UnitIVStudyGuideSP.pdf

PSY 3140, Social Psychology 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit IV

Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

2. Evaluate the underlying principles in the field of social psychology.
2.1 Apply the theory of cognitive dissonance to your maintenance of self-concept.

6. Explain how social environments influence the understanding of individuals.
6.1 Utilize the theory of cognitive dissonance to examine your own attitudes and the effects of

social influence.

Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes

Learning Activity

2.1
Unit Lesson
Chapter 6, pp. 163–166, 169–170, 173–179, and 183–190
Unit IV Essay

6.1

Unit Lesson
Chapter 6, pp. 163–166, 169–170, 173–179, and 183–190
Chapter 7, pp. 197–198, 202–207, 210–213, and 216–224
Unit IV Essay

Reading Assignment

Chapter 6: Attitudes and Persuasion, pp. 163–166, 169–170, 173–179, and 183–190

Chapter 7: Social Influence: Conformity, Social Roles, and Obedience, pp. 197–198, 202–207, 210–213, and
216–224

Unit Lesson

Attitudes and Persuasion

As humans have a tendency to evaluate, attitudes are positive or negative evaluations about people, things,
or ideas (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). Social psychologists suggest that attitudes are primarily shaped by
your social experiences, including the ABCs of psychology—affect, behavior, and cognitions. Cognition-based
attitudes are those created by a person’s belief about an attitude object. Affect-based attitudes are attitudes
created from a person’s feelings and how much he or she values an attitude object. Behavior-based attitudes
are any attitudes based on behavioral observations toward an attitude object. How do these components of
attitudes apply to the real world? Do you utilize one component more than the other, and if so, why? Do you
think people are aware of the type of information they rely on when forming their attitudes?

A person can hold dual beliefs about an attitude object. For example, you may love eating an oversized ice
cream sundae while understanding that it is not a healthy food choice. When it comes to the execution of
attitudes, however, most often they are presented as a unidirectional outcome, such that you either like
something or you do not (i.e., in the case of the ice cream sundae, you like it). This ability can help streamline
decisions and judgments in one’s environment because attitudes frequently guide behaviors. Another way
one can relate attitudes with behavior is through the specificity principle. The specificity principle suggests
that if you are interested in investigating a specific or general behavioral outcome, the strongest results will
arise by investigating attitudes at a similarly specific or general level (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). If you are

UNIT IV STUDY GUIDE

Attitudes, Persuasion,
and Social Influence

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interested in assessing whether a person will be more likely to purchase an ice cream sundae for dessert, you
should measure that person’s attitude toward ice cream sundaes specifically, rather than desserts in general.

Sometimes your behaviors do not correspond to your attitudes. To help explain this phenomenon, Fishbein
and Ajzen (as cited in Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019) created the theory of planned behavior. This theory
describes how your attitudes are one category of beliefs that predict planned, deliberate behavior. In this
theory, your behaviors are influenced not just by your attitude toward the behavior but also by your opinions
about the prevalence of the behavior (i.e., subjective norms) and the ease to which you can perform the
behavior (i.e., perceived control). Considering all three components allows for a more accurate prediction of
future behaviors. Thinking about this theory, can you see how it might be used to explain your behavior and
the behavior of the people in your life?

Reflecting on some of the big questions of social psychology, nature and nurture do interact in the
development of attitudes, but, as noted above, most research focuses on the role of experience. People learn
beliefs and opinions in many forms and from many sources in the environment. We can develop attitudes
based on exposure to and imitation of what others demonstrate, and we can learn associations between
things in the environment based on personal experiences and outcomes of those experiences. Each of these
pathways can lead to thinking and acting on individualized attitudes and can be particularly strong if the
thoughts and actions were rewarded in the past.

There are two ways to measure attitudes: implicitly and
explicitly. Explicit attitudes are those that you are
actively aware of, including those attitudes that you
could easily identify. For instance, you might be asked
directly about your attitudes concerning snakes. Implicit
attitudes represent your attitudes that are involuntary,
uncontrollable, and unconscious. These attitudes are
not able to be examined directly through self-report.
How might you measure implicit attitudes? Research on
this topic is still developing, but the most famous
measure is the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which
taps into what automatic associations and the strength
of those associations, one has acquired from the
environment in which he or she lives. You can learn
more about how implicit attitudes are assessed through
the IAT by completing this unit’s learning activity.

Many people encounter situations in which their belief

that they are a decent person (an attitude about who they are) is challenged. When they encounter such
challenges, they feel discomfort. This phenomenon has been thoroughly studied in social psychology and is
known as cognitive dissonance (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). For more information on this phenomenon,
view the video below:

Luttrell, A. (2016, July 7). Cognitive dissonance theory: A crash course [Video file]. Retrieved from

To access a transcript of this video click here.

If you experience cognitive dissonance, what can you do to reduce it? There are three ways that you can
reduce cognitive dissonance.

1. You may be motivated to change your behavior to fit with the dissonant attitude.
2. You may be motivated to justify your behaviors through changing the dissonant attitude.
3. Finally, you may be motivated to justify your behaviors by adding new attitudes.

Can you recall a time when you personally engaged in any of these dissonance-reducing strategies?

There is evidence that people all over the world experience dissonance, but they experience it in different
situations. In interdependent cultures, people are more likely to experience dissonance when they have

How do you feel about snakes? Do they scare you? Are
you fine with them? Your answers to these questions
demonstrate an explicit attitude.
(Matos, n.d.)

https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-93239802_1

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shamed or disappointed others and, thus, face the threat of group rejection (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). In
addition, while changing one’s attitudes unnecessarily (e.g., to justify a poor decision or wasted time) can be
perceived as a negative outcome, cognitive dissonance can be motivating for positive behavioral change
(e.g., increasing healthy food choices), as well.

What leads you to say “yes?” What changes your attitudes beyond the concept of cognitive dissonance?
Researchers have studied persuasion for a long time. To explain when you are influenced by the
persuasiveness of a message, Petty and Cacioppo (1986) developed the elaboration likelihood model.
According to this model, there are two ways that persuasive communication can change your attitudes: the
central route to persuasion and the peripheral route to persuasion. The central route involves people
elaborating on persuasive arguments while actively processing the content of the message. On the other
hand, the peripheral route does not involve people elaborating on the arguments. In the peripheral route,
people are persuaded by the superficial characteristics surrounding the message.

The message learning approach tried to simplify the process of attitude change by identifying four key factors.
Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953) suggested attitudes are shaped by who provides the source of
communication, what (i.e., the nature of the message), to whom (i.e., the nature of the audience), and how
(i.e., in what context the message is presented). From there, it is a matter of paying attention, understanding
the message, and ultimately, yielding to it.

In either case, it is probably not surprising that source variables, such as credible speakers and attractive
speakers, are likely to change your attitudes on a topic. If you have ever seen a commercial advertisement
with a celebrity or a doctor (usually an actor) in a white coat, you were exposed to a persuasive message
relying on the peripheral route. Interestingly, your attitudes also vary based on the personal relevance of the
topic (a message variable). That means that when an issue is really important or relevant to you, you are
more likely to be persuaded by the quality of the argument than how much expertise the speaker possesses.
When the context produces an audience that is distracted, they are likely to be more influenced by persuasive
messages, and recipient variables, such as higher education levels, lead to less influence by persuasive
messages because they can focus on argument quality (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). In addition to these
types of variables, specific techniques have been developed to gain compliance to persuasive messages.
Take a moment to consider what type of persuasive communication you think most influences your attitudes
or decisions to purchase a product.

Social Influence: Conformity, Social Roles, and Obedience

Social influence is all around you, as situational factors exert implicit, unspoken and explicit, formally stated
expectations upon your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Implicit expectations include conformity, a
voluntary change in behavior to imitate the behavior of others, and social roles, how certain people are
supposed to look and behave. Explicit expectations include compliance, behavior in response to a request,
and obedience, behavior in response to an from a higher-status figure (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). In
any case, behavior is often modified to fit the social norms we have learned for particular social situations
over time and can even be contagious!

Have you ever encountered a situation in which you were unsure of how to think or act? In such situations,
you rely on the behaviors of others to determine what you should do, known as informational social influence
(Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). Think about times you might have done this. Sometimes you do this when it
comes to standing in line or when you are not exactly sure of how to behave in a situation. You sometimes
conform, not because you are weak-minded but because a situation is ambiguous, and the behaviors of
others help you determine how to act. Sometimes people conform to the behaviors of others when they
believe that these people are correct, which is often expressed internally or privately. People also conform to
informational social influences when the situation is a crisis and other people are experts. Many times, crises
are ambiguous and you do not have much time to determine a solution. In the previous chapter, you learned
how the expertise of a speaker could persuade you. Therefore, it should not be surprising that when someone
has more knowledge about an ambiguous situation, this person serves as a guide.

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Sometimes you conform to be liked and
accepted by others, a phenomenon known
as normative social influence (Heinzen &
Goodfriend, 2019). Why might people
conform in to gain acceptance and
liking from others in the group? Usually, you
are susceptible to such influences in public
situations. In a classic series of
experiments, Asch (1951, 1956)
investigated normative social influence. In
these experiments, Asch used line
judgments in which participants were asked
to judge the lengths of different lines and
then match a target line to one of three
lines. In each of the trials, the correct
answers were obvious. Participants in the
experiment were confederates of the
researchers, except one, who was the true
participant. In two out of the three trials, the
confederates agreed on incorrect answers,
and surprisingly, so did the actual
participant. After the experiment, participants were interviewed, and they indicated that they did not want to
feel differently or look foolish for disagreeing, even though they often knew they were providing the incorrect
answer.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “clothes make the man”? Often, the roles we hold in society come with a
prescribed way of dressing that helps signify our position and take away the uncertainty of what behaviors we
will enact, whether that be positive or negative. A classic study on how social roles aid in conformity was
conducted by Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo (1973). The study replicated a prison setting and investigated
how the self disappeared by taking on a social role of prisoner or guard, complete with uniforms and
schedules similar to those in an actual prison setting. The study quickly showed that deindividuation, or
replacing self-awareness with a social role or group identity, such that one loses a sense of their individuality,
can lead people to do things that they would not normally engage. In other words, the participants conformed
rather completely to their social roles (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2019). You can learn more about the Stanford
prison experiment and whether the results hold up today by watching the video below:

Online Classroom Ltd. (Producer). (2007). The Stanford prison experiment (Custom Segment 69) [Video file].

Retrieved from
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPla
ylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=40125&loid=506883

The transcript for this video can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the video in the Films
on Demand database.

Another classic experiment on the topic of conformity was conducted by Stanley Milgram (1974). In the
aftermath of World War II, he became specifically interested in examining the power of obedience to an
authority figure, as those on trial for war crimes frequently provided this reason for their actions. Deceptively,
participants were told that the purpose of the study was to examine the effects of punishment on learning. In
the experiments, participants were always in the role of the teacher and their partner, who was a confederate,
was always the learner. Each time a learner made a mistake, the teacher had to deliver an electric shock,
increasing the level of shock for every mistake. When the learner protested, the experimenter insisted that the
participant continue. Most participants continued with the electric shocks, even after the learner protested,
and 65% of participants administered the maximum level of electric shock.

Milgram conducted many replications of his original study and found several situational factors that influenced
whether someone was more or less likely to obey an authority figure, including proximity to the learner
(victim), legitimacy of the authority figure, and whether other people were also delivering shocks. While there
were those participants who rebelled against the authority figure, recent investigation suggests that others
were willing volunteers committed to helping further a noble cause, in this case, science (Heinzen &

Peer pressure or the pressure to act or dress a certain way, are
examples of normative social influence.
(Godfer, 2014)

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Goodfriend, 2019). Do you think that Milgram’s findings would be replicated in this time? What would you
have done? Take a moment to search the Internet for modern replications of Milgram’s original study. In your
search, pay attention to similarities and differences in the methodologies and in ethical considerations. Did the
results of the current study replicate those of Milgram’s?

References

Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgements. In H.
Guetzkow (Ed.), Groups, leadership, and men (pp. 76–92). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.

Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous

majority. Psychology Monographs: General and Applied, 70(9), 1–70.

Godfer. (2014). Bully teenagers (ID 50006714) [Photograph]. Retrieved from www.dreamstime.com

Heinzen, T., & Goodfriend, W. (2019). Social psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion: Psychological studies of

opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Matos, R. (n.d.). Snake (ID 4888703) [Photograph]. Retrieved from www.dreamstime.com

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to

attitude change. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.

Suggested Reading

The PowerPoint presentations below serve as a companion to the chapters in this unit. You are encouraged
to view them for a deeper understanding of the material presented in this unit.

Click here to view the Chapter 6 PowerPoint Presentation. Click here to view the presentation as a PDF.

Click here to view the Chapter 7 PowerPoint Presentation. Click here to view the presentation as a PDF.

In to access the following resources, click the links below:

The following two articles explore attitudes toward particular groups. Take a few minutes to read these articles
for a different perspective on the effects and role of attitudes.

Axt, J. R. (2017, October 4). The best way to measure explicit racial attitudes is to ask about them. Social

Psychological and Personality Science. Retrieved from
http://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/BH6vibAs3v5EWK7xRkqd/full

Horowitz, S. R., & Dovidio, J. F. (2015). The rich–love them or hate them? Divergent implicit and explicit

attitudes toward the wealthy. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20(1), 3–31. Retrieved from
http://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/95KfTvgMrfjv42kUy4Pv/full

In the unit lesson, you were introduced to the Milgram experiment. What if you were a participant—would you
shock another person? The article below looks at this question and the issue of obedience.

https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-93243129_1

https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-93243126_1

https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-93243131_1

https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-93243130_1

http://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/BH6vibAs3v5EWK7xRkqd/full

http://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/95KfTvgMrfjv42kUy4Pv/full

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Dolinksi, D., Grzyb, T., Folwarczny, M., Gryzbala, P., Kryzyszycha, K., Martynowska, K., & Trojanowski, J.
(2017). Would you deliver an electric shock in 2015? Obedience in the experimental paradigm
developed by Stanley Milgram in the 50 years following the original studies. Social Psychological and
Personality Science, 8(8), 927–933. Retrieved from
http://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/N8nIU5vDk8bs8RKcpQX5/full

Learning Activities (Nongraded)

Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit
them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information.

Activity 1: Let’s learn more about implicit attitudes! On page 177 of your textbook, follow the instructions to
complete an online Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT). After taking the test, answer the questions below in a one-
page response. The information may be most valuable if you remain open-minded about the process and the
results. Consider whether your conscious and unconscious perceptions match, and how these perceptions
potentially influence how you interact with people and events in your personal and professional life.

a) What test did you take? Why did you choose that test?
b) What was your score? How do you feel about your score?
c) What does your score reflect in terms of attitudes? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Activity 2: Test yourself on concepts covered in Chapters 6 and 7. Mastering this material will help you
complete the assignment in this unit. Click the links below to view the flashcards and quizzes for each unit.

Click here for the Chapter 6 Flashcards. Click here for the Chapter 6 Quiz.

Click here for the Chapter 7 Flashcards. Click here for the Chapter 7 Quiz.

http://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/N8nIU5vDk8bs8RKcpQX5/full

https://edge.sagepub.com/heinzen/student-resources-0/chapter-6/flashcards

https://edge.sagepub.com/heinzen/student-resources-0/chapter-6/quizzes

https://edge.sagepub.com/heinzen/student-resources-0/chapter-7/flashcards

https://edge.sagepub.com/heinzen/student-resources-0/chapter-7/quizzes