Module 19 Notes – Social Cognition
•Social cognition - focuses on the ways in which people ______about other people and how those thoughts influence ______.
•One area concerns formation and influence of attitudes on the behavior and ______of others.
Attitudes
•Attitude - a ______to respond positively or negatively toward a certain person, object, idea, or situation.
•The three components of an attitude are the ______(emotional) component, the behavioral component, and the ______component.
•General attitude - person holds attitude about something without ______that attitude in his or her behavior and see no ______.
•Specific attitude - attitude that something without reflecting that attitude in his or her behavior and see no contradiction.
•Attitudes are often ______predictors of behavior unless the attitude is very ______or very strong.
Formation of Attitudes
•______contact with the person, situation, object, or idea.
•Direct ______from parents or others.
•______with other people who hold a certain attitude.
•Watching the actions and ______of others to ideas, people, objects, and situations.
Cognitive Dissonance
•Cognitive dissonance - sense of discomfort or ______that occurs when a person's behavior does not correspond to that person's ______.
•Lessened by changing the conflicting behavior, changing the conflicting ______, or forming a new attitude to ______the behavior.
Persuasion
•Persuasion - the process by which one person tries to ______the belief, opinion, position, or course of action of another person through ______, pleading, or explanation.
•Key elements in persuasion are the ______of the message, the message itself, and the target ______.
•Central-route processing - type of information processing that involves attending to the content of the message ______.
•Peripheral-route processing - type of information processing that involves attending to factors not involved in the message, such as the ______of the source of the message, the length of the message, and other ______factors.
Attributions
•Attribution - the process of explaining one's own ______and the behavior of others.
•Attribution theory - the theory of how people make ______.
•Attribution theory – (continued)
•Situational cause - cause of behavior attributed to ______factors, such as delays, the action of others, or some other aspect of the situation.
•Dispositional cause - cause of behavior attributed to internal factors such as ______or character.
•Fundamental attribution error (actor-observer bias) - the tendency to ______the influence of internal factors in determining behavior while underestimating situational factors.