PSYC 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Church Attendance, Premarital Sex, Operant Conditioning

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 221
• Professor: Dylan Selterman

Document Summary

Beliefs (cognitive; schematic) ex. dogs are loyal, school is challenging. Attitude formation: learning theory using classical and/or operant conditioning. Mere exposure repeated/prolonged exposure to stimulus; person, idea, neutral/inanimate object **assumes initial neutral attitude (if initial attitude is negative then more exposure can backfire) 80% report premarital sex and by age 45 it"s about 90%. Stability vs. change change fluctuation based on experience ex. polling 2 months and 2 days before the election (things change!) and relevance to behavior ex. church attendance & belief in g-d. There will be a tighter connection between attitudes and a behavior when the question becomes more specific. Control=> behavior ex. exercise routines (new year"s resolutions fail within two months because they"re too general! Attitude strength: extremity of emotion; degree of certainty vs. ambivalence ex. political attitudes, cigarettes/alcohol, stronger attitudes are more consistent and stronger link to behavior.