PSYC105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Theory Of Planned Behavior, Classical Conditioning, Balance Theory
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSYC105 Lecture
IV: Social Psychology
Social psychology
• The study of how people influence others’ behaviour, beliefs and attitudes
What are attitudes?
• Favourable or unfavourable evaluative reactions towards an object or person
• These evaluations can be
• Affective
• Behavioural tendency
• Cognitive
• Efficient way to size up the world
How are attitudes formed?
• Mere exposure (Zajonc, 1968)
• Mita et al (1977)
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Behaviour that leads to positive outcomes or prevents negative outcomes is
strengthened
• Imitation
• Adopting the attitudes of role models
Bem’s self-perception theory
• We infer our attitudes from our behaviour
• We attribute our own behaviour to either an external (situation) or internal (attitude)
source
• Attitude inferences if behaviour is freely chosen (not coerced)
• Holds best for weak attitudes
Unobtrusive influences on attitude
• Facial expression (Strack et al, 1988)
• Cartoons rated as funnier if pen held between teeth
• Testing the quality of headphones (wells and petty, 1980)
• Nodders vs shakers
• Pushing up vs pushing down (Cacioppo et al 1993)
Functions of attitudes
• Cognitive consistency: people try to maintain an internal consistency, order and agreement
between their beliefs
• We like people who think like us and act like us (Heider, 1946)
• Balance theory: relationship between 3 elements (triads)
Balance theory
• Unbalanced triads create tension-motivation to restore balance
• Least effort
• Support for cognitive balance theory
• Newcomb (1961): male students in student housing
Implicit attitudes
• Implicit vs explicit
• Implicit
• Automatic, non-conscious, difficult to change
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Document Summary
Social psychology: the study of how people influence others" behaviour, beliefs and attitudes. What are attitudes: favourable or unfavourable evaluative reactions towards an object or person, these evaluations can be, affective, behavioural tendency, cognitive, efficient way to size up the world. How are attitudes formed: mere exposure (zajonc, 1968, mita et al (1977, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, behaviour that leads to positive outcomes or prevents negative outcomes is strengthened. Imitation: adopting the attitudes of role models. Bem"s self-perception theory: we infer our attitudes from our behaviour, we attribute our own behaviour to either an external (situation) or internal (attitude) source, attitude inferences if behaviour is freely chosen (not coerced, holds best for weak attitudes. Functions of attitudes: cognitive consistency: people try to maintain an internal consistency, order and agreement between their beliefs, we like people who think like us and act like us (heider, 1946, balance theory: relationship between 3 elements (triads)
