{ ATTITUDES: MAKING SOCIAL JUDGMENTS Attitudes are positive or negative evaluations of objects of thought.

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ATTITUDES: MAKING SOCIAL JUDGMENTS

Attitudes are positive or negative evaluations of objects of thought

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE

Cognitive component: beliefs people hold about the objects of an attitude

Affective component: emotional feelings stimulated by an object of thought

Behavioral component: predispositions to act in certain ways toward an object of thought

DIMENSIONS OF ATTITUDE

Strength: durable; powerful impact on behavior

Accessibility: how often one thinks about something; how quickly it comes to mind

Ambivalence: conflicted evaluations that include both pos and neg feelings about an object of thought

Attitude does not predict behavior Stronger attitudes are more predictive Behavior relies on situational

constraints---especially subjective perceptions of how people expect you to behave

ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR

PERSUASION

Constant 4 basic elements: Source: sender of

communication Receiver: to whom

the msg is sent Message: info

transmitted Channel: the

medium

SOURCE FACTORS

Persuasion more effective if source has credibility

Source should by trustworthy

Likable: similarity and physical attractiveness

MESSAGE FACTORS

Should you present a one-sided argument or two-sided argument

Concentrate on your strong arguments

Validity effect: repeating a statement causes it to be perceived as more valid or true

Appeal to fear?

RECEIVER FACTORS

Stronger attitudes are more resistant to change

Confirmation bias: arguments that conflict with beliefs are scrutinized longer

Observers’ prior knowledge makes it difficult to persuade

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THEORIES OF ATTITUDE FORMATION AND CHANGE

Affective component can be created through classical conditioning

Operant conditioning comes into play when you express ideas

Peoples’ responses reinforce your tendency to repeat a specific attitude

Observational learning: you repeat behavior you see

LEARNING THEORY

DISSONANCE THEORY

Leon Festinger Inconsistency among

attitudes propels people in the direction of attitude change (counterattitudinal behavior)

Cognitive dissonance exists when related cognitions are inconsistent—that is, when they contradict each other

DISSONANCE THEORY CONTINUED

Effort justification: when people switch attitudes to justify efforts that did not work out

Cooper: dissonance occurs only when individuals feel personally responsible for causing aversive events that were unforeseeable

Steele and Aronson: occurs when individuals behave in a way that threatens their sense of self-worth

SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY

Daryl Bem People often infer

their attitudes from their behavior

Very similar to dissonance

ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL

Petty and Cacioppo Asserts there are 2 basic

routes to persuasion: 1) Central route: when

people carefully ponder the content and logic of persuasive msgs

2) Peripheral route: when persuasion depends on nonmessage factors (attractiveness or credibility) or on conditioned emotional responses

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CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE

CONFORMITY

DEF: when people yield to real or imagined social pressure

Solomon Asch experiments

Group size and unanimity are key determinants of conformity

Ambiguous situations also lead to conformity

OBEDIENCE

DEF: form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority

Stanley Milgram studies

Studied tendency to obey authority figures

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BEHAVIOR IN GROUPS

Group: consists of 2 or more individuals who interact and are interdependent

BYSTANDER EFFECT

DEF: people are less likely to provide needed help when they are in groups than when they are alone

Why? People search their

environments for behavior clues

If people hesitate, perception is the situation is not that serious

When alone, responsibility rest on you

GROUP PRODUCTIVITY AND SOCIAL LOAFING

Individual productivity declines in large groups

Due to loss of coordination

Social loafing: a reduction in effort by individuals when they work in groups as compared to when they work by themselves

Due to diffusion of responsibility

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DECISION MAKING IN GROUPS

DEF: occurs when group discussion strengthens a group’s dominant point of view and produces a shift toward a more extreme decision in that direction

GROUP POLARIZATION

GROUPTHINK

DEF: when members of a cohesive group emphasize concurrence at the expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision

Group cohesiveness: the strength of the liking relationships linking group members to each other and to the group itself