Chapter 4 Objectives

After covering this chapter you should:

  1. Know the definition of attitudes.
  2. Understand why social psychologists believe attitudes are important.
  3. Know the three components that make up our attitudes.
    1. Affect
    2. Behavior
    3. Cognition
  4. Be able to describe the various ways attitudes can be formed.
    1. Social Learning
      1. Classical conditioning
      2. Instrumental conditioning
      3. Observational learning
    2. Social Comparison
    3. Genetics
  5. Be able to describe the attitude-behavior inconsistency observed in the LaPiere study.
  6. Know the various factors that moderate the attitude-behavior consistency link.
    1. Aspects of the Situation
      1. Situational constraints
      2. We choose attitude supporting situations
    2. Aspects of Attitudes
      1. Attitude origins
      2. Attitude strength
      3. Attitude importance
  7. Be familiar with the three factors that the Theory of Planned Behavior hypothesizes influence our behavioral intentions when we have time to take thoughtful, considered action.

  8. Know what factors the Attitude-to-Behavior model hypothesizes influences our behavior when we must act quickly and spontaneously.

  9. Be familiar with the Elaboration-Likelihood Model.

    1. Understand the differences between the central and peripheral routes to persuasion.
    2. Describe the circumstances under which we engage in each of these modes of thought.
    3. Be familiar with the nonverbal cues that affect persuasion, especially when we engage in heuristic processing.
      1. Source characteristics
        1. Credibility
        2. Attractiveness
        3. Speaking style
      2. Message characteristics
        1. Soft sell
        2. One-sided vs. two-sided messages
  10. Be familiar with the various factors (audience characteristics) that help us in resisting attempts at persuasion.
    1. Reactance (especially to hard sell tactics)
    2. Forewarning
    3. Selective avoidance
    4. Biased assimilation
    5. Attitude polarization
  11. Know the definition of cognitive dissonance and be able to describe direct and indirect methods people use to reduce dissonance.
    1. Direct dissonance reduction methods
      1. Change attitude to be consistent with behavior
      2. Acquire supporting information
      3. Trivialize behavior in question
    2. Indirect dissonance reduction methods
      1. Restore positive self evaluations
      2. Engage in distractions
  12. Understand how inducing fear or good feelings (positive affect) influence attitude change.

Chapter 6 Objectives

After covering this chapter you should:

  1. Be able to define prejudice and discrimination.
  2. Be familiar with the social and cognitive sources of prejudice.
    1. Social sources
      1. Unequal Status
        1. Realistic conflict theory
        2. Frustration-aggression hypothesis
      2. Social Identity
        1. In-group bias
        2. Ultimate attribution error
    2. Cognitive sources
      1. Stereotypes
        1. Understand how stereotypes influence our thinking about members of out-groups.
      2. Out-group homogeneity
      3. In-group differentiation
      4. Illusory correlations
  3. Understand the various methods by which we can reduce prejudice.
    1. Social learning
    2. Increased intergroup contact – be familiar with the conditions that must be present for intergroup contact to reduce prejudice.
      1. contact must involve cooperation and interdependence
      2. norms favoring group equality must exist
      3. focus on individual-based (vs. category) processing
    3. Extended contact hypothesis
    4. Superordinate goals
    5. Recategorization
    6. Attribute driven processing

Chapter 9 Objectives

After covering this chapter you should:

  1. Be able to define conformity.
  2. Be familiar with the different kinds of norms.
    1. Explicit
    2. Implicit
    3. Descriptive
    4. Injunctive
  3. Be familiar with Asch’s study on conformity.
  4. Be familiar with the reasons why people conform.
    1. Normative influence (desire to be liked)
    2. Informational influence (desire to be right)
  5. Be familiar with factors that increase conformity.
    1. Group size
    2. Group cohesiveness
    3. Activating descriptive and injunctive norms
  6. Be able to describe how the following factors affect our ability to resist conformity:
    1. having an "ally" – Asch’s studies
    2. "need for control"
    3. "need to individuate"
    4. culture (collective vs. individualistic)
  7. Be able to define compliance.
  8. Be able to describe the basic principles underlying compliance techniques and the compliance tactics associated with each principle.
    1. friendship/liking
      1. ingratiation
    2. commitment/consistency
      1. foot-in-the-door
      2. lowballing
    3. scarcity
      1. playing hard to get
      2. deadlines
    4. reciprocity
      1. door-in-the-face
      2. that’s not all
    5. social validation
    6. authority
  9. Be able to describe the effects of mood of compliance.
    1. Complaining
    2. Affect Infusion Model (AIM)
  10. Understand how individual differences influence preferences for using various compliance techniques.
    1. Personality (Big Five)
    2. Self-monitoring
    3. Need for control
  11. Be able to define obedience.
  12. Be familiar with Milgram’s study of obedience.
  13. Understand the various factors that result in destructive obedience.
  14. Understand how destructive obedience can be resisted.