1. Attitude: An individual's predispositions to evaluate an attitudinal object (aspect of the world) in a favourable or unfavourable manner
1.1. Our attitudes position and label us within the society/community where we live
1.1.1. Your label affects your own behaviour as well as how others evaluate and behave toward you
1.2. Attitudes define cultural and societal ideologies
1.3. Attitudes explain our behaviour toward certain people and objects
1.4. Attitudes can help or hinder us in coping
1.5. Once formed, can be extremely resistant to change
1.5.1. Only change when they no longer serve their function
1.6. Unconscious beliefs and biases
1.6.1. established attitudes help to make quick everyday decisions by avoiding using up valuable mental resources eg biased toward a certain food brand makes it easy to choose which one to buy from a busy grocery shelf
1.7. Attitudes are evaluations and are sensitive to the contexts in which they are produced
1.8. Pinpointing specific components of an attitude can help modify problematic behaviour and/or perpetuate helpful behaviours
2. Prejudice and discrimination
2.1. Prejudice: a preconcieved negative attitude/judgement of a group and its individual members
2.1.1. An attitude about a group, or a member of a group based on their membership of it
2.1.1.1. Prejudice pervades all areas of social life
2.1.2. A prejudiced person may
2.1.2.1. dislike those different from self
2.1.2.2. behave in a discriminatory manner,
2.1.2.3. believe them ignorant and dangerous
2.1.3. ethnic prejudice: ill thinking of others without sufficient warrant and antipathy based on a faulty and inflexible generalisation
2.1.3.1. ethnocentric: believing in the superiority of one's own ethnic/cultural group, and having corresponding disdain for all other groups
2.1.3.2. authoritarian personality: a personality that is disposed to favour obedience to authority and intolerance for outgroups/those of lower status
2.1.3.2.1. characterised by
2.1.3.2.2. psychoanalytic stance
2.1.3.3. Social Dominance Theory
2.1.3.3.1. some social groups are positioned higher in societies than others; as result have access to more power and resources and are more positively valued than those lower down
2.1.3.3.2. motivation to have one's group dominate other social groups
2.1.3.3.3. People with authoritiarian personalities who are in high social dominant groups are much more likely to rely on stereotypical information about other social/cultural groups
2.1.3.4. Terror Management Theory
2.1.3.4.1. Identifying as belonging to a social group
2.1.3.5. Prejudice also arises
2.1.3.5.1. When we feel an outgroup has blocked our group's access to a valued goal
2.1.3.5.2. When we feel an outgroup contradicts our group's 'norms' or 'values'
2.1.3.5.3. When we have had negative past experiences with members of an outgroup
2.1.3.5.4. When we have negative feelings toward an outgroup
2.1.4. Prejudice toward outgroups influences how we behave toward them but also how we judge their behaviour
2.1.4.1. eg. Whites thought a suspect was more likely to be guilty of a crime when he had an accent, was presented as Black and was accused of a violent blue-collar crime
2.1.5. the environment in which people live shapes their attitudes, behaviour and prejudices
2.1.5.1. intergroup attributions (eg Group-serving Biases) aren't just a matter of ingroup favouritism but tend to reflect wider societal norms and values
2.1.5.2. Explicit Prejudice
2.1.5.2.1. Prejudice and discrimination depend on the social climate and how acceptable it is to express prejudice within a society
2.1.5.3. Implicit Prejudice
2.1.5.3.1. Prejudiced and stereotypic attitudes can occur outside a person's awareness
2.1.6. Fundamental Attribution Error
2.1.6.1. A person's ethnicity, race or sex gets vivid attention; the situational forces working upon that person are less visible
2.1.7. Ultimate Attribution Error
2.1.7.1. groups account for their own behaviour in fundamentally different ways than they do the behaviour of outgroups
2.1.7.1.1. especially when there's a history of conflict and tension between them
2.1.8. Group-serving Bias
2.1.8.1. explaining away outgroup members' positive behaviours; and attributing negative behaviours to their dispositions (while excusing such behaviour by one's own group)
2.2. Groups
2.2.1. In-group: 'us' - a group of people who share a sense of belonging, a feeling of common identity (often contrasted with outgroup)
2.2.1.1. Social Identity Theory
2.2.1.1.1. we evaluate outselves partly by our group memberships - having a sense of 'we-ness' strengths our self-concepts, bringing respect for ourselves and pride in our group
2.2.1.1.2. Social Comparison
2.2.2. Out-group: 'them' - a group that people perceive as distinctively different from/apart from their ingroup
2.2.3. Intergroup relations: interaction between social groups
2.2.4. Intergroup behaviour: behaviour that is based on the perception that individuals belong to distinct social groups
2.2.5. Intergroup conflict: negative relations between social groups
2.2.5.1. Conflict: a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals or values between 2+ parties
2.2.5.2. Realistic Conflict Theory
2.2.5.2.1. negative relations between social groups are based on real competition for scarce resources
2.2.5.2.2. perceived differences in resources between groups manifest as psychological states of the group members
2.2.5.3. A powerful outgroup can
2.2.5.3.1. Instil fear
2.2.5.3.2. Instil anger and frustration, when it blocks or threatens the goals of the ingroup
2.2.5.3.3. Evoke disgust, when the outgroup's moral standards don't match our own
2.3. Discrimination: unjustified negative behaviour toward a group or its members
2.3.1. Prejudiced attitude doesn't always lead to discriminatory acts, nor does all discrimination lead from prejudice
2.4. Racism
2.4.1. an individual's attitudes and discriminatory behaviour toward people of a given race
2.4.2. institutional practices (even if not motivated by prejudice) that subordinate people of a given race
2.5. Stereotypes
2.5.1. stereotypes form as simplified cognitive representations of social groups
2.5.1.1. have a strong link to prejudice
2.5.1.1.1. negative attitudes are often supported by negative stereotypes = prejudice
2.5.1.2. such generalisations can be more/less true, and are not always negative
2.5.1.2.1. an accurate stereotype may be desirable, considered 'sensitivity to diversity' or 'cultural awareness in a multicultural world'
2.5.1.3. Occurs when
2.5.1.3.1. it is relevant to the perceivers information-processing goals
2.5.1.3.2. the perceiver holds prejudiced beliefs about such groups
2.5.1.3.3. the perceiver has sufficient attentional resources to engage in this kind of information processing
2.5.1.3.4. the cues are easy to process and are presented for a period of time
2.5.2. affect how we see outgroups but also how we percieve ourselves
2.5.2.1. being negatively stereotyped leads to negative emotions about intergroup interactions; decreased self-esteem
2.5.2.1.1. affects subsequent interactions with the outgroup
2.5.3. are commonly widely held, oversimplified, inaccurate and resistant to new information
2.5.4. Can result in implicit prejudice
3. Social Beliefs and Judgements
3.1. Social beliefs emerge by
3.1.1. Percieving events through the filters of our culturally influenced assumptions
3.1.1.1. Our cultural preconceptions guide how we perceive and interpret information and behaviour
3.1.1.1.1. Social Representation Theory
3.1.1.1.2. We respond to reality not as it is but by how we construe it
3.1.1.1.3. Attribution Theory
3.1.1.2. Priming can lead us to percieve people as members of a social group
3.1.1.2.1. Categorical Thinking: process of perceiving a person in terms of cues that indicate their social group membership
3.1.1.3. We view our social worlds through the filters of our beliefs, attitudes and values - these are shaped by the normative framework of the culture, society and community in which we live
3.1.1.3.1. Beliefs shape our interpretation of everything else
3.1.2. Judging events, informed by our intuition, implicit rules and our mood
3.1.3. Explaining events by attributing them to the situation, or the person
3.1.4. Expecting certain events, which can bring them about
3.2. Priming
3.2.1. Our memory is a web of associations; priming is the activation of particular associations
3.2.1.1. One thought, even without awareness, can influence another thought, or even an action
3.3. Belief Perseverance
3.3.1. Belief Perserverance: persistence of one's initial conceptions - if the belief is discredited, a person's explanation of why the belief might still be true, survives
3.3.2. it is difficult to demolish a falsehood once a person has conjured up their own rationale for it
3.3.2.1. Our assumptions about the world can make contradictory evidence seem supportive
3.3.2.1.1. people readily accept evidence that confirm their beliefs, but are sharply critical of disconfirming evidence
3.3.3. Our beliefs and expectations powerfully affect how we mentally construct events
3.4. Intuitive Judgement
3.4.1. Controlled processing: mental activities that require conscious, deliberate and reflective thinking
3.4.1.1. When we are making judgements, they are controlled processes as we are 'weighing up' the causes of someone's behaviour in an effort to understand the behaviour
3.4.1.2. It would be impossible to function in the social world if all our social cognition was controlled
3.4.2. Automatic processing: mental activities happening with little or no conscious awareness - effortless and habitual
3.4.2.1. For automatic processing to occur, priming must be activated
3.4.2.2. People can behave in negative ways toward stereotyped groups without even realising it
3.4.2.3. We make social judgements about approachability or intelligence based on faces
3.4.2.3.1. Physical appearance is the first thing we notice - judgements about a person's trustworthiness is extremely rapid when looking at faces
3.4.2.3.2. With no other knowledge about a person except for their physical appearance, people make all kinds of assumptions about the type of person someone is and even make assumptions about their future life
3.4.3. Social Schema Theory
3.4.3.1. Schema: how we store information about the world, people, roles and how to behave in particular situations
3.4.3.1.1. Functions:
3.4.3.1.2. Types:
3.4.3.1.3. Before a schema is activated and made available, we must first appropriately categorise the event, person or object appropriately - this is largely an autonmatic process
3.4.4. Error-Prone Judgements and Illusion
3.4.4.1. Perceptual misinterpretations, fantasies and constructed beliefs
3.4.4.2. Potential for selecting the wrong Schema in a particular situation
3.4.4.3. Potential for categorisation to result in inaccuracies and overgeneralisation leading to stereotypical judgements
3.4.4.4. Illusory Correlation
3.4.4.4.1. perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists
3.4.4.4.2. when we expect to find significant relationships, we easily associate random events
3.4.4.4.3. One-shot Illusory Correlation
3.4.5. Conceptual Metaphors
3.4.5.1. shape social thoughts and attitudes
3.4.5.2. liken social concepts to superficially dissimilar things
3.4.5.3. rely on taken-for-granted shared knowledge
3.4.5.4. Used to infer personal attributes and to interpret and evaluate abstract social concepts
3.4.6. Mood
3.4.6.1. Our mood colours our judgement - we don't attribute our changing perceptions to mood shifts, rather the world really seems different
3.4.6.2. Mood-related thoughts distract us from complex thinking
3.4.6.2.1. When emotionally aroused (eg angry) we become more likely to make snap judgements and evaluate others based on stereotypes
3.5. Social Encoding (pg 106)
3.6. Confirmation Bias
3.6.1. a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions, rather than considering opposing information
3.7. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
3.7.1. when people's expectations lead to the occurence of the expected behaviour or outcome
3.7.1.1. eg. hostility nearly always begets hostility; the perception of the other as aggressive, resentful and vindictive induces the other to display those behaviours in self-defence, thus creating a vicious self-perpetuating cycle
3.7.1.1.1. how others treat us reflects how we and others have treated them
3.7.2. Behavioural Confirmation
3.7.2.1. type of self-fulfilling prophecy where people's social expectations lead them to behave in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations
3.7.2.2. erroneous beliefs about the social world can induce others to confirm those beliefs
3.8. Heuristics
3.8.1. a thinking strategy and problem-solving method that enables quick and easy social inferences
3.8.1.1. Social inference
3.8.1.1.1. People interpret others' behaviour by making inferences based on other people's intentions, thoughts and personality
3.8.1.1.2. people often infer other peoples' actions as indicative of their intentions and dispositions
3.8.1.1.3. With ease, we form impressions, make judgements and invent explanations
3.8.1.1.4. When we make errors in social judgements, these are often prone to biases
3.8.1.1.5. Two processes
3.8.1.1.6. Hierarchy (pg 118)
3.8.1.2. Types:
3.8.1.2.1. Representativeness Heuristic
3.8.1.2.2. Availability Heuristic
3.8.2. Counterfactual Thinking
3.8.2.1. Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but did not
3.8.2.1.1. Underlies our feeling of luck - when we have barely escaped a bad event, we easily imagine a negative counterfactual and therefore feel 'good luck'
3.8.2.1.2. The more significant the event, the more intense the counterfactual thinking
3.8.3. Anchoring and Adjustment
3.8.3.1. when inferences are based on an initial standard (known knowledge and information) and adjusted accordingly - the starting point is an anchor
3.8.3.1.1. Later information doesn't make much change on our (anchored) initial impression
3.8.3.1.2. How far we adjust from the anchor depends on how much confidence we have in the anchor
4. Formation
4.1. all aproaches emphasise the role of experience in attitude formation
4.1.1. emphasise the influence of our social networks, interactions and methods of communication eg mass media, have on attitude formation
4.2. Behaviourism
4.2.1. attitudes as result of direct experience with an attitudinal object, whether positive or negative
4.2.1.1. Attitude formation dependent on present/past perceptions of the utility of the attitudinal object
4.2.1.1.1. Formation depends on the clarity, consistency, nearness of rewards and punishments as they relate to goals
4.3. Classical conditioning
4.3.1. attitudes as result of additudinal object being regularly paired with another stimulus, which can be positive or negative
4.4. Operant conditioning/instrumental
4.4.1. attitudes as result of positive or negative consequence following a behaviour - informs positive or negative attitude towards it
4.5. Social learning/modelling
4.5.1. attitudes as result of parental/peer influence
4.5.1.1. family influence outweighs peer influence in formation of an attitude
4.5.2. modelling: acquisition of a behaviour via direct observation of others, and the subsequent positive or negative consequences
4.5.2.1. attitudes formed on observations of behaviour rather than what we are told their attitude should be
4.6. Self-perception theory
4.6.1. attitudes as result of assessing our own behaviour and feelings and the circumstances in which they occur, and deducing what our attitude must be (when that attitude is weak or ambiguous to us)
4.6.1.1. behaviour can modify self-concept
4.6.1.2. eg hearing themself talk informs them of their attitudes; seeing their own actions provides clues to how strong their beliefs are
4.6.1.3. Overjustification effect
4.6.1.3.1. bribing people to do what they already like doing will cause them to see their actions as externally controlled rather than intrinsically appealing; eg. giving a reward for playing turns play into work
4.6.1.4. as we act and reflect, we develop more readily accessible attitudes to guide future behaviour
4.7. Social comparison
4.7.1. attitudes as result of other people's attitude, due to unfamiliarity with an attitudinal object
4.7.1.1. we compare ourselves to other people we consider similar to ourselves in some way
4.7.1.1.1. eg. sharing attitudes with collegues, no matter how dubious they may be, gives one a shared sense of identity with their fellows as well as a means of getting ahead
4.8. Cognitive
4.8.1. attitudes as result of acquired experience in social world, resulting in increasing associative connections between similar attitudinal objects
4.8.1.1. Balance theory
4.8.1.1.1. humans have preference for agreement/accordance
4.8.1.1.2. people are motivated to maintain balance between all attitudes help about various attitudinal objects
4.8.1.1.3. in absence of contrary evidence, we assume others share the same views as we do
4.8.1.2. Theory of cognitive dissonance
4.8.1.2.1. when one is simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions, tension arises in them and people use different methods to combat the dissonance
4.8.1.2.2. when people get 'out of line', they will reduce feelings of dissonance by either changing their attitudes, beliefs and behaviour, or by justifying having them to 'rationalise' the discrepancy
4.8.1.2.3. Group identity
5. Structure
5.1. ABC Model of Attitudes
5.1.1. Three kinds of responses someone can have toward an attitudinal object
5.1.1.1. Affective emotional responses
5.1.1.1.1. Like vs dislike of attitudinal object
5.1.1.1.2. Intensity of an attitude: strength of the affective component
5.1.1.2. Behavioural responses (verbal and non-verbal)
5.1.1.2.1. Verbal expression
5.1.1.2.2. Concrete action
5.1.1.3. Cognitive responses
5.1.1.3.1. What the attitudinal object is, its characteristic and its relation to other objects
6. Function
6.1. Functional Approach: Attitudes satisfy an individual's psychological need (Herek, 1987; Katz, 1960)
6.1.1. attitudes may serve one or more of these functions at any one time; depending on context
6.1.2. Knowledge
6.1.2.1. Attitudes which bring order, clarity and consistency to one's frame of reference (standards) by organisation and categorisation of attitudinal objects
6.1.2.1.1. People need frames of reference to understand the world - attitudes provide such standards, giving basis for interpreting what they perceive to be important to, and around, them
6.1.2.1.2. Stereotypes
6.1.3. Utilitarian/Instrumental
6.1.3.1. Based in behaviourism
6.1.3.2. Attitudes which serve to maximise reward or reach a desired goal, and minimise punishments or thwartment, in their external environment
6.1.3.2.1. attitudes are affective associatons based upon experiences in attaining motive satisfactions
6.1.4. Self-expressive
6.1.4.1. Attitudes which are a vehicle for expressing the individual's values and attitudes that they consider important to their self-concept; not related to a specific attitudinal object
6.1.4.1.1. Social-expressive
6.1.4.1.2. Value-expressive
6.1.4.2. Attitudes which help give clarity to the self-concept, and also mold that self-concept closer to the notion of how a person sees themself to be
6.1.5. Experiential-schematic
6.1.5.1. Attitudes that are part of a cognitive schema that organises past experiences of, and provides guidelines for future interactions with, an attitudinal object/s
6.1.5.1.1. Schema is developed for a group; separate members have been de-individuated
6.1.5.1.2. New attitudinal objects are put into existing cognitive schemas
6.1.6. Ego-defensive
6.1.6.1. Attitudes which serve as strategies for coping with intra-psychic conflict; protecting their ego from anxiety and insecurity caused by their own unacceptable impulses and from the knowledge of threatening external forces
6.1.6.1.1. these attitudes arise in the form of Ego Defence Mechanisms (Freud)
6.1.6.1.2. these attitudes are not created by any attitudinal object, but by the individual's emotional and intra-psychic conflicts
6.1.6.2. Ego-defensive attitudes can be aroused by threats; appeals to hatred and repressed impulses, and authoritarian suggestion
6.1.6.2.1. Two steps: 1) projection of unacceptable motives onto an attitudinal object, 2) expression of hostility toward the object [eg. homophobia]
6.2. attitudes provide us with information about how to respond to an attitudinal object
6.2.1. allows us to focus our attention
6.2.1.1. aid our memory
6.2.1.2. filter out unnessary/unimportant features of the environment
6.2.1.3. free up cognitive space to deal with other things
6.2.1.4. help decision-making
6.2.1.5. categorise the world in meaningful ways
7. Attitude influences behaviour
7.1. people's expressed attitudes hardly predict their behaviour
7.1.1. behaviour is only minimally influenced by internal factors eg. attitudes and personality
7.1.1.1. however, behaviour is also influenced by the Potency of the attitude
7.1.1.1.1. much of our behaviour is adaptively automatic, with familiar cultural scripts eg, 'hi, how are you', 'I'm good, and you?' 'yeah, good thanks'. This keeps our minds free to work on other things
7.1.1.1.2. In novel situations, without scripts, we must think before we act - attitudes become more Potent
7.2. behaviour is largely influenced external social influences eg others' behaviour and expectations
7.2.1. expression of attitudes are subject to outside influences eg. we say what we think others want to hear
7.2.2. social influence can be enormous enough that it can induce people to violate their deepest attitudes and convictions
7.3. Theory of Reasoned Action
7.3.1. a person's intended behaviour is contingent on their attitude about that behaviour, and social norms
7.3.1.1. before a person commits to a behaviour they consider
7.3.1.1.1. how important/significant others will view that behaviour (subjective norms)
7.3.1.1.2. the person's attitude toward the behaviour
7.3.1.1.3. the person's behavioural intention
7.3.1.1.4. the actual behaviour
7.4. Theory of Planned Behaviour
7.4.1. revised Theory of Reasoned Action
7.4.2. added consideration of 'percieved behavioural control'
7.4.2.1. before a person commits to a behaviour, they consider how confident they are in being able to perform it, or whether they are in control of being able to choose to perform the behaviour
7.5. our attitudes can predict our actions if,
7.5.1. other influences are minimal
7.5.2. the attitude is specific to the action
7.5.3. the attitude is Potent - when we are reminded of it, or made self-conscious
8. Behaviour influences attitude
8.1. we sometimes stand up for what we believe
8.2. we can come to believe what we stand up for
8.2.1. people often adapt what they say to please their listeners, adjusting their messages and coming to believe the altered message
8.3. Roles
8.3.1. a set of norms that defines how people in a given social position ought to behave
8.3.2. roles we perform shape our sense of self
8.4. occurs most often when people feel they have choice in their behaviour, and when their behaviour has foreseeable consequences
8.4.1. occurs when we feel some responsibility for those behaviours
8.4.2. people are unlikely to internalise forced behaviour, especially if we feel it is inconsistent with our attitudes