Download Social Cognition II

Social Cognition
Chapter 20
What are Attitudes?
• Beliefs and feelings about objects,
people and events that lead people
to behave in certain ways.
How do Attitudes
develop?
•
•
•
•
Conditioning
Observational Learning
Cognitive evaluation
Cognitive Anchors
– Persistent beliefs that shape the ways in
which he/she sees the world and interprets
events
When you combine attitudes
and behavior what happens?
• When behavior follows attitudes
People usually watch
what they like on TV!
Employees usually
avoid jobs they don’t
like to do.
When you combine attitudes and
behavior what happens?
• When attitudes follow behavior
Attitude to your church
Doesn’t necessarily correlate
with your church attendance
prejudice towards a particular race
do not predict accurately actual
behavior
What is Persuasion?
• Direct attempt to influence other
people’s attitudes
Telephone Sales
Used Car Salesman
Campaign Supporters
What are some Methods of
Persuasion?
• Central Route- using evidence
and logical arguments to
persuade people
• Peripheral route- indirect,
attempts to associate objects,
people, or events with positive
or negative cues.
How do some people deliver
such messages of persuasion?
• Two sided Argument -people
present not only their side of the
argument but also the opposition’s
side.
• Emotional Appeals -persuade by
arousing such feelings as loyalty,
desire, or fear rather than by
convincing through evidence and
logic.
What type of people deliver
these messages of
persuasion?
• Experts
• Trustworthy
• Physically attractive
• Similar to their audience
When are people more
receptive to persuasion?
When they are in a good
mood or a bad mood?
• A good mood, they are more
likely to accept the persuasive
message.
• Wouldn’t you ask your parents
something when they are in a
good mood?
Are persuasive appeals
specific to the audience they
are targeting?
• Yes.
• Take the presidential
elections, do they run the
same messages on MTV as
they would on the Food
Network?
Are people always
persuaded by appeals
made to them?
• No.
• There are some people that
have Sales resistance.
–Sales resistance is the ability to
turn down requests to buy
products or service or make
donations.
What is prejudice?
•A generalized
attitude toward a
specific group of
people
What are stereotypes?
• Unchanging
oversimplified, and
usually distorted beliefs
about groups of people
• How many blondes does it
take to milk a cow?
• Five - one to hold the
udder, and four to lift and
the cow up and down.
What are two reasons people
develop stereotypes?
• A way to organize
information about their
social world
• They assume that those
who are different are
similar
How can stereotypes be
harmful?
• They ignore people’s
individual natures and
assign traits to them on
the basis of the group
which they belong.
Are there positive
stereotypes?
• Yes
• Belief that the
members of a
particular group are
good at something
What is discrimination?
• The unfair treatment of
individual because
they are different
What is likely to happen to
people that experience
discrimination?
• They may begin to see
themselves as inferior.
What are five causes of
Prejudice
• Exaggerating differences
• Justifying economic status
• Social learning
• Victimizing
• Scapegoating
Exaggerating Differences
• People tend to prefer people that are
similar to themselves.
• People who different in one or several
ways- in skin color or religion, for exampleare often assumed to have attitudes and
customs that are more different than they
really are.
Justifying economic
status
• People tend to develop prejudice against
those who are not in the same economic
group.
• May believe that people who are worse off
than themselves work less hard or are less
motivated to succeed.
Social Learning
• Children, like adults, acquire many
attitudes from other people.
• They are especially likely to acquire the
attitudes fo their parents.
• Children tend to imitate their parents, and
parents reinforce their children when they
do.
Vicitimization
• Sometimes people who are the victims of
prejudice feel empathy for others who are
discriminated against.
• However, this is not always the case. In
fact, some victims of prejudice try to gain a
sense of power and pride by asserting
their superiority over groups that are even
worse off then themselves.
What is scapegoating?
• An individual or group that is blamed
for problems of others because the real
cause of the problems is too complex,
powerful. Or remote to be addressed.
W.E.B.DuBois
• Why did the incident described by W.E.B. DuBois
affect him so deeply?
– It was the first time that DuBois realized he was different
and that many opportunities were denied him as a result.
• How was DuBois’ reaction to racial inequality the
same as that of other African American youths of
his time?
– Many other African American youths of his time responded
by fitting in, giving up, or becoming bitter and angry.
• How was DuBois’ reaction to racial inequality
different from that of other African American
youths of his time?
– His reaction was to try to earn, through hard work and
cleverness, the things he was denied because of his race,
and to fight inequality
How can prejudice be
overcome?
• Increased contact among
members of different groups
• Speak up when others act out
• Make a conscious effort to treat
others courteously
What is social
perception?
• The ways which people
perceive one another
What is the primacy effect?
• The tendency for people
to form opinions of others
on the basis of first
impressions.
What is the recency
effect?
• Occurs when people change
their opinions of others on
the basis of recent
interactions.
What is the attribution
theory?
• People tend to explain the
behavior of others in terms
of either dispositional or
personality
What is the Actor-observer
bias?
• People who attribute the
behavior of others to
dispositional or external
behaviors.
Why does the actorobserver bias occur?
• It occurs when we judge people
only by the behavior we
witness and people’s behavior
may not always be a true
reflection of their personalities.
What is fundamental
attribution error?
• The tendency to
overestimate the effect of
dispositional causes for
another persons behavior
and to underestimate the
effect of situational causes.
What is self-serving bias?
• The tendency to view one’s
successes as stemming
from internal factors and
one’s failure as stemming
from external factors
What are some forms of
nonverbal communication?
• Facial expressions
• Gestures
• Posture
• The distance we keep from
others
Who is more likely to use
physical contact in
Americans, Men or Women?
• American women are
more likely to use
physical contact.
When is touching
inappropriate?
• When it is forced and
when it is done in
certain places or in
certain ways.
What are two types of eye
contact and what do they
convey?
• Gazing
–Eagerness or attention. It
shows liking or friendliness
• Staring
–Anger. It does not show that
someone likes someone and
its is not friendly.
What is attraction?
• A kind of attitude of
liking.
What is universal trait that is
widely shared in the ideals of
beauty?
• A smiling person is
more attractive than a
frowning person
What is the matching
hypothesis?
• The view that people tend to
choose other people similar
to themselves in
attractiveness and attitudes
in the formation of
interpersonal relationships.
Friends and partners tend
to be similar in what ways
(according to Michael)?
•
•
•
•
•
Race
Ethnicity
Age
Level of education
Religion
What are two reasons that we
tend to choose friends and
partners with backgrounds
that are similar to our own?
• We tend to live among people who
are similar to ourselves
• They tend to have the same
attitudes as the person
What is reciprocity?
• The mutual exchange
of feelings or attitudes
Why do most people
value friends?
• Because of the rewards
that friendships offers
What is intimacy?
• Closeness and Caring
What is passion?
• Feelings of romantic and
sexual attraction
What is commitment?
• A pledge or promise
Type of Love: Liking
• Formula: Intimacy alone
• Description: true
friendships without
passion or long term
commitment
Type of Love:
Companionate love
• Formula: Intimacy +
Commitment
• Description: Long term
committed friendships such
as a marriage in which
passion has faded
Type of Love: Empty
Love
• Formula: Commitment
Alone
• Description: Decision to
love each other without
intimacy or passion
Type of Love: Fatuous
Love
• Formula: Passion +
Commitment
• Description: Commitment
based on passion but without
time for intimacy to develop:
shallow relationship such as a
whirlwind courtship.
Type of Love: Infatuation
• Formula: Passion Alone
• Description: Passionate,
obsessive love at first
sight without intimacy or
commitment
Type of Love: Romantic
Love
• Formula: Intimacy + Passion
• Description: Lovers
physically and emotionally
attracted to each other but
without commitment as in
summer romance.
Type of Love: Consummate
Love
• Formula: Intimacy + passion
+ commitment
• Description: A complete love
consisting of all three
components ( an ideal
difficult to attain)