Term
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Definition
The evaluation of an object in a positive or negative fashion. Includes three elements:
- affect= emotion; like or dislike of an object
- cognition= thoughts that typically reinforce the feelings
- behavior assoc w/that attitude |
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Term
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Definition
| a numerical scale used to assess people's attitudes; it includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on each extreme |
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Term
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Definition
the time it takes an indiv to respond to a stim, such as an attitude question
- is supposed to measure the accessibility of the attitude in the indiv's mind |
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Term
| Implicit attitude measures |
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Definition
| indirect measures of attitudes that do not involve self-report |
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Term
| Cognitive consistency theories |
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Definition
| theories that attempt to explain how people's attitudes are brought in line with their actions; incl. balance theory and cognitive dissonance theory |
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Term
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Definition
| a theory holding that ppl try to maintain balance among their beliefs, cognitions, and sentiments |
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Term
| Cognitive dissonance theory |
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Definition
| a theory that maintains that inconsistencies among ppl's thots, sentiments, and actions create an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency |
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Term
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Definition
| ppl's tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time, effort or money they have devoted to something that has turned out to be unpleasant or disappointing |
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Term
| Induced (forced) compliance |
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Definition
| subtly compelling indivs to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, or values in order to elicit dissonance --> and therefore a change in their original attitudes or values |
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Term
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Definition
a response to dissonance arising from challenges or threats to ppl's sense of themselves as rational, competent or moral where ppl take stock of their other good qualities and core values
- serves to bolster identity and self-esteem |
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Term
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Definition
| a theory that ppl come to know their own attitudes by looking at their behavior and the context in which it occurred and inferring what their attitude must be |
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Term
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Definition
| the tendency to devalue (or lose intrinsic motivation for) activities that we perform in order to receive a reward |
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Term
| System justification theory |
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Definition
| the theory that ppl are motivated to see the existing political and social status quo as desirable, fair and legitimate |
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Term
| Terror management theory (TMT) |
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Definition
| the theory that ppl deal with the potentially paralyzing anxiety that comes with the knowledge of the inevitability of death by striving for symbolic immortality thru the preservation of a valued worldview and the conviction that they have lived up to its values and prescriptions |
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