Review Session 5

Attitude Formation and Change  Attitude- a set of beliefs and feelings Evaluative- our feelings toward things are necessarily positive or negative  Mere Exposure Effect- the more one is exposed to something (or someone), the more one will come to like it

Attitude Formation and Change  Persuasive Messages Central route- deeply processing the content of the message Peripheral route- involves other aspects of the message including the characteristics of the person giving the message

Attitudes and Behavior  The relationship between attitudes and behaviors in far from perfect.  Cognitive Dissonance Theory- people are motivated to have consistent attitudes and behaviors. When they do not, they experience unpleasant mental tension or dissonance

Attitudes and Behavior Festinger and Carlsmith ○ Participants performed a boring task and were asked to lie to a confederate to say they had enjoyed the task ○ Some paid $1, others paid $20 ○ Afterward, their attitudes toward the task were measured ○ Those who were paid $1 had more positive attitudes

Compliance Strategies  Used to get other people to comply with our wishes  Foot-in-the-door- get people to agree to a small request and they will be more likely to agree to a larger follow-up request  Door-in-the-face- after people refuse a large request, they will look more favorably upon a favorable request that seems, in comparison, much more reasonable

Compliance Strategies  Norms of Reciprocity- people tend to think that when someone does something nice for them, they should do something nice in return

Attribution Theory  How people determine the cause of what they observe Dispositional/Personal Attribution ○ “Evan is good at math.” “That salesperson is a total jerk.” Situational Attribution- ○ “It was an easy test.” “She must be having a stressful day.” Person-Stable Attribution ○ “He has always been so good at math.” Person-Unstable Attribution ○ “He must have studied really hard for this test” Situation-Stable Attribution ○ “His teacher always gives the easiest tests” Situation-Unstable Attribution ○ “This one test must have been very easy.”

Attribution Theory Harold Kelley- Attributions are based on 3 Things: Consistency How similarly the individual acts in the same situation over time Distinctiveness How similar the situation is to other situations we have watched this person Consensus How have others in the same situation responded?

Attribution Theory  People often have certain ideas of prejudices about people before they even meet them. These can affect the way someone acts toward another person  Self-Fulfilling Prophecy- these expectations about others can influence the way those others behave

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies  Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)  Randomly selected a group of children  Told their teachers that they were ripe for intellectual progress and would “bloom” over the school year.  IQ scores of the identified children increased more than their classmates.

Attributional Bias  Fundamental Attribution Error- when looking at the behavior of others, we tend to overestimate the influence of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors Opposite when we explain our own behaviors May be far less likely to occur in collectivist cultures

Attributional Bias  False-Consensus Effect- tendency to overestimate the number of people who agree with us  Self-Serving Bias- the tendency to take more credit for good outcomes than for bad ones  Just-World Bias- Bad things happen to bad people (tendency to blame victims)

Stereotypes  Ideas about what members of different groups are like These expectations may influence the way we interact with members of these groups Can be positive or negative Rigid and difficult to change

Prejudice  An underserved, usually negative, attitude toward a group of people Stereotypes can lead to prejudice when negative stereotypes are applied uncritically to all members of a group Ethnocentrism- a specific kind of prejudice ○ The belief that one’s culture is superior to others

Discrimination  Involves an action “We all have prejudices, but it should be our goal to keep our prejudices from becoming discrimination.”  Out-Group Homogeneity- people tend to see members of their own group as more divers than members of other groups  In-Group Bias- a preference for members of one’s own group

Origins of Stereotypes/Prejudice  Some say that people naturally and inevitably form stereotypes (in-group bias) A function of the cognitive process of categorization  Stereotypes and prejudice can be learned and unlearned by parents, etc. (Social Learning Theory)

Combating Prejudice  Contact Theory- contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity, but only if groups are made to work toward a goal that benefits all (superordinate goals)

Aggression  Instrumental Aggression- intended to secure a particular end  Hostile Aggression- has no clear purpose  Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis- feelings of frustration make aggression more likely  Exposure to aggressive model makes people aggressive (Bandura)

Prosocial Behavior  Bystander Intervention- the conditions under which people nearby are more and less likely to help someone in trouble Diffusion of responsibility- the larger the number of people who witness an emergency situation, the less likely any one is to intervene Pluralistic ignorance- people seem to decide what constitutes appropriate behavior in a situation by looking to others

Attraction  Similarity- we like those who are similar No evidence that opposites attract  Proximity- we like those with whom we have frequency contact Mere-exposure effect  Reciprocal liking- we like those who return our positive feelings  Physical attractiveness matters!  Close relationships are built through a process of self- disclosure

The Influence of Others  Social Facilitation- the presence of others improves task performance  Social Impairment- when the task being observed was a difficult one rather than a simple, well-practiced skill, it actually hurt performance

The Influence of Others  Conformity- the tendency to go along with the actions of others Solomon Asch- vertical lines test; in about 1/3 of the cases participants conformed to the incorrect answer Most likely to conform when the group opinion is unanimous

The Influence of Others  Obedience Studies Milgram- 60% of participants obeyed and delivered all the possible shocks ○ Participants who could see the learners gave fewer shocks that those who only could hear the learners ○ When it was the assistant of the experimenter giving the orders, obedience decreased ○ When other confederates in the room disagreed, obedience decreased

Group Dynamics  Norms- rules about how group members should act  Roles- exist within groups  Social Loafing- individuals do not put in as much effort when acting as part of the group as they do when acting alone

Group Dynamics  Group polarization- the tendency of a group to make more extreme decisions than the group members would make individually Discussion matters- exposed to new persuasive arguments  Groupthink- the tendency for some groups to make bad decisions Group members suppress their resignations

Group Dynamics  Deindividuation- the loss of restrain that occurs when group members feel anonymous and aroused Looting, rioting Zimbardo’s Prison Study- students took to their assigned roles so well that the study had to be ended early

Practice Questions  1) Which of the following suggestions is most likely to reduce the hostility felt between antagonistic groups? Force the groups to spend a lot of time together Encourage the groups to avoid each other as much as possible Give the groups a task that cannot be solved unless they work together Set up a program in which speakers attempt to persuade the groups to get along Punish the groups whenever they treat each other badly

 2) On Monday, Tanya asked her teacher to postpone Tuesday’s test until Friday. After her teacher flatly refused, Tanya asked the teacher to push the task back one day, to Wednesday. Tanya is using the compliance strategy of Foot in the door Norms of reciprocity Compromise Strategic bargaining Door in the face

 3) In the Milgram studies, the dependant measure was The highest level of shock supposedly administered The location of the learner The length of time The number of people in the group The instructions given by the experimenter

 4) Your new neighbor seems to know everything about ancient Greece that your social studies teacher says during the first week of school. You conclude that she is brilliant. You do not consider that she might already have learned about ancient Greece in her old school. You are evidencing The self-fulfilling prophecy effect Pluralistic ignorance Confirmation bias The fundamental attribution error Cognitive dissonance

 5) Janine has always hated the color orange. However, once she became a student at Princeton, she began to wear a lot or orange Princeton tiger clothing. The discomfort caused by her long-standing dislike of the color orange and the current ownership of so much orange and black striped clothing is known as Cognitive dissonance Contradictory concepts Conflicting motives Opposing cognitions Inconsistent ideas

 6) When Pasquale had his first oboe solo in the orchestra concert, his performance was far worse than it was when he rehearsed it at home. A phenomenon that helps explain Pasquale’s poor performance is known as Social loafing Groupthink Deindividuation Social impairment Diffusion of responsibity

 7) After your school’s football team has a big win, students in the halls can be heard saying, “We are awesome.” The next week, after the team loses to the last place team I the league, the same students lament that “THEY were terrible”. The differences in these comments illustrates The fundamental attribution error Self-serving bias The self-fulfilling prophecy effect The false consensus effect Conformity

 8) Which of the following is the best example of prejudice? Billy will not let the girls play on his hockey team. Santiago dislikes cheerleaders. Athena says that she can run faster than anybody on the playground. Mr. Tamp calls on boys more than girls. Ginny thinks that all Asians are smart.