Social Cog

• a psychological tendency that is exressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour
• determine our reaction to and interpretation of information
• Influence behaviour
• are learnt

• Affective
• Behavioural
• Cognitive

• our pos/neg feelings/emotions towards something
• eg I don't like school
• structure

• actions/behaviour that result from attitude
• eg I don't pay attention in class
• structure

• long term beliefs about why we have certain attitudes
• eg I believe school is a waste of time
• structure

• Adaptive
• Self-expresive
• Ego-defensive
• Knowledge

• helps people maximise rewards and minimise punishments from the world
• eg like school if i always get good grades
• function

• gives meaning to our lives, allowing us to tell others about ourselves
• eg wearing teams gurnsey
• function

• helps people avoid harsh realities of the world
• protect self image
• function

• makes our world more predictable by organising perceptions and beliefs
• we know how to act in a situation because we understand what is expected
• function

• people may have the same attitude to something but serves different function for people
• one attitude may serve all 4 or just 1

when related cognitions contradict each othereg people who wait 1 hour for restaurant praise average foodinconsistency between behaviour and attitudes gives us an uncomfortable state of heightened arousal

• Mere exposure
• Direct exposure
• Learning

• Being exposed to an object is enough to form an attitude
• ads most common factor
• too many exposures = effect not as great

factor affecting attitude formation

• having direct personal experience with object = form an attitude
• in particular attitudes formed from negative experiences
• more resistant to change
• generally more strongly held

factor affecting attitude formation

• association
• reward and punishment
• imitation

factor affecting attitude formation

association to ice-cream - neutral attitude - eat ice cream - form positive attitude towards ice-cream

factor affecting attitude formation

good grade in psych - reward - form pos attitude towards psych

factor affecting attitude formation

watching loved one boo for crows - form neg attitude towards crows

factor affecting attitude formation

• useful in showing various components are related
• assumes consistency between ABC