Please read the following guildine , you have to write 1000-1200 words This is a social psychology homework, you are required to write a reflective paper on how you can apply the psychological concept

A. Affect – our emotions and affect towards the stimulus B. Behavior – how we react to the stimulus C. Cognition – our thoughts about the stimulus, including facts, knowledge and beliefs 4 ABC Model 5 Behavior Cognition (thought) Affect Attitudes - Affect o The positive and negative feelings related to the stimulus o E.g. Jay thinks people need to be serious about hygiene • Positive affect – safety, cautious, perseverance • Negative affect – stress, anxiety 6 Attitudes - Behavior o When the attitudes are strong and accessible o E.g. Jay thinks people need to be serious about hygiene, so… 7 Attitudes - Cognitions o Explicit attitude • Consciously accessible • Controllable • Reportable o Implicit attitude • Unconscious associations between objects and evaluative responses • Uncontrollable • Implicit Association Test (IAT) 8 9 o IAT measures one’s associations with various social objects more or less readily with positive or negative descriptive words • E.g. People respond more quickly when white faces are paired with positive words and vice versa • Assess commonly known connections ONLY? • Susceptible to deliberate fakin g Attitude Formation o Social learning – the process that we acquire our views from the social environment, e.g. by interaction or observation o Social learning occurs in three processes: A. Classical conditioning (association ) B. Instrumental/operant conditioning (rewards) C. Observational learning 10 A. Classical conditioning o A basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus 11 12 13 14 B. Operant conditioning o A basic form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or which permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened • Positive outcomes – the attitudes are strengthened and are likely to repeat • Negative outcomes - the attitudes are weakened and the likelihood of being expressed is reduced 15 16 17 C. Observational learning • A basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior as a result of observing others • Social comparison to reference groups 18 19 Modelling & Imitatio n C. Observational learning o Social comparisons • The process we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is, or is not, correct o Reference groups • Those people we identify • Whose opinions we value • Similarity 20 Attitudes influence behavior o Consistency between attitudes and behavior depends on… 1. The situational pressures (strong vs weak) 2. Strength of attitudes – accessibility a. Extremity (how strong the emotional reaction is; vested interest) b. Certainty (correctness - consensus; clarity - repeated expression) c. Personal experience (the extent of relation to personal experience) 21 1. Situational pressures o Depends on how “public” is the action o Potential social consequences o Pluralistic ignorance (incorrect assumption of being exceptional) 22 23 1. Situational pressures o We sometimes have completely different attitudes towards the same object in different situations 24 2. Strength of attitudes o Attitudes based on moral values give intense emotions and strongly predict behavior 25 2a. Attitude extremity o The extent to which an individual feels strongly about an issue • Vested interest ▪ the extent to which the attitude is relevant to the concerns of the individual who holds it ▪ Affect judgements and behaviors in the immediate contexts 26 27 2b. Attitude certainty o Depends on • Attitude clarity – clear about one’s attitude ▪ Repeated report/expression facilitates clarity hence certainty ▪ Attitude correctness – feeling one’s attitude is the valid or the proper one to hold ▪ Petrocelli (2007) studied the consensus of bring students’ ID cards ▪ Group consensus acts as justification for the attitude o P redict behavior in public and in private 28 2c. Role of personal experience • Attitudes supported by personal relevance are more likely to be elaborated on in terms of supporting arguments, and make them resistant to change 29 Attitude - behavior consistency 30 Attitudes guide behavior o Theory of reasoned action ( Fishbein & Ajzen , 1975; 1980) • Rational process • behavioral options and norms are considered • consequences or outcomes are evaluated • decision is reached to act or not to act • decision reflected in behavioral intentions → overt behavior 31 Attitudes guide behavior o Theory of planned behavior ( Ajzen , 1991) • An extension of the theory of reasoned action • The individuals consider their ability to perform the behavior ( Perceived behavioral control) • Implementation plan strengthens the intention - behavior relationship 32 Attitudes guide behavior 33 THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR Attitude towards the behavior (e.g. regular exercise is good for my healt h.) Subjective norms (e.g.

My friend seems to be jogging and going to the gym.) Perceived control (e.g. I could probably do this.) Behavior intention (e.g. I’m going to start my exercise plan for good health) Behavior - Attitude 1. Cognitive dissonance 2. Self - presentation (behavior) • Impression management • Expression of attitudes • E.g. Construct and develop an online self 3. Self - perception – how one thinks and feels about self 35 Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957) o An internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency between two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior • unpleasant feeling with inconsistency 36 Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957) o Festinger and Carlsmith’s (1959) experiment • Performing a dull task for an hour: turning wooden knobs • Manipulation ▪ $1, $20 or no lie • Ask the participants to tell others about the task • Results ? Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957) 38 Less - leads - to - more effect Less reasons or rewards for an action often leads to greater attitude change Cognitive Dissonance ( Festinger, 1957) o Insufficient Justification • The less incentive one has for performing a counter - attitudinal behavior, the more dissonance is experienced • Needs to reduce the dissonance internally • VS Overjustification effect ▪ the effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do ▪ the reward rather than intrinsic interest becomes the motivation for performing the task 40 Cognitive Dissonance ( Festinger, 1957) o Factors increasing dissonance for performing counter - attitudinal behavior 1. Small threat of punishment • Greater threat produces less dissonance and less attitude change 2. Small amount of reward 3. Behavior is freely chosen 4. There is an irrevocable commitment • Dickerson et al. (1992) study on water conservation • Half of the participants were induced to make public commitment to others, urging them to take shorter showers o Factors increasing dissonance for performing counter - attitudinal behavior 5. Negative consequences were foreseeable 6. Effort is spent with aversive consequences 7. Person feels responsible for consequences ( internal attribution) Cognitive Dissonance ( Festinger, 1957) R educe dissonance o Change the behavior to more consistent to our attitude • E.g. smoking fathers quit smoking o Acquiring new information to justify our behavior (change/add to original attitude) • E.g. finding evidence that smoking away from the children would do no harm o Trivialization: Deciding that the dissonance is not important • Smoking in front of children doesn’t really matter 43 Indirect methods to reduce dissonance o When the attitude - behavior discrepancy involves important attitudes or self - beliefs (trivialization isn’t feasible) o To restore positive self - evaluations • Self - affirmation – restoring positive self - evaluations that are threatened by the dissonance • E.g. Smoking father does not focus on his smoking behavior; but a responsible father as he earns the living 44 Dissonance as a tool for beneficial changes in behavior o Hypocrisy – publicly advocating some attitudes or behavior and then acting in a way that is inconsistent with these attitudes or behavior • sufficiently intense feelings that actions need to be taken to reduce dissonance directly • To change behavior effectively, the person must… a. Publicly advocate the desired behavior b. Induced to think about their behavioral failures in the past c. Given access to means to reduce dissonance 45 Dissonance as a tool for beneficial changes in behavior • Stone , Wiegand, Cooper and Aronson (1997) • Participants make a video advocating the use of condoms (safe sex) • P articipants state the reasons for not using condoms in the past (personal reasons) or reasons why people in general fail to use condoms (normative reasons) • The dissonance is highest in the ‘personal reasons’ group ▪ Participants who provided personal reasons would buy condoms and vice versa 46 Self - perception theory o For 10 years the Cognitive dissonance theory was the only theoretical interpretation of effects of behaviors on attitude change o Bem’s self - perception theory (1972) • When we are unsure of our attitudes, we infer our attitudes from our behavior and the circumstances in which this behavior occurs Reflection s • Are your behaviors consistent with your attitudes? • What are the reasons behind inconsistencies between your attitudes and behaviors? • Are you aware of your cognitive dissonances and h ow do you resolve them? 48