Exam 2 Review: Persuasion & Conformity

Exam 2 Review – Spring 2013

Chapter 4 – Attitudes & Behaviors  Definition of attitude – affective, behavioral, cognitive components  Attitude assessment – problems with self-reports? o LaPiere’s research on self-reports versus behavioral observations o Covert measures as alternatives to self-report . Implicit Association Tests (IAT) – how does it work? o Fishbein & Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior: . Principle of Aggregation – how could this improve self-reports? . Level of Specificity – how could this improve self-reports? . Theory of Planned Behavior (see Fig 4.2)  Intention is the best predictor of behavior  Importance of roles in determining our behaviors & influencing attitudes o Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) as example . What are details of the study – how were participants assigned to roles of ‘guard’ and ‘prisoner’? . How did the role play impact their behavior & attitudes? . How/why did the study end? . What are 3 main lessons from the SPE?  How does behavior affect attitudes? o Foot-in-the door – how does this work? Role of self-perception?  Cognitive Dissonance –another explanation for why behavior affects attitudes o Festinger’s original experiment . People are motivated by consistency (betw beh + attitude) . Tension/anxiety if feel inconsistent . How did he study cog dissonance? (boring task, $1 or $20…) . Results of his study? Whose attitudes changed most?  Self-Perception theory – alternate to cog dissonance theory o If difficult to interpret our feelings or when weak attitude  look to our behavior for clues . Self-Perception & Emotion  Facial feedback – how does this work?  Embodied cognition – what is it and how does it work? . Self-Perception & Motivation  Overjustification effect – what is it? When might motivation be reduced by rewards? o Example of research on kids’ motivation  Comparing Cog Dissonance & Self-Perception theories – o Difference based on whether anxiety/tension is emphasized or not o Which theory better explains attitude change? Attitude formation? Chapter 7 – Persuasion  Persuasion o Central route to persuasion – how does it work? Example? o Peripheral route to persuasion – how does it work? Example? . What determines which route we use? o Source of Persuasion: . Importance of credibility – how does this work? . Importance of likeability – based on similarity and physical attractiveness o Message: . Primacy vs. recency effect for information & persuasion? . Fear-based messages – what kinds are most effective? . Subliminal messages – what are they?  Distinguish between subliminal perception & persuasion  Greenwald experiment – self-help tapes with self-esteem vs. memory focus; what were the results?  Murphy experiment – with Chinese characters – what were the results? o Audience . Do individual differences affect our ‘persuadability’?  Forewarning & resistance – consider counterarguments  Effects of age: what are the lifecycle and generational explanations for persuasion/attitude change? o Is there more support for lifecycle or generational? o Extreme Persuasion: Example of Cults . Jim Jones’ People’s Temple and Jonestown Massacre  1978 mass suicide & Jones’ influence  What explanations focused on Jones?  What are situational explanations for the suicides?  The use of source, message, & audience effects in cults o Resisting Persuasion . Challenge beliefs . Counterarguments – link to inoculation hypothesis  How does it work?  Possibility of reactance effect? . Attitude Inoculation applications –  Kids & anti-smoking role-playing – does it work?  Kids & toy commercials – does it work? Chapter 6 – Conformity & Obedience (note that this material may change slightly based on class coverage, check your notes to determine what was covered in class)  Types of Social Influence – conformity, compliance, & obedience (definitions & how does each differ from the others?)  Effects of mimicking others – automatic process? Social functions of mimicking? (Chartrand’s research on gestures)  Classic Conformity studies (Sherif & Asch) o Sherif’s study – autokinetic effect (pinpoint of light) . How was the study done? Results? o Asch’s study – line judgments . How was the study done? Results? o Differences between Sherif’s and Asch’s studies? o Why do people conform? . Information purposes . Normative purposes . Public vs. private conformity – what is the distinction? o Majority influences on conformity . What is the influence of group size on conformity? . What is the effect of seeing other nonconformists?  Does it matter if the other nonconformists agree or disagree with you? o Minority influences on conformity – . Influence based on style – what works best?  Compliance o Langer’s experiment – Xerox machine & requests to cut in line; results? o Strategies for compliance – . Reciprocity norm – are there immediate or delayed responses? . Door-in-the-face technique – how does it work? Example?  Obedience o Milgram’s research: . Original experiment – what was the procedure? What was found regarding % of participants who obey? . Impact of the situation on obedience: how did each affect obedience?  Location of the experiment  Experimenter characteristics  Closeness to victim  Disobedient others o Reasons for Obedience . Self-justification . The role of culture – individualists vs. collectivists? o Criticisms of Milgram’s experiment . Deception . No true informed consent . Created distress . Did participants know of right to withdraw? . Inflicted insight o Burger’s replication of Milgram – how was the procedure similar to or different from Milgram? . Results of Burger’s replication? o Ethics of Milgram’s research – . What were the concerns here? Milgram’s response?