PSYCHOLOGY Third Edition by Drew Westen Power Point

PSYCHOLOGY Third Edition by Drew Westen Power. Point Presentation C h a p t e r 17 ATTITUDES & SOCIAL COG NITION John Wiley &3/19/2018 Inc. Sons,

Lecture Outline n n n Attitudes Social Cognition The Self 3/19/2018 © 2002 John

Social Psychology n n Social psychology examines the influence of social processes on the way people think, feel, and behave Examples of social psychology issues include: ù Attitudes towards objects and people • Importance in advertising ù Stereotypes about nations and people ù Knowledge of others and yourself 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Attitudes n An attitude is an association between an act or object and an evaluation ù Involves positive or negative impressions ù Involves three components: • Cognitive: “Marijuana is a gateway drug” • Emotional: “Marijuana is extremely dangerous” • Behavioral: “I will not smoke marijuana” n Attitudes vary in strength: refers to whether the attitude is durable (long lasting) and whether the attitude alters behavior 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Attitude Issues n Attitude beliefs vary along several dimensions: ù Specificity versus generality ù Complexity of the attitude can vary ù Interconnection with other attitudes n Attitude evaluations also can vary in: ù Intensity: Refers to the strength of the positive or negative impression ù Ambivalence: An attitude can be associated with negative and positive valence 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Attitudes and Behavior n Strongly held attitudes toward people or objects should predict behavior: ù Early studies document that attitudes may not reliably predict behavior: ù La. Piere (1934): wrote to 251 hotels and restaurants to inquire whether these would serve Chinese patrons: most said “NO!” • La. Piere had earlier visited these hotels and restaurants in the company of a young Chinese couple but were rarely denied ù Lapiere noted that behavior may not be predicted by attitude 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Why Would Behaviors Not be Predicted by Attitudes? n The attitude and the behavior may be at different levels of generality and specificity ù Better prediction when attitude and behaviors are specific and match in generality n n Attitudes are only one determinant of behavior Attitudes can involve implicit and explicit components ù Implicit (automatic components) may dominate, but are difficult to assess 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Persuasion n n Persuasion refers to deliberate attempts to change the attitude of another Two channels by which to alter attitudes: ù Central route: Determine the best means to have a recipient consider arguments to change their attitude ù Peripheral route: Appeal to the emotions of the recipient • Classical conditioning of an object with an emotional response • Simple repetition of a message can alter attitude change 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Issues in Persuasion n n Source: Look for speakers who are credible, attractive, likeable, and powerful Message: Whether the message presents only one side of an issue or both can make a difference Channel: Whether the message is given in person or via email (in person appeals are more difficult to deny) Context: Soft music in the background can facilitate attitude change 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Behavioral Change n Another means to alter attitudes is to induce a behavioral change that will promote an attitude change ù “Foot-in-the-door” technique: ask person to comply with small request, then ask for large request • Ask your parents for $3. 00 for tuition and then follow up a few weeks later for $300. 00 • Ask a potential dating partner to go to lunch prior to asking them out for dinner 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Cognitive Dissonance n Persons experience anxiety when faced with a mismatch between their attitudes and their behaviors ù Anxiety is aversive ù Person will work to reduce the anxiety ù Can’t change the behavior, but can change the attitude • Resembles “drive reduction” theory ù Subjects asked to lie about a boring study after accepting $1 showed greater attitude change about the task than did subjects paid $20 to lie 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Culture and Dissonance Resolution (Figure adapted from Heine & Lehman, 1997, p. 396) 3/19/2018

Social Cognition n n Social cognition refers to how we mentally reconstruct the social world Cognitive models are being use to understand social phenomena ù Schemas as organizing principles ù Connectionist models and parallel processing ù The notion of implicit versus explicit processing in social cognition 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Issues in Social Cognition n Social cognition involves the following: ù Ambiguity is the rule in social cognition. Persons can only access behaviors in their observations of others. ù Emotion plays a key role in social cognition (positive versus negative valence) ù Social cognition varies with culture ù Reciprocal relations in social cognition. A person acts upon others and is acted upon. 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

First Impressions n Is the person in paragraph A more friendly than the person

Social Schemas n Schemas are patterns of thought that organize our experiences ù Person schemas: Represent specific people or types of people (librarians, extroverts) ù Situation schemas: Represent different kinds of social situations (how to use silverware at a formal dinner) ù Role schemas: Represent shared expectations for a person in a role (student, professor, parent) ù Relationship schemas: Represent expectations about self and others in unique relationships 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Stereotypes and Prejudice n n Schemas allow us to enter new social situations with some idea as to how we and others are to act. Schemas can be rigid and prone to error: ù Stereotypes: Represent characteristics assigned to persons based on their membership in a specific group ù Prejudice: Involves judging others based on a stereotype ù Discrimination: Acting negatively toward a person 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Racism n Racism reflects a negative attitude toward members of a racial group ù Stereotype are the cognitive component ù Prejudice is the emotional component ù Discrimination is the behavioral component n Roots of racism may lie in personality ù The Authoritarian personality involves the tendency to hate people who are different ù This personality type is associated with a dominant, stern father and a submissive mother 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Implicit Racism n n Explicit racism involves the conscious use of stereotypes and the expression of prejudice Implicit racism is the unconscious influence of stereotypes toward members of a racial group ù In ambiguous situations, whites tend to • Be less helpful toward blacks than other whites • Believe in stiffer legal penalties for black criminals 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Roots of Prejudice n Prejudice reflects socialization processes from parent to child ù India: Children shows signs of prejudice by age 4 or 5 ù United States: Children prefer majority culture by the preschool years n Prejudice is functional? ù The notion that prejudice preserves the interests of the dominant classes • E. g. Apartheid in South Africa 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Inter-Group Hostility n In-groups versus outgroup: Persons who belong to your group or not ù Persons not in your group are perceived as more homogeneous than they really are ù The positive actions of outgroup members are explained away while their negative behaviors are attributed to internal causes n Reducing intergroup hostility: ù Sherif’s study: reducing hostility requires contact AND cooperation among the group members 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Attribution n n Attribution refers to the process of inferring the causes of mental states and behaviors of yourself and of others We are “intuitive scientists”: ù Try to determine the extent to which situations, persons, and behaviors vary with each other • External attributions: Behavior is due to the situation: “The boss yelled at me because this is April 15 th and his taxes are not done…” • Internal attributions: Behavior reflects the person: The boss yells at everyone… even his mom…” 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Issues in Attribution n Whether attributions are made to the person or the situation depends on: ù Consensus: The extent to which a behavior is operative in a group • Consensus responses induce bias toward viewing the behavior as situational ù Consistency: Refers to the extent to which a person responds reliably to a stimulus. • Consistent responses elicit internal attributions ù Distinctiveness: Extent to which person responds to different stimuli • Distinctive responses elicit internal attributions 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Processes that Modulate Attribution n Discounting: Person downplays the role of a variable because of the influence of another variable ù My boss is not a jerk (Internal attribution for rudeness), but rather has a high-stress job (external attribution) n Augmentation refers to an increase in an internal attribution for certain behaviors ù Drunk driver who drank another beer shortly after causing a fatal crash: His prison sentence = 202 years 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Biases in Social Cognition n n Correspondence bias: Tendency to assume internal causes for persons behavior, rather than external situations Self-serving bias: Tendency for a person to view themselves more positively than they deserve: ù Person who sees a photograph of themselves may question how the camera could take a “bad picture” 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Self n What is meant by the “self” is a source of controversy ù William James: • The self as subject includes your experience as a thinker, feeler, and actor • The self as object includes is your view of yourself ù Psychodynamic view includes emotional components of the self (positive and negative) ù Cognitive psychology views the self as a schema which may be hierarchically organized 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hierarchy of the Self (Figure adapted from Kihlstrom & Cantor, 1983) 3/19/2018 © 2002

Copyright 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , New York, NY. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. 3/19/2018 © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.