Final Exam

Review
 Cognition,
Attitudes, and
Behavior
ABC

● Affect (emotions)
● Behaviors
● Cognition (thoughts/rationalizations)
Measures of Attitude

● Self-report
○ Likert scale
○ attitude centrality
● Implicit attitude
○ social desirability
○ Implicit Attitude Test (IAT): faster response time =
stronger association
● Physiological reaction (heart rate, sweat, cortisol)
Attitudes predicting behaviors

● Factors related to behaviors (besides attitudes)

○ norms
○ context
○ personality
● When the attitude is specific to the behavior
● stronger attitudes > weaker attitudes
● engagement with the target
 Behaviors predicting attitudes

● Cognitive dissonance (conflicting affects/behaviors/cognition)

○ effort justification (more input = more important of the goal)
○ spreading of alternatives (value the chosen option + devalue the
unchosen option)
○ unethical amnesia (selectively forget our unethical behaviors)
○ induced/forced compliance
● Cognitive dissonance and cultures
○ Western: choices made for oneself but not for others
○ Asian: choices made for others but not for oneself
 Bem’s Self-Perception Theory

● Attitudes are formed by behaviors

○ observing your own behavior
○ attitudes are weak
● Compared with Festinger’s theory
○ arousal (feeling the inconsistent)
○ weak attitudes
 Rationalization

● System Justification Theory: people are motivated to see existing

sociopolitical systems as desirable, fair, and legitimate (maintaining
the status quo)
● Terror Management Theory: (motivated by the fear of death), people
don’t want to die and want to leave legacy behind (how much a
person contributes to their society and are important members of
that society)
Persuasion/
Social
Influence
 Elaboration Likelihood Model
Two routes:
● central
○ careful, deliberate (controlled processing)
○ logic, validity, & strength of the message
○ requiring time & energy
○ When? motivation/ability
● peripheral
○ Superficial, concerned with easy-to-process features (automatic
processing)
○ apparent expertise, credibility, attractiveness of communicators
○ requiring little time & energy
○ When? lack of motivation/ability/attention
 Element of Persuasion
● Source (information provider)
○ attractiveness
○ certainty
○ credibility (sleeper effect: endorsing info from uncredible sources)
● Message
○ quality
○ vividness (identifiable victim effect)
○ fear
● Culture
○ interdependent culture: benefits for the group + prevention focus
○ independent culture: benefits for the self + promotion focus
● Audience
○ Mood
○ Age
○ Need for Cognition
Metacognition
● thinking about thinking
● self-validation hypothesis: how confident are you about your thoughts?

Media
● agenda control

Resistance
● selective attention/evaluation
● publicly expressed attitudes
● attitude inoculation
 Social Influences
● Conformity: changing one’s behaviors or attitudes as a result of

pressure

● Compliance: fulfilling an explicit request made by another person

● Obedience: submitting to the demand of an authority figure

 Conformity
● can be beneficial/detrimental/neutral
● Ideomotor action: the mere thought of a behavior makes us perform
that behavior
● automatic mimicry: mindlessly imitating the actions of others
○ liking the mimicker more
○ more willing to engage in prosocial behavior
○ helping mimicker affiliate with a group
● Informational social influence: using other’s comments or behavior as
information (when people are uncertain about a topic)
● Normative social influence: influence resulting from avoiding being
criticized, insulted, or shunned
 Compliance
● Norm of reciprocity: if someone does something for you, you should
do something in return
● Reciprocal concessions technique (Door-in-the-Face): start with a
large request, after being denied, ask for a smaller request
● Foot-in-the-Door Technique: make small request, after compliance,
make larger request (target request)

● Descriptive norm: behavior exhibited by most people in a given

context
● Prescriptive (Injunctive) norm: the way people are supposed to
behave
Obedience
People obey authority figures more when:
● They are absolved of responsibility from outcome
● Obey gradually bigger commands
● feeling the presence of authority figures
● not feeling the presence of victims

Reactance theory: people disobey because of the negative

feelings caused by a limit on their free will
Relationships
Benefits of Relationships

● Help with survival

● Provide comfort
● Benefit psychological and physical well-being
● Provide a sense of belonging
Benefits of Relationships
● Harlow’s Study - monkeys preferred to spend time with
cloth mother for comfort, over the wire mother with food
● Romanian Orphan Study - kids who spent most of their
time in orphanages, grew up with learning disabilities,
problems with social skills and struggled to connect with
others
 Types of Relationships
1. Communal - feel responsible for one another and share
identity
a. Principle of Need - give to others on an as needed
basis
b. Usually long-term relationships (e.g., friends, family)

2. Exchange - feel little responsibility for one another

a. Usually short-term relationships (e.g., co-workers)
b. Reciprocity and Equity - I give to another with the
expectation of receiving something of equal worth
Relationship Theories
● Social Exchange Theory - people want to maximize their
satisfaction; so they choose interactions that either increase
rewards or minimize costs
○ Judged based on:
■ 1) Comparison - what you will get from the relationship
■ 2) Comparison to alternatives - what you could get
from other relationships

● Equity Theory - people want relationships that are equitable;

each person gives as much as they take
○ More important in individualistic cultures
Attachment Styles
1. Secure - easily forms relationships with others,
able to get close, can depend on others and let
others depend on them
2. Anxious - clingy, fear abandonment, finds that
others do not want to be as close to them as they
want to be to them
3. Avoidant - hard time forming relationships, hard
to trust and depend on others, gets
uncomfortable with closeness
4. Combination - can have a combination of
attachment styles which may vary by context
(e.g., friends versus partners)
 Types of Love

Romantic /
Companionate Compassionate Passionate
Family and friends, built on
trust, wanting to be around Built on intense emotion
others Wanting to attend to one’s and sexual desire
needs
Involves intimacy - being Usually at the beginning
comfortable and secure of a romantic
with another person relationships and fades
over time
 Models
● Investment Model of Commitment - commitment is determined by:
○ 1) Satisfaction (happiness with relationship)
○ 2) Lack of alternative partners
○ 3) Investment in the relationship (time, effort, resources)

● Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

○ 1) Criticism - insulting, belittling, finding faults in partner
○ 2) Defensiveness - not owning up to your side, making mistakes
○ 3) Stonewalling - silent treatment, avoiding partner
○ 4) Contempt - looking down on partner, feeling superior

● Strong relationship is built on….

○ 1) sharing positive events with partner, 2) being fun and playful, 3) seeing
partner in a positive light
Limitations in Current
Relationship Research
● Demographics tend to include monogamists, not non-monogamists
● Lack of gender diverse identities
● Lack of aromatic (not wanting a romantic relationship) and asexual
(not being sexually attracted to or wanting to be sexually active with
others)
 Attraction
● Proximity - when people interact more frequently or are close by
○ Functional Distance - not just being close, but the design of a
space makes interaction common during daily activities
○ EX: Neighbor that lives near you and usually takes the same
elevator as you

● Mere exposure effect - more we are exposed to a person or thing,

the more we like it
○ EX: Seeing the same person on the subway everyday, and then
you begin to like them

● Similarity - similar health, attractiveness, personality traits, etc.

○ EX: If you are outgoing, you will be drawn to someone outgoing
 Attraction Continued….
● Complementarity - opposites do not attract each other
○ Unless it functions through the Status Exchange Hypothesis
(we choose to be with someone of higher status in one area,
who gives us a status boost)
■ EX: One person is really intelligent and the other person is
really wealthy, so they both give each other a “status
boost”

● Attractiveness - physical attraction

○ Halo Effect - assuming physically attractive people possess
positive traits
Evolutionary Perspective
● Maintains that physical attractiveness is strongly related to
reproductive fitness
● Traits associated with health and survival relate to attractiveness
● Faces that reflect the average face are considered more
attractive
● Women tend to be more concerned with providing for their
children
● Men tend to be more concerned with attractiveness and youth
because it shows reproductive fitness and ability to impregnate.
● Men across 37 countries rate physical attractiveness as higher
than women do
Challenges to Evolutionary
Psychology
● Men and women report similar promiscuity
● Men increasingly prefer women who have good financial
prospects
● Women increasingly prefer men who are attractive
● Does not account or gender diverse identities or people
who are intersex
 Stereotypes,
Prejudice, and
Discrimination
Stereotypes - schemas or mental shortcuts
that help us categorize a group of people;
happens automatically; negative, positive or
neutral

Discrimination - inappropriate or unjustified

treatment of people based on the groups
they belong to; systemic or institutional

Prejudice - feelings or affective responses

related to a group or its members; can be
implicit or explicit
Stereotype Perspectives
● Dominance - certain group memberships become most
important when stereotyping

● Integration - all group memberships are accounted for

in stereotyping

● Compartmentalization - context determines whether

one identity becomes the focus of stereotyping or
whether an intersection of identities becomes the focus
of stereotyping
 Types of Sexism/Racism
1. Ambivalent - mixture of positive and negative affective beliefs about a
group

2. Benevolent - positive views of target group members who maintain

traditional roles and fulfill positive stereotypes
a. EX: believing women need protection

3. Hostile - disliking non-traditional roles, feeling that you are losing your
place to another race or gender, and disliking the other group
a. EX: disliking women that are position of power

Modern Racism - not endorsing explicit racist beliefs but still harboring
animosity towards another racial group
Perspectives
1. Economic - occurs due to competing interests

2. Motivational - occurs due to our psychological need to be in

groups

3. Cognitive - occurs due to the way our brain processes

information
Economic Perspective
● Realistic Conflict Theory - competition for resources
between groups gives rise to conflict
○ Resources can be material, money, cultural influence, and
ideology

● Ethnocentrism - believing your group is superior while

vilifying other groups

● Example: The Robbers Cave Experiment where the boys in

summer camp were divided into 2 groups (Eagles and
Rattlers) and competed against each other for rewards
 Motivational Perspective
● Minimal Group Paradigm - participants are randomly assigned
to a group and then their behavior towards ingroup and
outgroup members is observed.

● Social Identity Theory - a person incorporates individual

accomplishments AND their group’s accomplishments into their
identity
● Basking in Reflected Glory - another group member or group’s
accomplishment is considered the individual’s
accomplishment; associates with group when they are doing
well, not when they are doing poorly.
Cognitive Perspective

● Paired Distinctiveness - believing an illusory correlation

between two distinctive events
○ EX: seeing a pair of shoes worn by a member of a culture
and assuming those shoes are associated with a certain
culture

● Can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies

● Subtyping - people who contradict, are added to new

subgroup
Cognitive Perspective
● Outgroup Homogeneity Effect - see outgroup members
as similar
○ EX: If you are part of a student organization, you will see
the members of your organization uniquely. However, for
people in other organizations, you tend to group them as
having similar characteristics.

● Own-Race Identification Bias - more easily see and

distinguish people of the same race as us
Effects on Stigmatized Groups
1. Stereotype Threat - when knowledge of a stereotype
about one’s group results in poor performance, especially
when performance is evaluative, and person cares about
disproving stereotype

2. Attribution Ambiguity - hard to determine if a person is

discriminated against (e.g., in hiring)

3. Can hurt well-being

Contact Theory
● Contact Theory - prejudice can be reduced through contact
between members. There are 4 conditions for ideal contact:
○ 1) Institutional support
○ 2) Equal status
○ 3) Common goal
○ 4) Cooperation

○ May work due to personalization (seeing the person as

an individual rather than using a stereotype to categorize
members of a group)
Approaches
● Acknowledgement - acknowledges that there are
differences between groups; multicultural
○ *Better at reducing discrimination

● Disregard - saying that you “don’t see race”; colorblind

Groups
Social Influence
● Social Facilitation - how the presence of others impacts
one’s performance
○ Positive impact if it’s a simple or well-learned task
○ Negative impact if it’s a novel task or difficult task
○ Could be due to evaluation apprehension

● Social Loafing - exerting less effort in a group when individual

contributions are not monitored
Group Influence
● Groupthink - thinking by members of highly cohesive
groups which puts pressure on group to reach a
consensus

● Group Polarization - making more extreme decisions in a

group than as an individual
○ Due to social comparison and persuasive arguments
Power
● Power is related to social rank:
○ Status - respect; prominence
○ Authority - from roles
○ Dominance - behavior

● Approach / Inhibition Theory - high power individuals are

inclined to pursue their goals and make quick judgements,
whereas low-power individuals constrain their behavior
and pay more attention to others
○ *High power = more likely to stereotype
 Individuation
Individuation Deindividuation
Tendency to focus on oneself Tendency to feel less sense of
individual identity
Leads to careful, deliberate
action Leads to lower inhibitions, act
impulsively, and destructively
Self Awareness Theory - (e.g., War and Halloween)
turns attention inward

Spotlight Effect