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Attitudes - Coggle Diagram
Attitudes
Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination
Stereotypes: collection of beliefs held about people belonging to a particular group regardless of individual differences between members. Tend not to be based on empirical evidence as often perpetuated by biases such as confirmation bias.
In terms of the tri-component model of attitudes it is important to note that stereotyping is about beliefs which falls under the cognitive component. Thus, whilst stereotypes may lead to the development of attitudes alone they are only one component.
Prejudice: having an attitude towards members of a group based only on their membership in that group.
Origins of prejudice
Scapegoating: blaming a person or group for actions of others or for conditions not of their making.
Direct experience: prejudice can form through direct experience with members of the targeted group and is then generalised to other members of the group.
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Prejudiced personalities: Some personalities are considered to be more prejudiced. These include those in high authoritarianism and social dominance orientation (SDO). They tend to hold traditional and conservative values ad interpret the world in a simpler rather than complex way. Similarly they prefer hierarchical intergroup interactions over equal group interactions.
Discrimination: behaviour directed toward a group based only on their membership in that group. Also includes indirect discrimination where treatment o fall people in the same way disadvantages members of a particular group e.g. holding a meeting on top floor where colleague in wheelchair cannot attend.
Quickly: affective/attitude = prejudice, cognitive/thoughts/beliefs = stereotyping and behaviour = discrimination.
Sexism: occurs when there is prejudice and discrimination on the basis of sex or gender including ones own sex or gender. Often informed by gender roles with people penalised for acting against those expectations.
Ageism: when there is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of age. Can be against both older and younger ages.
Biases
Self-serving bias: Our tendency to overestimate the influence of innate factors on satisfying outcomes of our behaviours and of situational factors on unsatisfying outcomes of our behaviour.
Confirmation bias: Our tendency to search for, remember, interpret and favour information in a way that is consistent with pre-existing beliefs and predictions.
Case study: Ross, Amabile & Steinmetz (1977) 'Attribution theory'
Aim: to investigate why people consistently fail to make adequate allowance for external factors when making inferences about other people's performance.
PT 1 - Method: Participants were asked to take part in a 'quiz game'. For experimental condition 12 pairs were randomly assigned the role of either 'questioner' or 'contestant' where the 'questioner' was asked to construct 10 'challenging but not impossible' questions. Six pairs completed the control condition with pre-prepared questions. After quiz experimenter said aloud number of correct answers by 'contestant'. Participants then completed a questionnaire rating their own and their partners general knowledge.
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Results: In experimental condition 'questioners' rated themselves superior and 'contestants' rated themselves inferior. Ratings in the control condition were indistinguishable. females also asked harder questions and thus rated themselves higher.
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PT 2 - researchers re-enacted the female pairings from the quiz game. Each simulation was observed by one male and one female (n = 48). Observers believed they were randomly assigned. They then completed same post-quiz questionnaire instead rating their perceived knowledge of 'questionnaire' and 'contestant'.
Results: observers impressions of participants matched that of the first quiz (questioner = knowledgeable and contestant = inferior).
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ABC model: describes attitudes as being composed of affective, behavioural and cognitive components.
Implicit attitudes: involuntarily formed, unconscious and difficult to self-report.
Explicit attitudes: are deliberately formed, conscious and difficult to self-report.
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Case study: Bargh, Chen & Burrows 'Automaticity of social behaviour: Direct effects of trait constructed stereotype activation on action'
Aim: to determine whether social behaviour is also capable of automatic activation by the presence of features in the environment.
PT 1 - Method: 44 participants were primed with rude, polite or neutral words while completing a test. They were then instructed to meet the experimenter in a room down the hall who was seemingly talking to another participant (confederate) about next task, the time taken for the participant to interrupt the conversation was measured (up to 10 minutes).
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PT 2 - Method: 60 participants were primed with an elderly stereotype or neutral words while completing the same test as experiment 1. Participants were then dismissed. These participants showed a statistically slower walking time than the control condition.
Evaluation
Strengths: us of experimental methodology increasing reliability and validity of experiment, researchers used measures to control extraneous variables such as pre-trials, independent coders, random allocation and extensive debriefing.
Limitations: small sample size of primarily undergraduate students limiting population validity, use of laboratory (artificial environment) limits ecological validity.
PT 3 - Method: sought to activate an African American stereotype to elicit hostile behaviour. To do so they used a computer program that showed flashes of subliminal pictures of either a young African American male face or Caucasian male face, while participants completed an odd or even number recognition task. On the 130th trial, computer alerted participants of a 'data saving failure' requiring them to complete the test again. Facial responses and reactions were recorded by a hidden camera. two coders blind to the experiment rated participants responses on a 10-point hostility rating scale.
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