Chapter 6 Attitude And Social Cognition Solutions
Question - 1 : - Define attitude. Discuss the components of an attitude.
Answer - 1 : -
Attitudes are state of the mind, set of views or thoughts or ideas regarding some topic which have an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral). These are relatively stable predispositions. .
Various components of an attitude are as follows:
(i)The thought component is referred to as the cognitive aspect of attitude.
(ii)The emotional component is known as the affective aspect.
(iii)The tendency to act is called the behavioural (conative) aspect.
These three aspects have been referred to as the A-B-C (affective-behavioural-cognitive)components of attitude. Attitudes are themselves not a tendency to behave or act in certain ways. They are part of cognition, along with an emotional component which cannot be observed from outside.
Question - 2 : - Are attitudes learnt? Explain how?
Answer - 2 : -
By enlarge attitudes are learnt. They are formed on the basis of learning.
Formation of Attitudes: The term тАШattitude formationтАЩ refers to the movement we make from having no attitude toward an object to having a positive or negative attitude. There are some factors which contribute to the formation of attitudes:
1.Learning: The attitudes are acquired through learning. Many of our views are acquired in situations in which we interact with others or merely observe their behaviour.
-Classical Conditioning/Leaming by Association:
тАвA basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus.
тАвPlayer often develop a strong liking for the bat by which they made good runs. Many students start liking a subject if they like the teacher.
-Instrumental Conditioning/Leaming Altitude by Reward and Punishment: A basic form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or that permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened.
тАвIt applies to the situations when people learn attitudes which are systematically rewarded by significant others, such as parents, teachers or friends.
-Observational Learning: A basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behaviour or through observing others.
тАвChildren are keen observers and learn a whole lot of things from their parents and other family members.
тАвThey learn many attitudes about other ethnic groups, neighbours and idealize simply by observing the behaviours of adults.
2.Learning through Exposure to Information:
тАвMany attitudes are learnt in a social context without physical presence of others. Print media, electronic media, biographies of self-actualized people facilitate attitude formations.
3.Learning Attitudes through Group or Cultural Norms:
тАвNorms are unwritten rules of behaviour. Gradually these norms may become part of our social cognition, in the form of attitudes, e.g., offering money, sweets, fruits and flowers in a place of worship is a normative behaviour in various religions. People imitate such behaviour shown by others as socially approved and develop positive attitude towards it.
Question - 3 : - What are the factors that influence the formation of an attitude?
Answer - 3 : -
The following factors provide the context for the learning of attitude through various processes:
(i) Family and School Environment: parents and other family-members play a significant role in attitude formation. Learning of attitudes within the family and school usually takes place by association, through rewards and punishment and through modelling.
(ii)Reference Groups: Attitudes towards political, religious and social groups, occupations, national and other issues are often developed through reference groups. Reference groups indicate to an individual the norms regarding acceptable behaviour and ways of thinking. Various institutions, religion, culture and communities are form of reference groups.
(iii) Personal Experiences: Many attitudes are formed, not in the family environment or through reference groups, but through direct personal experiences which bring about a drastic change in our attitude towards people and our own life.
(iv) Media Related Influences: Technological advances have made audio-visual media and internet as very powerful sources for attitude formation. School textbooks also influence attitude formation. The media can be used to create consumerist attitude. The media can exert both good and bad influences on attitudes.
Question - 4 : - Is behaviour always a reflection of oneтАЩs attitude? Explain with a relevant example.
Answer - 4 : -
An individualтАЩs attitude may not always be exhibited through behaviour. Likewise oneтАЩs actual behaviour may be contrary to oneтАЩs attitude towards a particular topic. Psychologists have found that there would be consistency between attitude and behaviour when:
(i)The attitude is strong and occupies a central place in the attitude system.
(ii)The person is aware of his/her attitudes.
(iii)PersonтАЩs behaviour is not being watched or evaluated by others.
(iv)Person thinks that the behaviour would have a positive consequences.
Richard La Piere, an American social psychologist, conducted the following study. He asked a Chinese couple to travel across the United States, and stay in different hotels. Only once during these occasions they were refused service by one of the hotels. La Piere sent out questionnaires to managers of hotels and tourist homes in the same areas where the Chinese couple had travelled asking them if they would give accommodation to Chinese guest. A very large percentage said that they would not do so. This response showed a negative attitude towards the Chinese, which was inconsistent with the positive behaviour that was actually shown towards the travelling Chinese couple. Attitudes may not always predict actual pattern of oneтАЩs behaviour.
Question - 5 : - Highlight the importance of schemas in social cognition.
Answer - 5 : -
тАвSocial schemas (schemata) are mental structure.
тАвThey function as a framework to process social information. These schemas lead to emergence of prototypes.
тАвPrototypes are concepts which have most of the defining features of a concept, class or family.
тАвThese are best representatives of the population.
тАвVarious stereotypes emerge from these schemas. In other words stereotypes are category-based schemas.
Question - 6 : - Differentiate between prejudice and stereotype.
Answer - 6 : -
┬аPrejudices are negative attitude.
тАвThese are bias about others.
тАвPrejudices are baseless and false.
тАвIt refers to biased attitude formed about an individual or a group of people.
тАвThese are usually negative.
тАвIt has three components, i.e., A-B-C-
(a) Affective (Emotional i.e dislike or hatred).
(b)Behavioural (i.e., discrimination).
(c)Cognitive (Believes, i.e., stereotypes).
Stereotypes are cognitive component of prejudice. It is strongly influenced by the processing of incoming social information.
тАвThese are over-generalized beliefs, e.g., girls are talkative.
тАвStereotypes are category based schemas.
тАвThese may be positive or negative or neutral.
тАвStereotype has no emotional blending.
тАвFrom stereotypes, prejudices may emerge very easily.
тАвStereotypes are usually formed for the groups.
тАвStereotypes are pre conceived notions.
Question - 7 : - Prejudice can exist without discrimination and vice-versa. Comment.
Answer - 7 : -
Prejudices can exist without being shown in the form of discrimination. Similarly,
discrimination can be shown without prejudice.
тАвWherever prejudice and discrimination exist, conflicts are very likely to arise between groups within the same society.
тАвWe all witnessed many instances of discrimination, with and without prejudice, based on gender, religion, community, caste, physical handicap, and illnesses such as AIDS.
тАвMoreover, in many cases, discriminatory behaviour can be curbed by law. But, the cognitive and emotional components of prejudice are more difficult to change.
Question - 8 : - Describe the important factors that influence impression formation.
Answer - 8 : -
Impression formation is a process by which impression about others is converting into more or less induring cognitions or thoughts about them.In short, impression formation is a process through which we draw quick conclusion/ inferences regarding others.
Factors facilitating Impression Formation:
тАвNature of the phenomena (familiar or unfamiliar).
тАвPersonality traits of the perceiver.
тАвSocial schemas stored in the mind of perceiver.
тАвSituational factors.
The process of impression formation consists of the following three sub-processes:
тАвSelection: We take into account only some bits of information about the target person.
тАвOrganization: the selected information is combined in a systematic way.
тАвInference: We draw a conclusion about what kind of person the target is.
Some specific qualities, that influence impression formation, are:
тАвThe information presented first has a stronger effect than the information presented at the end. This is called the primacy effect.
тАвWe have a tendency to think that a target person who has one set of positive qualities must also be having other specific positives that are associated with first set. This is known as halo effect, e.g., if we think that a person is тАШtidyтАЩ then we are likely to think that this person must also be hard/working.
тАвWhatever information comes at the end may have a stronger influence on impression formation. This is known as the recency effect.
Question - 9 : - Explain how the attribution made by an тАШactorтАЩ would be different from that of an тАШobserverтАЩ.
Answer - 9 : -
┬аActor observer phenomena refers to the tendency to attribute our own behaviour mainly to situational causes but the behaviour of others mainly to internal (dispositional) cause.
A distinction is found between the attribution that a person makes for actorrole and observer-role.
Person makes attribution for his/her own positive and negative experiences, it is actor role and the attribution made for another personтАЩs positive and negative experience is observer-role.
For example, if we get good marks, we will attribute it to our own ability and hard work (actor-role, internal attribution for a positive experience). If we get bad marks, we will say we were unlucky or test was difficult (actor-role, external attribution for negative experience).
On the other hand, if our classmate gets good marks, we will attribute his/her success to good luck or easy test (observer-role, external attribution for positive experience). If same classmate gets bad marks, we are likely to feel that his/her failure was because of low ability or due to lack of effort (observer-role, internal attribution for a negative experience).
The reason for the difference between the actor and observer roles is that people want to have a nice image of themselves, as compared to others.
Question - 10 : - How does social facilitation take place?
Answer - 10 : -
тАв It is form of group influence.
тАвSocial facilitation refers to a concept that performance on specific task is influenced by the mere presence of others.
тАвNorman Triplett observed that individuals show better performance in presence of others, than when they are performing the same task alone.
Better performance in presence of others is because the person experiences arousal, which makes the person react in a more intense manner.
The arousal is because the person feels he or she is being evaluated. Cottrell called this idea evaluation apprehension. The person will be praised if performance is good (reward); is criticised if performance is bad (punishment). We wish to get praise and avoid criticism, therefore we try to perform well and avoid criticism.
As in case of complex task, the person may be afraid of making mistakes. And the fear of criticism or punishment is stronger.
If the others present are also performing same task, this is called a situation of co-action. When task is simple or a familiar one, performance is better under co-action than when the person is alone.
Task performing can be facilitated and improved or inhibited and worsened by the presence of others. If we are working together in a larger group, the less effort each member puts in. This phenomena is called social loafing, based on diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility can also be frequently seen in situations where people are expected to help.