week 10 social cognition

When Steph was introduced to Laura at the local gym, she thought she was arrogant and rude. She didn’t like her. The next day, when Laura walked over and nicely offered to help her with the barbells, Steph most likely ________ her impression of her because ________.

• Did not change; negative information carries more weight than positive information in shaping impressions

• Did not change; she is unreasonable and stubborn

• Changed; negative impressions are easily changed

• Changed; positive information carries more weight than negative information in shaping impressions

If everything else is equal, which of the following factors would least affect how attracted you are to someone?

• The person wears nicer clothes than you normally wear

• The person rides the same bus as you do every morning

• The person shares your taste in music and political views

• The person is about as physically attractive as you are

Israel believes that helping the house clean up after a party is the right thing to do. However, he really hates cleaning and the mess makes him feel disgusted so he usually does not help. In other words the cognitive component of Israel’s attitude towards cleaning is inconsistent with both the _______ and _______ components.

• Direct experience; affective

• Affective; behavioural

• Perceived control; behavioural

• Affective; emotional

While looking through a pile of applications, Rosa decided to interview only the applicants who had a college degree even though the job did not require one. Rosa is demonstrating her _____ Attitude towards college graduates and her refusal to read the non-university graduate applications could be considered ______

• Prejudicial; stereotypical

• Prejudicial; discriminatory

• Stereotypical; prejudicial

• Discriminatory; prejudicial

According to the elaboration likelihood model people are more likely to pay close attention to the content and logic of a persuasive message. If the ______ route to attitude change has been activated.

Holding attitude that are similar to those of your friends illustrates the importance of _______ in attitude formation

Research and eliminating ethnic prejudice has shown:

• Peo not work to change their behaviours when made aware of their negative beliefs

• Stereotypes are well learned and can be activated without conscious awareness

• Aversive racism is not as prevalent as previously believed

• I easy to prime prejudiced and unprejudiced people for negative stereotypes

You took one look at surge and thought he was bright caring and understanding. Your behaviour certainly brought out those qualities and search. How can this best be explained?

• Self-fulfilling prophecy

• Fundamental attribution error

• Confirmation bias

• Actor-observer effect

Elise believes that anyone who listens to boy bands (especially ‘N sync) is an idiot. One day however Elise realises the song she is dancing and singing to is the latest ‘N sync song. Elise now aware of the inconsistency between her attitude and her behaviour decides that listening to boy bands is not so bad after all. Elise’s attitude change is best explained by:

• Cognitive busyness

• Social comparison theory

• Self-perception theory

• Cognitive dissonance theory

At the beginning of the semester you registered for introductory psychology because it was a required course for your program not because you’re particularly interested in psychology. After studying psychology for many hours each week you stop one evening and think ‘I must really like psychology since I spend so much time on this course. I guess I’ll take another psychology source in the autumn.’ This is an example of:

• Unrealistic optimism

• Cognitive dissonance

• Fundamental attribution error

• Self-perception theory