increased self-evaluation only if successes of the targets were ____ and ____

individualist cultures

In these cultures, people tend to describe themselves with personal traits, like "funny, friendly, smart, accident-prone, etc."

collectivist cultures

In these cultures, people tend to give relational descriptions of themselves, like "daughter, student, Buddhist, sister, etc."

unfalsifiable

Interpreting evidence in light of your existing beliefs can be adaptive. But the problem lies in our tendency to make our own hypotheses _______.

knowledge

Lepper's study on who Carter vs. Reagan supporters interpreted the debate provides evidence for the _____ function of attitudes. Assimilating new information to align with existing attitudes.

freshman

Lockwood and Kunda: In the "Superstars and Me" experiment where students read about a badass superstar student, _____ made good upward comparisons and were inspired when the superstar was in the same academic program. Self-evaluation increased.

slight, toward

Lord, Ross, and Lepper (capital punishment study) found that when only the summary of a study contradicting your views was presented, there was a _____ attitude change _____ the position.

reject, reinforce

Lord, Ross, and Lepper (capital punishment study) found that when people got more details about a counterattitudinal study, they came to ____ it and _____ their attitude.

evaluative conditioning

Olson and Fazio: Classical conditioning can influence the formation of new attitudes. E.g. Pokemon characters paired with positive or negative objects. (Can also change old attitudes: e.g. black and white faces)

Rashomann effect

Phenomenon where there are contradictory interpretations of the same event by different people. A sitcom staple. Attitudes influence our interpretation of information. (e.g. Princeton vs. Dartmouth game, Israel-Palestine coverage, quality of studies pro/against our beliefs)

attitude specificity/compatibility (with behaviour)

Principle that specific attitudes are better predictors of behaviour. E.g. Attitude toward global "the environment" vs. specific "curbside recycling"

correspondence

Principle that we should measure the attitude toward the behaviour itself rather than the object involved to predict behaviour. E.g. "Attitude toward taking BCP in the next two years" is strongly correlated

terror management theory

Proposes that in order to ward off the anxiety we feel when reminded of our own mortality, we cling to cultural worldviews and strongly held beliefs because by doing so, part of us will survive death. Falls under the ego-defensive function.

unimportant, close

Self-evaluation maintenance model: These two factors make you feel happiness on the other person's behalf. Pride.

important, distant

Self-evaluation maintenance model: These two factors make you feel not so good, but not intensely so. Less likely to notice, less likely to take action.

important, close

Self-evaluation maintenance model: These two factors make you feel upset and motivate you to do things to remedy the anxiety. Distance yourself from the other, downplay the attribute, work harder.

unimportant, distant

Self-evaluation maintenance model: These two factors yield a neutral response.

self-evaluation maintenance model

Tesser: Impact of social comparisons depends on 1. closeness of the other person and 2. the importance of the attribute.

perceived control

This is the critical factor added to the theory of planned behaviour. If this is missing, there can be a direct impact on behaviour (skipping right over intentions)

classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observational learning

Three processes by which attitudes can form.

memory (strengths of studies in your favor, weaknesses of others), judgment (was it well-designed?), acceptance/scrutiny (ultimate decision)

Three processes that are part of biased assimilation, as seen in Lord, Ross, and Lepper's study on evidence pro/against capital punishment.

Lord, Ross, and Lepper

Three researchers who did the study on prodeterrance vs. antideterrance evidence for capital punishment.

closeness of the other person, importance of the attribute

Two key factors that influence the impact of a social comparison, according to Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance model.

hostile media effect

Vallone, Ross, and Lepper: When we view media coverage of something that is genuinely neutral, we feel as though they are against us simply because they are not biased in our favor. E.g. TV coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

social influences

_________ affect our perception of ourselves when it comes to subjective/relative variables like height (next to your friend) or popularity.