The below information is derived from the textbook “Psychology Themes & Variations”.
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Key Learning Goals
The key learning goals for Chapter 13 are:
- Relate person perception processes and attributional bias to prejudice. Prejudice can be understood through how we perceive others and the biases inherent in our attributions. When we form impressions of others, these perceptions can be skewed by our pre-existing biases, which can then affect how we explain their behaviours. These biases in person perception and attribution can contribute to the development and maintenance of prejudiced attitudes.
- Relate attitude formation, intergroup competition, and ingroups versus outgroups to prejudice. Prejudice can arise from how attitudes are formed, often influenced by competition between groups (intergroup competition) and the tendency to favour one’s own group (ingroup) while negatively viewing others (outgroups). This dynamic can lead to biased evaluations and discriminatory behaviour towards members of the outgroup.
- Distinguish between internal and external attributions, and summarise Weiner’s theory of attributions for success and failure.
- Internal attribution explains behaviour based on the internal characteristics of the person performing it. For example, attributing a student’s good grades to their intelligence.
- External attribution explains behaviour based on the external situation. For example, attributing a student’s good grades to having an easy teacher.
- Weiner’s model assumes that people’s explanations for success and failure emphasise internal versus external causes and stable versus unstable causes.
- Identify some types of bias in patterns of attribution, including cultural variations.
- Attribution bias refers to errors in how people explain the behaviour of themselves and others. For example, the fundamental attribution error involves overemphasising internal factors when explaining other people’s behaviour. There can be cultural variations in attribution styles.
- Analyse the structure of attitudes and the link between attitudes and behaviour.
- An attitude is an evaluation of an object of thought. Attitudes have three components:
- Affective component: emotional feelings. This involves the feelings or emotions associated with an attitude object. It refers to the emotional reactions or sentiments one has towards something.
- Behavioural component: predispositions to act. This encompasses the tendency or predisposition to act in a certain way towards the attitude object and reflects how one is inclined to behave or react based on their attitude.
- Cognitive component: beliefs held. This comprises the beliefs, thoughts, and ideas people hold about the attitude object and includes what one knows or believes to be true about something, which can influence their attitude towards it.
- An attitude is an evaluation of an object of thought. Attitudes have three components:
- Distinguish between explicit and implicit attitudes, and explain how implicit attitudes are measured.
- Explicit attitudes are attitudes that one holds consciously and can readily describe. For example, explicitly stating a preference for one political party over another.
- Implicit attitudes are covert attitudes that are expressed in subtle automatic responses over which we have little conscious control. For example, having an unconscious bias against a particular group, which might be measured using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT requires participants to respond to stimuli as quickly and accurately as possible.
- Summarise how source, message, and receiver factors influence the process of persuasion. Persuasion is affected by who is delivering the message (source), what the message contains (message), and whom the message is targeting (receiver).
- Persuasion involves the communication of arguments and information intended to change another person’s attitudes.
- The mere exposure effect is the finding that repeated exposures to a stimulus promotes greater liking of the stimulus and may shed light on why repetition is an effective strategy in persuasion.
- Clarify various theories of attitude formation and change. There exist a variety of theories that aim to explain how our attitudes are initially formed and how they can be changed over time through various psychological processes.