CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 6 Attitude and Social Cognition Notes

FACTS THAT MATTER

Social Psychology is a branch of Psychology which investigates how the behaviour of individuals is affected by others and the social environment.
We form attitudes or develop ways of thinking about specific topics and people. We form impressions about persons we meet. We are also interested in why people behave in the ways they do-attribution.
The combination of social processes like attitude, impression formation, attribution and pro social behaviour is called social cognition.
Social cognition refers to the mental activities related to the gathering and interpretation of information about the social world.
Social cognition of all the individuals is affected by the social environment (Societal conditions in the society peace, harmony, trust or aggression, frustration, disharmony and distrust towards individuals, groups, peoples, relationship and social issues.)
Because of social influences, people form attitudes, or ways of thinking about specific topics and people. Impression formation is when we make inferences about personal qualities of people we meet. Attribution is when we assign causes to the behaviour shown in specific social situation.

Attitude:
• Attitude is a state of the mind, a set of views or thoughts, regarding some topic (called the ‘attitude object’), which have an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral quality).
• The thought component is referred to as the cognitive aspect, the emotional component is known as the affective aspect, and the tendency to act is called the behavioural
(or conative) aspect. A-B-C components (Affective-Behavioural-Cognitive components) of attitude.
Beliefs refer to the cognitive component of attitudes, and form the ground on which attitudes stand, such as belief in God, or belief in democracy as a political ideology.
Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a ‘should’ or ‘ought’ aspect, such as moral or ethical values. One example of a value is hard work or honesty. Values are formed when a particular belief or attitude becomes an inseparable part of the person’s outlook on life.

Features of Attitude:
(i) Valence (positivity or negativity).
(ii) Extremeness indicates how positive or negative an attitude is.
(iii) Simplicity or Complexity (multiplexity) refers to how many attitudes there are within a broader attitude. An attitude system is said to be ‘simple’ if it contains only one or a few attitudes and ‘complex’ if it is made up of many attitudes.
(iv) Centrality: This refers to the role of a particular attitudes in the system much more than non-central (or peripheral) attitudes would.

Attitude Formation:
In general, attitudes are learned through one’s own experiences, and through interaction 0with others.

Process of Attitude Formation:
• Association, e.g., a positive attitude towards a subject is learned through the positive association between a teacher and a student.
• Reward or punishment increases/decreases the further development of that attitude.
• Modelling observing others being rewarded or punished for expressing thoughts, or showing behaviour of a particular kind towards the attitude object.
• Group or Cultural norms through the norms of our group or culture which may become part of our social cognition, in the form of attitude.
• Exposure to information, e.g., positive and negative attitudes are formed through the
media.

Factors that Influence Attitude Formation
(i) Family and School Environment particularly in the early years of life.
(ii) Reference Groups indicate the norms regarding acceptable behaviour/ways of thinking, reflect learning of attitudes through cultural norms, noticeable during beginning of adolescence.
(iii) Personal Experiences (direct).
(iv) Media-related Influences. Technological advances have made audio-visual media,school level textbook and the Internet very powerful sources of information

Attitude Change:
Attitudes that are still in the formative stage, and are more like opinions, are much more likely to change compared to attitude that have become firmly established, and have become a part of the individual’s values.

1. Balance or P-O-X triangle (Fritz Heider) represents the relationships between three aspects or components of attitude.
• P is the person whose attitude is being studied,
• O is another person
• X is the topic towards which the attitude is being studied (attitude object). It is also possible that all three are persons.
The basic idea is that an attitude changes if there is a state of imbalance between the P-O attitude, O-X attitude, and P-X attitude. This is because imbalance is logically uncomfortable.
Imbalance is found when all three sides are negative, or two sides are positive, and one side is negative. Balance is found when all three sides are positive or two sides are negative, and one side is positive.

2. Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger) emphasizes on the cognitive component. Cognitive components of an attitude must be ‘constant’ (opposite of ‘dissonant’), i.e., they should be logically in line with each other. If an individual finds that two cognitions in an attitude dissonant, then one of them will be changed in the direction of consonance. Both balance and cognitive dissonance are examples of cognitive consistency which means that two components or elements of the attitude, or attitude system, must be in the same direction. If this does not happen, then the person experiences a kind of mental discomfort, i.e. the sense that ‘something is not quite right’ in the attitude system.

3. The Two-Step Concept (S.M. Mohsin): According to him, attitude change takes place in the form of two steps:
(i) The target of change (person whose attitude is to be changed) identifies with the source (person through whose influence the attitude is to be changed). Identification means that the target and the source have a mutual regard and attraction.
(ii) The source himself/herself shows an attitude change, by actually changing him/her behaviour towards the attitude object. Observing the source’s changed attitude and behaviour, the target also shows an attitude change through behaviour. This is a kind of imitation or observational learning.

Factors that Influence Attitude Change:

• Characteristics of the Existing Attitude: All four properties of attitudes mentioned earlier, namely, valence (positively or negatively), extremeness, simplicity or complexity (multiplexity), and centrality or significance of the attitude, determine attitude, determine attitude change. Positive, less extreme, peripheral (less significant) and simpler attitudes are easier to change.
In addition, one must also consider the direction and extent of attitude change. Congruent (same direction of the existing attitude) or incongruent (direction opposite). Moreover, an
attitude may change in the direction of the information that is presented, or in a direction opposite to that of the information presented.
• Source Characteristics: Source credibility and attractiveness. Attitudes are more likely to change when the message comes from a highly credible source rather than from a lowcredible source.
• Message Characteristics: Attitudes will change when the amount of information that is given about the topic is just enough, neither too much nor too little. Whether the message contains a rational or an emotional appeal, also makes a difference. The motives activated by the message and the mode of spreading the message (face-to-face transmission is more effective than indirect transmission).
• Target Characteristics: Qualities of the target, such as persuasibility (open and flexible personality), strong prejudices, self-esteem, more willing because they base their attitude on more information and thinking.

Attitude-Behaviour Relationship:
Psychologists have found that there would be consistency between attitudes and behaviour when—
(i) the attitude is strong and occupies a central place in the attitude system.
(ii) the person is aware of his/her attitude.
(iii) there is very little or no external pressure for the person to behave in a particular way.

Prejudice and Discrimination:
Prejudices are usually negative attitudes against a particular group, and in many cases, may be based on stereotypes (the cognitive component) about the specific group. A stereotype is a cluster of ideas regarding the characteristics of a specific group. The cognitive component of prejudice is frequently accompanied by dislike or hatred, the affective components of prejudice are more difficult to change.

Sources of Prejudice:

• Learning: Prejudice can also be learned through association, reward and punishment,observing others, group or cultural norms and exposure to information that encourages prejudice. The family, reference groups, personal experiences and the media may play a role in the learning of prejudices. People who learn prejudiced attitudes may develop a ‘prejudiced personality’.

• A strong Social Identity and in Group Bias: Individual who have a strong sense of social identity and have a very positive attitudes towards their own group boost this attitude by holding negative attitudes towards other groups.

• Scapegoating: This is a phenomenon by which the majority group places the blame on minority group for its own social, economic or political problems. The minority is too weak or too small in number to defend itself against such accusation.
• Kernel of Truth Concept: Sometimes people may continue to hold stereotypes because they think that there must be some truth, or ‘Kernel of truth’ in which everyone says about the other group.

• Self-fulfilling Prophecy: The group that is the target of prejudice is itself responsible for continuing the prejudice by behaving in ways that justify the prejudice or confirm the negative expectation.

Strategies for Handling Prejudice
The strategies for handling prejudice would be effective if they aim at:
(a) minimizing opportunities for learning prejudices,
(b) changing such attitudes,
(c) de-emphasising a narrow social identity based on the in group, and
(d) discouraging the tendency towards self-fulfilling prophecy among the victims of prejudice.
These goals can be accomplished through:
• Education and information dissemination, for correcting stereotypes related to specific target groups, and tackling the problem of a strong in group bias.
• Increasing intergroup contact that allows for direct communication, removal of mistrust between the groups, and discovery context, there is close interaction and they are not different in power or status.
• Highlighting individual identity rather than group identity, thus weakening the importance of group (both in-group and out-group) as a basis of evaluating the other person.
Social Cognition refers to all those psychological processes that deal with the gathering and processing of information related to social objects (processes that help in understanding, explaining and interpreting social behaviour). Social cognition is guided by mental units called schemata.

SCHEMAS and Stereotypes

A schema is defined as a mental structure that provides a framework, set of rules or guidelines for processing information about any object. Schemata (or ‘schemas’) are the basic
units stored in our memory, and function as shorthand ways of processing information, thus reducing the time and mental effort required in cognition.
Schemata that function in the form of categories are called prototypes, which are the entire set of schemata or qualities that help us to define an object completely. In social cognition, category-based schemata, that are related to groups of people, are called stereotypes (over generalized, are not directly verified). The inferences you have drawn are not the result of your logical thinking or direct experience, but are based on pre-conceived ideas about a particular group.
Impression Formation and Attribution:
The process of coming to know a person can be broadly divided into two parts—
(a) Impression formation, and (b) Attribution. The person who forms the impression is called perceiver. (Response to information about the qualities of the target, organizes this information, and draws inferences about the target). The individual about whom the impression
is formed is called the target.

Impression Formation and attribution are influenced by:
• the nature of information available to the perceiver,
• social schemats in the perceiver (including stereotypes),
• personality characteristics of the perceiver, and
• situational factors.

Impression Formation
The process of impression formation consists of the following three sub-processes:
(a) Selection: we take into account only some bits of information about the target person
(b) Organisation: the selected information is combined in a systematic way
(c) Inference: we draw a conclusion about what kind of person the target is
• The order or sequence in which information is presented affects the kind of impression formed.
• Primacy effect, the information presented first has a stronger effect than the information presented at the end. In Recency effect, the perceiver may be asked to pay attention to all the information whatever information comes at the end may have a stronger influence.
• Halo effect, a tendency to think that a target person who has one set of positive qualities must also be having other specific positive qualities that are associated with the first set.

Attribution of Causality:
• When we assign a cause to a person’s behaviour, we can broadly classify the cause as being internal (something within the person) or external (something outside the person). Bernard Weiner suggested classification using stable and unstable factors. Stable factors are those causes that do not change with the time, while unstable factors are those that do.
• Fundamental Attribution Error: There is an overall tendency for people to give greater weightage to internal or dispositional factors, than to external or situational factors.
Indians tend to make more external (situational) attributions than Americans do.
• There is a difference between the attribution made for success, and the attribution made for failure. In general, people attribute success to internal factors, such as their ability or hard work. They attribute failure to external factors, such as bad luck, the difficulty of the task, and so on.
• Actor-Observer Effect–A distinction is also found between the attribution that a person makes for his/her own positive and negative experiences (actor-role), and the attribution made for another person’s positive and negative experiences (observer-role, external).

Behaviour in the Presence of Others:
In 1897, Norman Triplett observed that individuals sow better performance in the presence of others, than when they are performing the same task alone because of the eagerness to get praise or reward is stronger.

Social Facilitation:
(i) Zajone performance on specific tasks is influenced by the mere presence of others because the person experience arousal, which makes the person react in a more intense manner.
(ii) Evaluation apprehension (Cottrell): The person will be praised if the performance is good (reward), or criticized if it is bad (punishment). We wish to get praise and avoid criticism, therefore we try to perform well and avoid mistakes.
(iii) Nature of the task in the case a simple or familiar task, the person is sure of performing well and the eagerness to get praise or reward is stronger. In case of complex or new task, the person may be afraid of making mistakes. The fear of criticism or punishment is stronger. So the individual performs worse in the presence of others than he/she does when alone.
(iv) If the others are also performing the same task, this is called a situation of co-action.
In this situation, there is social comparison and competition.
Social Loafing: The larger the group, the less effort each member puts in. This phenomenon is based on diffusion of responsibility.
Pro-social Behaviour: Pro-social behaviour is very similar to ‘altruism’, which means doing something for or thinking about the welfare of others without any self-interest.

Characteristics:
• Aim to benefit or do good to another person or other person,
• Be done without expecting anything in return,
• Be done willingly by the person, and not because of any kind of pressure, and
• Involve some difficulty or ‘cost’ to the person giving help.

Factors influencing Pro-social Behaviour:
• Based on an inborn, natural tendency in human beings to help other members of their own species.
• Influenced by Learning: Individual who are brought up in a family environment that sets examples of helping others, praises helpfulness.
• Cultural Factors: Some cultures actively encourage people to help the needy and distressed. In cultures that encourage independence, individual will show less pro-social behaviour, because people are expected to take care of themselves.
• When the situation activates certain social norms that require helping others.
(a) Social responsibility: We should help anyone who needs help, without considering other factors.-
(b) Reciprocity: We should help those who have helped us in the past.
(c) Equity: We should help others whenever we find that it is fair to do so.
• Expected reactions of the person who is being helped. For example, people might be unwilling to give money to a needy person because they feel that the person might feel insulted.
• Individuals who have a high level of empathy, that is, the capacity to feel the distress of the person who is to be helped, such as Baba Saheb Amte and Mother Teresa. Pro-social behaviour is also more likely in situations that arouse empathy, such as the picture of starving children in a famine.
• Factors such as a bad mood, being busy with one’s own problems, or feeling that the person to be helped is responsible for his/her own situation (that is, when an internal attribution is made for the need state of the other person).
• When the number of bystanders is more than one. This phenomenon is called diffusion of responsibility. On the other hand, if there is only bystander, this person is more likely to take the responsibility and actually help the victim.

WORDS THAT MATTER

• Actor-observer Effect: The tendency to make different attributions for one’s own experience or behaviour in case of another person (observer).
• Arbitration: Explaining our own or others behaviour by pointing out the causes.
• Arousal: The tension experienced at the thought of others being present and/or performance being evaluated.
• Attitudes: States of the mind, thoughts or ideas regarding a topic, containing a cognitive, affective and behavioural components.
• Attitude Object: The target of an attitude.
• Attribution: Explaining our own or others’ behaviour by pointing out the cause(s).
• Balance: The state of an attitude system in which the attitudes between a person (P) and another individual (O), the person (P) and the attitude object (X), and between the other individual (O) and the attitude object (X) are in the same direction, or logically consistent with each other.
• Beliefs: The cognitive component of the thoughts or ideas regarding a topic.
• Centrality of Attitude: The extent to which a specific attitude affects the entire attitude system.
• Cooperation: Groups work together to achieve shared goals, we refer to it as cooperations.
• Conflict: A state of disturbance or tension resulting from opposing motives, drives, needs or goals.
• Co-action: A situation in which many people are performing the same task individually in the presence of others.
• Cognitive Consistency: A state in which thoughts or ideas are logically in line with each other.
• Cognitive Dissonance: The state of an attitude system in which two cognitive elements are logically contradictory, or inconsistent.
• Congruent Attitude Change: Attitude change in the same direction as that of the existing attitude.
• Congruent altitude change: Altitude change in the same direction as that of the existing attitude.
• Discrimination: Behaviour that shows a distinction between two or more persons, often on the basis of person’s or persons membership of a particular group.
• Diffusion of Responsibility: The thought that when others are present, one person alone will not be held responsible for doing or not doing something; other members are also responsible and will therefore do the task.
• Empathy: Reacting to another’s feeling with an emotional response that is similar to the others feelings.
• Extremeness of attitude: It refers to how far an attitude is form the neutral point.
• Evaluation Apprehension: The fear of being evaluated negatively by others who are present.
• Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to attribute internal causes more than external cause for behaviour.
• Halo Effect: The tendency to link positive qualities with other positive qualities about which information is not available.
• Identity: The distinguishing character of the individual, who each of us is; what our roles are, and what we are capable of.
• Identification: The process of feeling one with another person, usually resulting from liking or extreme regard for the other person.
• Intergroup conflict: A process in which either an individual or a group perceives that others have opposing interest and both try to contradict each other.
• Kernel of Truth: The small element of truth that may be perceived in over-generalised clusters of beliefs about groups (stereotypes).
• Negotiation: Reciprocal communications so as to reach an agreement in situation in which there is a conflict.
• Norms: Standards of test performance that permit the comparison of one person’s score on the test to the scores of others who have taken the same test.
• Persuasibility: The degree to which people can be made to change their attitudes.
• Prejudice: A prejudgment, usually a negative attitude that is unverified, and is often towards a group.
• Primary Effect: The stronger role of information that comes first.
• Pro-social Behaviour: Behaviour that does good to another person, is done without any pressure from outside, and without any exception of a reward or return.
• Prototype: A schema in the form of a category representing all the possible qualities of an object or a person.
• Recency Effect: The stronger role of information that comes last.
• Scapegoating: Placing the blame on a group for something that has gone wrong, because the blamed group cannot defend itself.
• Schema: A mental structure that guides social (and other) cognition.
• Self-fulfilling Prophecy: Behaving in a way that confirms the prediction others make.
• Simplicity or Complexity (Multiplexity) of Attitude: Whether the whole attitude consists of a single or very few sub-attitudes (simple), or contains many sub-attitudes (multiplex).
• Social Loafing: In a group, each additional individual puts in less effort, thinking that others will be putting in their effort.
• Social Cognition: The process through which we notice, interpret, remember, and later use social information. It helps in making sense of other people and ourselves.
• Social Facilitation: The tendency for people’s performance to improve in the presence of others, or an audience.
• Social facilitations: The tendency for peoples performance to improve in the presence of others, or an audience.
• Super ordinate goals: A mutually beneficial to both parties, hence both groups worl cooperatively.
• Stereotype: An over-generalised and unverified prototype about a particular group.
• Valence of Attitude: Whether an attitude is positive or negative.
• Values: Enduring beliefs about ideal modes of behaviour or end-state of existence.
Altitudes that have a strong evaluative and ought aspect.

Question. Define attitude. Discuss the components of an attitude.
Answer. Attitudes are state of the mind, set of views or thoughts or ideas regarding some topic which have an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral). These are relatively stable predispositions.

Various components of an attitude are as follows:
(i) The thought component is referred to as the cognitive aspect of attitude.
(ii) The emotional component is known as the affective aspect.
(iii) The tendency to act is called the behavioural (conative) aspect.
These three aspects have been referred to as the A-B-C (affective-behavioural-cognitive) components of attitude. Attitudes are themselves not a tendency to behave or act in certain ways. They are part of cognition, along with an emotional component which cannot be observed from outside.

Question. Are attitudes learnt? Explain how?
Answer. By enlarge attitudes are learnt. They are formed on the basis of learning.
Formation of Attitudes: The term ‘attitude formation’ refers to the movement we make from having no attitude toward an object to having a positive or negative attitude.
There are some factors which contribute to the formation of attitudes:

1. Learning: The attitudes are acquired through learning. Many of our views are acquired in situations in which we interact with others or merely observe their behaviour.
– Classical Conditioning/Learning by Association:
• A basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus.
• Player often develop a strong liking for the bat by which they made good runs.
Many students start liking a subject if they like the teacher.
– Instrumental Conditioning/Learning Altitude by Reward and

Punishment: A basic form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or that permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened.
• It applies to the situations when people learn attitudes which are systematically rewarded by significant others, such as parents, teachers or friends.
– Observational Learning: A basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behaviour or through observing others.
• Children are keen observers and learn a whole lot of things from their parents and other family members.
• They learn many attitudes about other ethnic groups, neighbours and idealize simply by observing the behaviours of adults.

2. Learning through Exposure to Information:
• Many attitudes are learnt in a social context without physical presence of others. Print media, electronic media, biographies of self-actualized people facilitate attitude formations.

3. Learning Attitudes through Group or Cultural Norms:
• Norms are unwritten rules of behaviour. Gradually these norms may become part of our social cognition, in the form of attitudes. e.g., offering money, sweets, fruits and flowers in a place of worship is a normative behaviour in various religions. People imitate such behaviour shown by others as socially approved and develop positive attitude towards it.

Question. What are the factors that influence the formation of an attitude?
Answer. The following factors provide the context for the learning of attitude through various processes:
(i) Family and School Environment: parents and other family-members play a significant role in attitude formation. Learning of attitudes within the family and school usually takes place by association, through rewards and punishment and through modelling.
(ii) Reference Groups: Attitudes towards political, religious and social groups, occupations, national and other issues are often developed through reference groups. Reference groups indicate to an individual the norms regarding acceptable behaviour and ways of thinking. Various institutions, religion, culture and communities are form of reference groups.
(iii) Personal Experiences: Many attitudes are formed, not in the family environment or through reference groups, but through direct personal experiences which bring about a drastic change in our attitude towards people and our own life.
(iv) Media Related Influences: Technological advances have made audio-visual media and internet as very powerful sources for attitude formation. School textbooks also influence attitude formation. The media can be used to create consumerist attitude.
The media can exert both good and bad influences on attitudes.

Question. Is behaviour always a reflection of one’s attitude? Explain with a relevant example.
Answer. An individual’s attitude may not always be exhibited through behaviour. Likewise one’s actual behaviour may be contrary to one’s attitude towards a particular topic. Psychologists have found that there would be consistency between attitude and behaviour when:
(i) The attitude is strong and occupies a central place in the attitude system.
(ii) The person is aware of his/her attitudes.
(iii) Person’s behaviour is not being watched or evaluated by others.
(iv) Person thinks that the behaviour would have a positive consequences.
Richard La Piere, an American social psychologist, conducted the following study. He asked a Chinese couple to travel across the United States, and stay in different hotels. Only once during these occasions they were refused service by one of the hotels. La Piere sent out questionnaires to managers of hotels and tourist homes in the same areas where the Chinese couple had travelled asking them if they would give accommodation to Chinese guest. A very large percentage said that they would not do so. This response showed a negative attitude towards the Chinese, which was inconsistent with the positive behaviour that was actually shown towards the travelling Chinese couple. Attitudes may not always predict actual pattern of one’s behaviour.

Question. Highlight the importance of schemas in social cognition.
Answer.
• Social schemas (schemata) are mental structure.
• They function as a framework to process social information. These schemas lead to emergence of prototypes.
• Prototypes are concepts which have most of the defining features of a concept, class or family.
• These are best representatives of the population.
• Various stereotypes emerge from these schemas. In other words stereotypes are category-based schemas.

Question. Differentiate between prejudice and stereotype.
Answer. Prejudices are negative attitude.
• These are bias about others.
• Prejudices are baseless and false.
• It refers to biased attitude formed about an individual or a group of people.
• These are usually negative.
• It has three components, i.e., A-B-C-

(a) Affective (Emotional i.e dislike or hatred).
(b) Behavioural (i.e., discrimination).
(c) Cognitive (Believes, i.e., stereotypes).

Stereotypes are cognitive component of prejudice. It is strongly influenced by the processing of incoming social information.
• These are over-generalized beliefs. e.g., girls are talkative.
• Stereotypes are category based schemas.
• These may be positive or negative or neutral.
• Stereotype has no emotional blending.
• From stereotypes, prejudices may emerge very easily.
• Stereotypes are usually formed for the groups.
• Stereotypes are pre conceived notions.

Question. Prejudice can exist without discrimination and vice-versa. Comment.
Answer. Prejudices can exist without being shown in the form of discrimination. Similarly, discrimination can be shown without prejudice.
• Wherever prejudice and discrimination exist, conflicts are very likely to arise between groups within the same society.
• We all witnessed many instances of discrimination, with and without prejudice, based on gender, religion, community, caste, physical handicap, and illnesses such as AIDS.
• Moreover, in many cases, discriminatory behaviour can be curbed by law. But, the cognitive and emotional components of prejudice are more difficult to change.

Question. Describe the important factors that influence impression formation.
Answer. Impression formation is a process by which impression about others is converting into more or less induring cognitions or thoughts about them.
In short, impression formation is a process through which we draw quick conclusion/ inferences regarding others.
Factors facilitating Impression Formation:
• Nature of the phenomena (familiar or unfamiliar).
• Personality traits of the perceiver.
• Social schemas stored in the mind of perceiver.
• Situational factors.
The process of impression formation consists of the following three sub-processes:
• Selection: We take into account only some bits of information about the target person.
• Organization: the selected information is combined in a systematic way.
• Inference: We draw a conclusion about what kind of person the target is.
Some specific qualities, that influence impression formation, are:
• The information presented first has a stronger effect than the information presented at the end. This is called the primacy effect.
• We have a tendency to think that a target person who has one set of positive qualities must also be having other specific positives that are associated with first set. This is known as halo effect. e.g., if we think that a person is ‘tidy’ then we are likely to think that this person must also be hard/working.
• Whatever information comes at the end may have a stronger influence on impression formation. This is known as the recency effect.

Question. Explain how the attribution made by an ‘actor’ would be different from that of an ‘observer’.
Answer. Actor observer phenomena refers to the tendency to attribute our own behaviour mainly to situational causes but the behaviour of others mainly to internal (dispositional) cause.A distinction is found between the attribution that a person makes for actorrole and observer-role.
Person makes attribution for his/her own positive and negative experiences, it is actor role and the attribution made for another person’s positive and negative experience is observer-role.
For example, if we get good marks, we will attribute it to our own ability and hard work (actor-role, internal attribution for a positive experience). If we get bad marks, we will say we were unlucky or test was difficult (actor–role, external attribution for negative experience).
On the other hand, if our classmate gets good marks, we will attribute his/her success to good luck or easy test (observer-role, external attribution for positive experience). If same classmate gets bad marks, we are likely to feel that his/her failure was because of low ability or due to lack of effort (observer-role, internal attribution for a negative experience).
The reason for the difference between the actor and observer roles is that people want to have a nice image of themselves, as compared to others.

Question. How does social facilitation take place?
Answer.
• It is form of group influence.
• Social facilitation refers to a concept that performance on specific task is influenced by the mere presence of others.
• Norman Triplett observed that individuals show better performance in presence of others, than when they are performing the same task alone.
Better performance in presence of others is because the person experiences arousal, which makes the person react in a more intense manner.
The arousal is because the person feels he or she is being evaluated. Cottrell called this idea evaluation apprehension. The person will be praised if performance is good (reward); is criticised if performance is bad (punishment). We wish to get praise and avoid criticism, therefore we try to perform well and avoid criticism.
As in case of complex task, the person may be afraid of making mistakes. And the fear of criticism or punishment is stronger.
If the others present are also performing same task, this is called a situation of co-action.
When task is simple or a familiar one, performance is better under co-action than when the person is alone.
Task performing can be facilitated and improved or inhibited and worsened by the presence of others. If we are working together in a larger group, the less effort each member puts in. This phenomena is called social loafing, based on diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility can also be frequently seen in situations where people are expected to help.

Question. Explain the concept of pro-social behaviour.
Or
Describe the factors influencing Pro-social behaviour. 
Answer. Pro-social behaviour is any positively valued behaviour that does good to another person, is done without any pressure from outside and without any expectation of a reward or a return.Humans are social beings. Most of their activities are organized with the help of others.We cannot live and grow unless there is support from others. We often engage in helping others. Such efforts are considered as pro-social behaviour. For any behaviour to be prosocial, it should fulfil the following conditions:
• There has to be an intention to benefit the other person. Any pro-social act, which one accomplishes by compulsion or as a requirement of a job, does not merit to be called ‘pro-social’.
• The behaviour should be considered socially desirable by the other members of the society. Obviously, helping a thief in stealing is not a pro-social behaviour.
• If an act intended to benefit others is also expect to benefit the helper, it cannot be termed as ‘pro-social’.
The intentions and the consequent positive behaviour are more important considerations of pro-social behaviour than the actual benefits.
The other term which are used interchangeably with pro-social behaviour is altruism. The literal meaning of altruism is “doing things or acting for the interest of others without any ulterior motive.” It is a behaviour that reflects an unselfish concern for the welfare of others. All charitable, humanitarian, philanthropic activities, which people do without any self interest, come under the category of altruism behaviour.

Determinants of Pro-social Behaviour: The pro-social behaviour depends on many factors.
(i) Pro-social behaviour is based on an inborn, natural tendency in human beings to help other members of their own species.
(ii) Pro-social behaviour is influenced by learning through modelling and positive reinforcement in the family.
(iii) Cultural factors influence pro-social behaviour. Some cultures actively encourage people to help the needy and distressed. Individuals in cultures suffering from a shortage of resources may not show a high level of pro-social behaviour.
(iv) Pro-social behaviour is expressed when the situation activates certain ‘social norms’ that require helping others. Three norms have been mentioned in context of pro-social behaviour:
(a) The norms of social responsibility. We should help anyone who needs help without considering any other factors.
(b) The norms of reciprocity. We should help persons who have helped us in the past.
(c) The norms of equity. We should help others whenever we find that it is fair to do so.
(v) Pro-social behaviour is affected by the expected reactions of the person who is being helped. For example, people might be unwilling to give money to a needy person because they feel that the person might feel insulted, or may become dependent.
(vi) Pro-social behaviour is more likely to be shown individuals who have a high level of empathy, that is, the capacity to feel the distress of the person who is to be helped.
e.g., Mother Teresa.
Factors inhibiting Pro-social Behaviour:
(a) Diffusion of Responsibility: Pro-social behaviour may be reduced when the number of bystanders is more than one. On the other hand, if there is only one bystander, this person is more likely to take responsibility and actually help the victim. It happens because each person thinks that others will take the responsibility.
(b) Feeling State of the Individual: Person in a bad mood, being busy with one’s own problems or feeling that the person to be helped is responsible for his/her problem, may not help others.

Question. Your friend eats too much junk food, how would you be able to bring about a change in his/her attitude towards food?
Answer. Since my friend eats junk food, it will have some reinforcing value to him/her. In order to bring about a change in his/her attitude towards food, following techniques could be used:
First of all what needs to be targeted is ‘the way he/she thinks about junk food, i.e., the cognitive aspect of his/her positive attitude towards junk food. The modification in his/ her attitude can be achieved through using rational as well as emotional appeal and, if required, help of a dietician whose credibility in this area is very high will be of great use.
Attitude changes may be brought about by:
1. Encouraging him/her to read about what is required for a healthy development. e.g., minerals etc. which are not found in junk food.
2. Showing him/her the negative consequences of eating junk food like obesity, other health-related problems by exposing him/her to real life examples.
3. Request people around him/her like family-members, elders and teachers whom he/ she likes. If they provide a role model, i.e., not to consume junk food then he/she will imitate their behaviour.
4. Giving his/her choice and space to decide what is right for him/her considering both the aspects of the food and asking him/her to focus and think about the future problems associated with his/her liking.
All these things can bring about cognitive dissonance which might ultimately bring about the attitude change.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 6 Attitude and Social Cognition Multiple Choice Question

Question. The defining characteristic of _____________ is that they express an evaluation of some object.
(a) Beliefs
(b) Attitudes
(c) Interaction
(d) Perception
Answer. B

Question. You like your mother. Your mother does not like pets. You like pets. The tried is—
(a) Balanced
(b) Imbalanced
(c) Balanced for your mother but imbalanced for you
(d) None of these
Answer. B

Question. In 1957, Leon Festinger published his theory of—
(a) Balance
(b) Cognitive Dissonance
(c) Learning
(d) Attitude
Answer. B

Question. Making inferences about personal qualities of others is Impression formation.

Question. Helping behaviour is also called Pro social behaviour.

Question. The emotional component of attitude is also called _______________ component.
(a) Cognitive
(b) Affective
(c) Psycho-motor
(d) None of the above
Answer. B

Question. Positivity or negativity of attitude is also called Valence. (True/False)
Answer. True

Question. P-O-X triangle representing relationship between different aspects of attitude was proposed by Fritz Herder.

Question. The concept of cognitive dissonance was proposed by Leon festinger.

Question. Credibility and attractiveness are two features of source that affect attitude change. (True/False)
Answer.  True

Question. Schemas that function in the form of categories are called Steriotypes.

Question. Fundamental attribution error means explaining the action of other on the basis of internal cause. (True/False)
Answer. True

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 6 Attitude and Social Cognition Very Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. What is attitude?
Answer. Attitude is a set of mind, a set of views, or thoughts regarding some topics which have an evaluative feature.

Question. What is attitude system?
Answer. Attitude system refers to combination of ‘simple’ if it contains only one or a few attitudes and ‘complex’ if it is made up of many attitudes, i.e., several ‘member’ attitudes.Each member attitude that belongs to attitude system has A-B-C components.

Question. Why values are difficult to change?
Answer. Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a ‘should’ or ‘ought’ aspect, such as moral or ethical values e.g., one should be honest because honesty is the best policy.Values are formed when a particular belief or attitude becomes an inseparable part of the person’s outlook on life. Consequently, values are difficult to change.

Question. What is the purpose served by attitude?
Answer.
• Attitude provides a situation context that makes easier for the person to decide how to respond or act in a new situation or problem.
• Attitudes strongly influence our social thoughts.
• They affect our behaviour.

Question. What are opinions?
Answer. Opinions are simply ways of thinking, and it does not matter much to the person that others agree or disagree with their views.

Question. Explain the concept of beliefs?
Answer. Beliefs refer to the cognitive component of attitude and form the ground on which attitudes stand, such as belief in God, or belief in democracy as a political ideology.

Question. What do you mean by values?
Answer. Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a ‘should’ or ‘ought’ aspect such as moral and ethical values.

Question. How values are based on belief or attitude?
Answer. Values are formed when a particular belief or attitude becomes an inseparable part of the person’s outlook on life.

Question. How attitudes are formed?
Answer. Attitudes are learnt through one’s own experience, and, through interaction with other people. There are specific conditions that lead to the formation of specific attitudes.

Question. What is cognitive dissonance?
Answer. The concept of cognitive dissonance was proposed by Leon Festinger.Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency between two or more of their attitudes or between their behaviour.

Question. What is cognitive consistency?
Answer. Cognitive consistency means that two components, aspects or elements of the attitude system must be in the same direction.

Question. Differentiate between target and source.
Answer. The ‘target’ is the person whose attitude is to be changed. The ‘source’ is the person through whose influence the change is to take place.

Question. Differentiate between congruent and incongruent changes in attitude.
Answer. Congruent change means change in the same direction as the existing attitude. i.e., a positive attitude may become more positive or a negative attitude may become more negative.Incongruent change means attitude may change in a direction opposite to the existing attitude. i.e., a positive attitude become less positive or a negative attitude becomes less negative.

Question. What is discrimination?
Answer. Discrimination is negative behaviour directed toward members of social groups who are the object of prejudice.

Question. Explain the concept of schemas.
Answer. Schemas (schemata) are cognitive frameworks developed through experience that affect the processing of new social information.

Question. What are prototypes?
Answer. Schemas that function in the form of categories are called prototypes. These are the entire set of features or qualities that help us to define an object completely. Prototypes are the best representative of the population.

Question. Define impression formation.
Answer. When we meet people, we make inferences about their personal qualities. This is called impression formation.

Question. Name the factors by which impression formation and attribution get influenced.
Answer. Impression formation and attribution are influenced by the following:
(i) The nature of information available to the perceiver.
(ii) Social schemas in the perceiver (including stereotypes).
(iii) Personality characteristics of the perceiver.
(iv) Situational factors.

Question. Differentiate between primacy and recency effect.
Answer. When the information presented first has a stronger effect than the information presented at the end, it is called the primacy effect. On the other hand, when information which comes at the end has a stronger influence, it is called recency effect.

Question. What do you mean by halo effect?
Answer. People have a tendency to think that a target person who has one set of positive qualities must also be having specific positive qualities that are associated with the first set. This is known as halo effect. 

Question. What is attribution?
Answer. Attribution is the process through which we seek to identify the causes of other’s behaviour and so gain knowledge of their stable traits and dispositions.

Question. What is pro-social behaviour?
Answer. Pro-social behaviour involves a helpful action that benefits other people without necessarily providing any direct benefits to the person performing the act, and may even involve a risk for the person who helps.

Question. What do you mean by fundamental attribution error?
Answer. Fundamental attribution error is the overall tendency for people to give greater weightage to internal factors than to external factors.

Question. Explain the concept of diffusion of responsibility.
Answer.
• The thought that when others are present, one person alone will not be held responsible for doing, or not doing something; other members are also responsible and will therefore do the task.
• Each person thinks that it is not his/her responsibility alone to give help, and someone else may take the responsibility. This phenomenon is called diffusion of responsibility.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 6 Attitude and Social Cognition Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. What is Social Cognition?
Answer.
• Social cognition is the manner in which we gather, interpret, analyze, remember and use information about the social world.
• The study of social cognition deals with the mental processes by which we make sense of the world.
• Attitudes, impression formation and attributions are the three processes collectively called social cognition.
• It is activated by cognitive units called schemas (schemata).

Question. What are the causes/sources of emergence of prejudice? Give example.
Answer. Prejudice are learnt.
 Following are the probable causes for the development of prejudices:
1. Learning: Prejudices are learnt through associations, reward and punishment, modelling, child-rearing practices and social and cultural norms.
2. High Social Identity: Social identity refers to persons definitions of who he or she is. If the individual starts identifying with his community and develops proud for that gradually, he starts perceiving others as inferior which causes prejudices.
3. Scapegoating: It is aggression displaced toward a person or group that is the object of prejudice particularly the individual or the group belongs to weaker section.
4. Self-fulfilling Prophecy: Self-fulfilling prophecy refers to behaving in a way that confirms the prediction others make.
It is behaving according to once own expectation in such a way that this behaviour influences a situation and brings about what is expected.
5. Kernel of Truth: It is individual beliefs that if a particular opinion developed by so many people then there must be truth behind it because majority can’t be wrong.

Question. What strategies can be used for handling prejudice and discrimination?
Answer. Prejudices may not be eliminated but can be reduced. The strategies for handling prejudices would be effective if they aim at:
• Minimising opportunities for learning prejudices.
• Changing negative attitudes.
• De-emphasising a narrow social identity based on the in-group.
• Discouraging the tendency towards self-fulfilling prophecy among the victims of prejudice.
These goals can be accomplished through:
• Education and exposure for correcting stereotypes relative to specific target groups.
• Reducing strong in-group bias.
• Increasing intergroup contact through—
— direct communication.
— removal of mistrust between the group.
— discovery of positive qualities in the out group.
These strategies are successful only if:
• The two groups meet in a co-operative rather than competitive context.
• Close interactions between the groups help them to know each other better.
• Both the groups should not be different in power or status.
• Highlighting individual identity rather than group identity. It is promoting individual differences and giving more credit to the individuals achievement rather than his/her group identity.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 6 Attitude and Social Cognition Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. What are the different features of attitude?
Answer. The Four Features of attitude are:
(i) Valence (Positivity or Negativity): Valence of an attitude tells us whether the attitude is positive or negative toward the attitude object. It means attitudes are directional.
(ii) Extremeness: This indicates how positive or negative an individual is toward object.
(iii) Simplicity or Complexity: It refers to how many attitudes are there in the broader attitude.Attitude is simple if it contains few attitudes and complex, if it is made up of many attitudes.e.g. attitude towards student’s tutor is simple and attitude towards his father is complex.
(iv) Centrality: It refers to the role of particular attitude that influences the other attitudes in the system. e.g., attitude towards education. Positive attitude towards
education influences various other attitudes. e.g., attitude towards knowledge or
attitude towards work.

Question. Explain Balance Theory of attitude change.
Answer. Balance Theory of Attitude Change
Balance theory of attitude change was proposed by Fritz Heider. It is a part of cognitive consistency theory. Cognitive consistency means that components, aspects or elements of the attitude or attitude system must be in the same direction to experience psychological comfort. If this does not happen, the person experiences psychological discomfort. This leads to some change in the attitude system to attain logical consistency. The Balance Theory of attitude change is based on the same principle. Balance theory can be explained with the help of relationship between three aspects or components of the attitude represented in a form of triangle.

For example , let s consider two people having a relationship and their attitude towards smoking.

According to Balance theory imbalance ( leading to psychological discomfort) is found when:
1. All three sides of triangle are negative.
In the above example if Suresh and Vishal dislike each other (negative), and have negative attitude towards smoking (two other sides are also negative) then the very fact that they dislike each other will lead to negativity in the situation.

2. Two sides are positive and one side is negative:
In the above example, if Vishal and Suresh are very good friends. Suresh loves to smoke and Vishal hates to smoke. This implies two sides of the triangle are positive and one is negative. This will lead to an imbalance situation, i.e., two friends will have a conflict because they have opposite attitude towards smoking.

Imbalance state will lead to psychological discomfort. An attitude change will have to take place so as to attain balance state having psychological comfort.

Balance is found when:

1. All three sides are positive.
In the above example, Suresh and Vishal are very good friends and both of them love smoking.

2. Two sides are negative and one side is positive.
In the above example, Suresh and Vishal are very good friends and both of them hold a negative attitude towards smoking.

Question. Explain the concept of cognitive dissonance. 
Answer. The concept of cognitive dissonance was introduced by Leon Festinger and Carlsmith.
This theory is based on cognitive inconsistency.
Cognitive dissonance: An unpleasant feeling which arise when two or more of our cognitions are inconsistent. The main causes of cognitive dissonance are as follows:
(a) When two attitudes are inconsistent in some way such as—‘I like this person’ and ‘I don’t like this person’s political views’.
(b) When people say or do things they do not mean, or behave in ways that are inconsistent with their underlying attitudes. e.g., arguing the merits of vegetarianism then ordering a non-vegetarian burger at the local burger bar create inconsistency. As an explanation of attitude change, cognitive dissonance theory argues that doing things that are inconsistent with our attitudes may cause us to change those attitudes to overcome the negative feelings of dissonance.
According to cognitive dissonance theory attitudinal changes occur in two stages, i.e.,
stage-I and stage-II. e.g.,
e.g., Cognition I : Smoking is injurious for health because it causes cancer.
Cognition II : I smoke tobacco.
To attain consonance one of these ideas will have to be changed.

Question. What is the ‘Two Step Concept’ in the process of Attitude change?
Answer. The theory was proposed by S.M. Mohsin.
• According to him, attitude change takes place in two steps. In the first step, the target of change identifies with the source. It involves two people, i.e., target and the source.
• Target is the person whose attitude is to be changed.
• Source is the person who assists the target for attitudinal change.
Step-1: Identification: Source must have +ve attitude and love towards the target and target must have trust and respect for the source.
Step-2: Source first of all himself/herself shows an attitudinal change by changing his/ her own attitude towards the issue.

Question. Write the factors that influence attitude change?
Answer. Most of the psychologists agree upon the following major factors that influence attitudinal change:

(i) Characteristics of the Existing Attitude:
• Positive attitudes are easier to changes than negative attitudes.
• Extreme attitudes and central attitudes are more difficult to change than the less, extreme and peripheral attitudes. Simple attitudes are easier to change than multiple attitudes are.
• An attitude change may be congruent if the change is taking place in the same direction as the existing attitude. On the other hand, an attitude change may be incongruent and it may changing in the opposite direction to the existing attitude. It has been found that, in general, congruent changes are easier to bring about modification than presented the incongruent change in attitudes.
• Researches have found that sometimes fear works well in convincing people but if a massage generates too much fear, it turns off the receiver and has little persuasive effect.

(ii) Source Characteristics: Source credibility and attractiveness are two features that affect attitudes change. Attitudes are more likely to change when the message comes from highly credible source rather than from a low credible source. e.g., car sales may increase if they are publicized by automobile experts.

(iii) Message Characteristics: The message is the information that is presented in order to bring about an attitude change. Whether the message contains a rational or an emotional appeal for example makes a difference. The motive of message also determines possibility of change. e.g., drinking milk may be said to make person healthy.
Finally, the mode of spreading the message plays a significant role. Face-to-face transmission of the message is usually more effective than indirect transmission as for instance, through letters and pamphlets or even through mass media. These days transmission through visual media such as television and the internet are similar to face-to-face interaction, but not a substitute for the later.

(iv) Target Characteristics:
• Qualities of the target, such as persuasibility, strong prejudices, selfesteem and intelligence influence the likelihood of attitude change.
• Open and flexible personality change more easily.
• People with strong prejudices are less prone to any attitude change.
• Persons having low self-esteem do not have sufficient confidence in themselves, change their attitudes more easily than those who are high on self-esteem.
• Highly intelligent people may change their attitudes less easily than those with low intelligence. However, sometimes more intelligent persons change their attitudes more willingly, because they base their attitudes on more information and thinking.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 6 Attitude and Social Cognition Long Answer Type Questions 

Question. Give the meaning of ‘causal attribution’. Explain fundamental attribution error and actor-observer effect with the help of an example.
Answer. Causal Attribution:
• Attribution is a systematic process of assigning cause to a person’s behaviour.
• It is the process of thinking and perceiving the causes of your own or others success and failure is an example of causal attribution.
• We normally tend to believe that nothing happens in this world without a cause.
There is always a cause of everything in the world.
Fritz Heider, who is credited as the ‘founder of attribution theory‘, suggested that human beings function as naive scientists. Heider categorized all causes into two categories—internal and external.

• Internal Causes: It includes something within the person. e.g., intelligence, aptitude or hot temper.
• External Causes: These causes include anything outside the person. e.g., fate, resources.
Research work has shown that people attribute their success more to internal factors and failure more to external factors than vice-versa. Weiner added another dimension to causal attribution.
• Stability: It refers to whether the cause is stable—it does not change over a long (memory, family), or is instability—it may change over a short period of time (interest, luck).
Ability is both internal and stable; effort is internal and unstable; chance is both external and unstable. Weiner suggested that when you attribute your success to internal
factors, you have a sense of pride. Also attributing success to stable factors gives you high expectations of success in future.

Fundamental Attribution Error:
In making attributions, there is an overall tendency to attribute internal causes more than external causes or situational factors for behaviours. This is called fundamental attribution error. This tendency varies from culture to culture. For examples, Indians tend to give more credit to external factors.
• Actor-Observer Effect: A distinction is also found between the attribution that a person makes for ones own positive or negative experiences (Actor Role) or for the positive or negative experiences of others (Observer Role).
For instance one of your classmates fell and got injured. You must have thought that he might be walking carelessly and attribute the responsibility for injury to him. Now the same thing happens to you. You would put the blame on the condition of the road or other factor. The tendency to blame external factors for our own behaviour and internal factors for others behaviour is known as fundamental attributional error.
When you hear that one of your relatives met an accident, a general tendency is to blame the injured person. People blame the person because it is assuring for them. If they are more vigilant, they will not meet such an accident. The blame is often placed on the people who are the sufferer. Even in the case of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, cyclones, floods, there is a pervasive belief that it is because of the sins, which people have committed. This phenomenon is known the blaming the victim.