Social Psychology Chapter 7

What is a Behavior Based Attitude?

A behaviorally based attitude stems from people's observations of how they behave toward an object.

What is Fear-Arousing communication?

A fear-arousing communication is a persuasive message that attempts to change people's attitudes by arousing their fears. The effectiveness of fear-arousing communication depends on whether the fear influences people's ability to pay attention to and process the arguments in a message. If a moderate amount of fear is created and people believe that listening to the message will teach them how to reduce this fear, they will be motivated to analyze the message carefully and will likely change their attitudes via the central route.

What is Need for Cognition?

A personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities

What is Daryl Bem's self-perception theory?

According to Daryl Bem's self-perception theory, under certain circumstances, people don't know how they feel until they see how they behave. People infer their attitudes from their behavior only when there are no other plausible explanations for their behavior.

What is the Heuristic-Systematic model of Persuasion?

According to the heuristic-systematic model of persuasion, when people take the peripheral route to persuasion, they often use heuristics. Our emotions and moods can themselves act as heuristics to determine our attitudes. The only problem is that sometimes it is difficult to tell where our feelings come from. We may misattribute feelings created by one source to another source.

How Advertising works?

Advertisers should consider the kind of attitude they are trying to change. If they are trying to change an affectively based attitude, it is best to take an emotional approach (e.g., associate feelings of excitement, energy, and sexual attractiveness with the brand). If they are trying to change a cognitively based attitude, they also need to consider the personal relevance of the attitude. If a product is personally relevant, the best way to change it is through strong arguments; if a product is not personally relevant, advertising may attempt to make it seem so (e.g., Gerald Lambert created the term "halitosis" to increase sales for Listerine).

What is an Affectively Based Attitude?

An affectively based attitude is based more on people's feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object. The function of attitudes based on values and feelings is not so much to paint an accurate picture of the world as to express and validate one's basic value system. Affectively based attitudes can also result from a sensory reaction, aesthetic reaction, or they can be the result of conditioning.

What is a Cognitively Based Attitude?

An attitude based primarily on people's beliefs about the properties of an attitude object.

What is Attitude Accessibility?

Attitude accessibility refers to the strength of the association between an attitude object and a person's evaluation of that object, measured by the speed with which people can report how they feel about the object. If the attitudes are not highly accessible, arbitrary aspects of the situation will tend to determine behavior.

What is Attitude Inoculation?

Attitude inoculation refers to making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their positions.

What are Attitudes?

Attitudes are evaluations of people, objects, and ideas. Researchers have addressed the question of where attitudes come from. Some attitudes are linked to our genes.

Do attitudes predict behavior?

Attitudes do not always correspond to behavior. LaPierre's study

Where are Implicit attitudes rooted?

Childhood

What is Classical Conditioning?

Classical conditioning is 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.

In which two levels do attitudes exist?

Explicit and Implicit

What is an Explicit Attitude?

Explicit attitudes are ones we consciously endorse and can easily report.

How do you change an affectively based attitude?

If it is affectively based try to change it with emotional appeals. Advertisements are more effective when they emphasize the attitudes of the culture they are trying to influence. Anything you can do to increase people's confidence in their thoughts about your message will make it more effective, as long as your arguments are strong and convincing.

What is an Implicit Attitude?

Implicit attitudes, which are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconscious evaluations.

What is Operant Conditioning?

In operant conditioning, behaviors that we freely choose to perform become more or less frequent, depending on whether they are followed by a reward or punishment.

When are people most likely to take the Central Route to Persuasion?

People are more likely to take the central route if they are motivated and have the ability to pay attention to the facts. Motivation is higher when the communication is personally relevant. People's motivation to pay attention to a speech depends on their personality

What are Subjective Norms?

People's beliefs about how those they care about will view the behavior in question. Asking people about their subjective norms increases the ability to predict planned, deliberative behaviors.

What is Persuasive Communication?

Persuasive communication, is a communication such as a speech or television advertisement that advocates a particular side of an issue.

What is the Reactance Theory?

Reactance theory explains this by saying that strong prohibitions threaten a person's feeling of freedom, and the boomerang is an attempt to restore that feeling of freedom

Where are Explicit attitudes rooted?

Recent Experiences

What are subliminal messages?

Subliminal messages are words or pictures that are not consciously perceived but that supposedly influence people's judgments, attitudes, and behaviors

What is the Yale Attitude Change Approach?

The Yale Attitude Change Approach refers to the study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages, focusing on "who said what to whom"—the source of the communication, the nature of the communication, and the nature of the audience.

What are Specific Attitudes?

The attitude that is important is not a general attitude but their attitude towards the specific behavior in question. For example, Davidson and Jaccard (1979) showed that married women's use of birth control pills was much better predicted by their attitude towards using the pills during the next two years than it was by their attitudes towards the pills or towards birth control (Table 7.1, p. 213)

What is Perceived Behavioral Control?

The ease with which people believe they can perform the behavior. If people think it is easy to perform the behavior, they are more likely to form a strong intention to do it. Considerable research supports the idea that asking people about these three determinants of their intentions increases the ability to predict their planned, deliberative behaviors.

What is the Elaboration Likelihood Model?

The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion specifies when people will be influenced by what the speech says and when they will be influenced by more superficial characteristics.

What is the Peripheral Route to Persuasion?

The peripheral route to persuasion is the case whereby people do not elaborate on the arguments in a persuasive communication but are instead swayed by peripheral cues.

What is the Central Route to Persuasion?

The theory states that under certain conditions, people are motivated to pay attention to the facts in a communication, and so they listen carefully to and think about the arguments.

How do you change a cognitively based attitude?

Try to change it with rational arguments.