Attitude and Behavior
What is an attitude?
A positive-negative dimensional evaluation of an object, i.e. how someone feels about it. Attitude includes affect, or emotion, and cognition, which are thoughts or memories that reinforce the emotion.
Name the 6 universal emotions and give one reason as to why they are considered universal.
The emotions can be recognized across species, culture, age, and disability (congenital blindness).
What does the Social Identity Theory say about how we derive self esteem?
According to this theory, we derive self esteem not only from what we have accomplished, but those accomplishments relative to other accomplishments of those who also belong to our social group.
Name and Define the two types of Heuristics
Availability Heuristic: if events can be easily recalled, then they are probably more common (ex Kansas tornadoes, Wizard of Oz)
Representativeness Heuristic: Categorizing something based on how similar it is to our perception of another member of the category (i.e. does this person seem like a Republican?)
What is the psychological phenomenon that explains why we are not always able to predict what will make us happy?
Affective Forecasting
True or False:
Introspecting about the reasons for our attitude is the best way to confirm and explain the way we feel.
False. Studies have shown that when we try to list the reasons we feel the way we do, we often entirely miss the true reasoning behind our attitudes.
Shelly helps Pam carry her groceries from the store to her car. Pam wants to do something nice for Shelly in return. What is this an example of?
The Norm of Reciprocity
Kevin is watching a football game. He is rooting for the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys win the game, and Kevin tweets: "Oh yeah!! We win!!!"
What is Kevin doing?
Kevin is basking in reflected glory. Even though he did not actively participate in the football game, he feels connected to the team's win because he was cheering them on.
Johnny shows Sally three pictures and a few minutes later ha asks her to recall and describe one of the pictures. Sally describes the last picture Johnny showed her because that is the one she remembers best. What is this an example of?
The Recency Effect
True or false:
The length (or duration) of a positive experience has large effect on our recollections of pleasure.
False, it has very little effect.
Duration Neglect
What does a person's response latency refer to?
The response latency refers to how quickly a person can access their attitude about something. If a person is able to quickly state their attitude towards an object, it is more likely that the attitude is stronger or more severe rather than neutral.
What are the "Big 5" factors of the self?
Openness to Experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Beth and Mark are walking down the street when they see a homeless man. Mark goes to give the man some money, but Beth stops him and says, "Don't give him money, he'll just use it to buy drugs." What is this an example of?
This is the Outgroup Homogeneity Effect. Beth is not homeless, so she does not identify in that group. From her perspective, all homeless people act, think, and behave the same way. However, she understands that within her own group, everyone differs.
Kate goes to the store and sees a package of meat labeled "80% Lean." At another store, she sees the same package of meat, this time labeled "20% Fat." Which package of meat is Kate more likely to buy, and why?
Kate is more likely to choose the first store's package of meat, because even though they are the same product, the first one is framed more positively than the other.
According to the textbook, what are the two measures of happiness?
Life Satisfaction and Emotional Well-Being
Come up with an everyday example of something that shows the effort justification type of cognitive dissonance.
A bad tattoo would have been painful to get, so a person may say that they love it more than they actually do.
Parents are sleep deprived and have to suffer constantly while raising a child, and yet the child is still often seen as a gift or the best part of their lives.
Describe the difference between the Cannon-Bard Intuitive View of Emotion and the James Lange View of Emotion.
C-B Intuitive: when a stimulus occurs, we feel an emotion, which triggers mechanical responses in our bodies.
Lange: when a stimulus occurs, the mechanical responses in our bodies are triggered, causing us to feel an emotion
Explain the difference between prejudice and discrimination.
Prejudice is making a predetermined assumption about someone based on their group (i.e. race, religion, economic class, etc). Discrimination is the behavior, pleasant or unpleasant, one exhibits towards members of a particular group.
Mary looks at a photo of a man's face and, based on his features, decides that he is untrustworthy. Explain her behavior.
This is an example of a positive-negative dimension of facial perception. There are two types (the other being centered around dominance) and this one refers to a person's trustworthiness based on someone else's perception of them. Intuition can allow us to decide whether or not we want to approach a person based on these dimensions.
Briefly explain the "Psychological Immune System."
Daniel Gilbert and Timothy Wilson coined this term to explain how we are resilient to trauma and negative experiences. Our immune system protects from disease, the psychological immune system protects us from major psychological damage.
Two groups of teenagers were asked to review a terrible video game. The first group was offered a $2 compensation, and the second group was offered a $20 compensation. Predict the outcome of this experiment and justify your answer.
Cognitive inconsistency shows that when people have to pay a high price for something, they are more likely to try to justify it. In this example, the first group is paying a higher price by not receiving the better reward, so they will most likely give the game a good review. The second group is not paying a very high price, so they will more likely be honest and say that the game is rubbish.
Suzie thinks that Jessica does not like her, so she subconsciously acts colder to Jessica than she normally would. This leads to Jessica actually not liking Suzie. What is this an example of?
Suzie is a victim of the "self fulfilling prophecy" phenomenon. She believed something was true so her behaviors changed to align with her belief and it ended up becoming true as a result.
Was the contact hypothesis found to be successful in reducing prejudice? Explain.
The contact hypothesis was a theory that if members of majority and minority groups interacted with one another, they would become more integrated and prejudice would become less prevalent. This did not happen however, as even when schools became racially integrated it was not a quick fix. In fact, some studies found that levels of prejudice actually increased after integration.
Paul wants to be friends with Mike, but he does not interact with him because he is afraid that Mike does not want to be friends with him and does not want to be rejected. Name and define this phenomenon.
Pluralistic Ignorance. This phenomenon explains why people say or do things that contrast with their own beliefs or wants, for fear that others will not feel the same way or will judge them.
Name and describe the two types of happiness.
Hedonia: feelings of pleasure and comfort
Eudaemonia: a judgement that one's life is meaningful, virtuous, and reflects growth