PSYC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Realistic Conflict Theory, Fundamental Attribution Error, Cognitive Dissonance
28 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Module 75: social cognition: Attitudes
Social cognition: the way in which people perceive and interpret themselves and others in their
social world
Attitudes: relatively stable and enduring evolutions of things and people. they can influence how
we think about and act towards others.
ABC models of attitudes : a model proposing that attitudes have
The affective component- how we feel towards it
The behavioural component- how we behave towards it
The cognitive component- what we believe about it
External factors
- some (many) develop early on through socialization by parent’s peers, schools and
media.
- Through positive reinforcement praise for adopting parents, values acceptance in social
circles
Internal factors
- Our own thinking shapes attitudes
- The more time we spend thinking about something the stronger out attitudes become
- Our behaviours shapes
- Attitudes may determine our behaviours but much evidence that attitudes often follow
behaviours
- When we engage in behaviour we develop attitudes consistent with the behaviour
Cognitive dissonance theory: we experience discomfort when two or out thoughts are
inconsistent, when we are aware that our actions is not consistent with our attitudes.
- To relieve ourselves that is consistent with our actions (can’t change the fact that we
engaged in the behaviour)
The self- perception alternative: suggests that attitudes follow behaviour because we infer our
attitudes by examining our own behaviour
- Our behaviour serves as clues for our attitudes
Attitudes and the power of persuasions
Persuasion: the act of causing people to do or believe something
Two routes of persuasion
Central route persuasion: riles on content, factual information and logic and change
attitudes
Peripheral route: focuses on superficial features (appearance) to change attitudes
Factors affecting persuasion:
Source: is knowledgeable and likeable
- Is similar to us
- Presents both sides of an issues
Receiver
- Highly intelligent (central route works best)
- Lesser intelligence
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
