Attitude and Social Cognition – Class 12 Psychology notes, important questions and MCQs

Chapter overview

Social cognition refers to how people think about, interpret and remember information about others and social situations. Attitudes are states of mind, a set of views or thoughts about a topic, with evaluative features. Attitudes form through learning and experience and can be changed through persuasion. Social cognition also includes impression formation, attribution of causes to behaviour, prejudice and helping behaviour.

Attitudes

• Attitudes have three components (ABC model): affective (feelings), behavioural (tendency to act) and cognitive (beliefs); properties include valence, extremeness, simplicity or complexity, and centrality.
• Attitudes are learned through association, rewards and punishments, modelling, group or cultural norms and exposure to information, including the media.
• Attitude change: Heider's balance theory, Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory (people change attitudes to reduce inconsistency) and S. M. Mohsin's two-step concept; source credibility and attractiveness, message type and target characteristics affect persuasion. Attitudes do not always predict behaviour (LaPiere's study).

Social cognition and prejudice

• Impression formation is influenced by central traits (warm/cold, Asch), the primacy effect, recency effect and halo effect; schemas and stereotypes guide social thinking.
• Attribution explains the causes of behaviour as internal (dispositional) or external (situational); the fundamental attribution error is overemphasising internal causes for others' behaviour; the actor-observer effect also occurs.
• Prejudice is a negative attitude towards a group, while discrimination is behaviour; it can be reduced by education, intergroup contact (the contact hypothesis), highlighting a common identity and changing stereotypes. Pro-social behaviour (helping) is affected by norms such as reciprocity and social responsibility, and by the bystander effect (diffusion of responsibility).

Key terms

Attitude

a state of mind with evaluative views about a topic

Cognitive dissonance

discomfort caused by inconsistent beliefs or actions

Attribution

explaining the causes of behaviour

Fundamental attribution error

overemphasising personal causes of others' behaviour

Bystander effect

reduced helping when others are present

Important questions with answers

Quick revision

• Attitude components and properties.
• Formation and change of attitudes.
• Impression formation and attribution.
• Prejudice, discrimination and pro-social behaviour.

Exam tips

• Remember the ABC components of attitude.
• Practise identifying internal and external attributions.

Practice MCQs

1. The three components of attitude are affective, behavioural and

   1. physical
   2. cultural
   3. cognitive
   4. social
   Show answer

   Answer: (c) cognitive. This is the ABC model.

2. A negative attitude towards a group is called

   1. discrimination
   2. prejudice
   3. conformity
   4. compliance
   Show answer

   Answer: (b) prejudice. Discrimination is its behavioural form.

3. Explaining the causes of behaviour is called

   1. impression formation
   2. attribution
   3. persuasion
   4. modelling
   Show answer

   Answer: (b) attribution. Causes may be internal or external.

4. The theory that inconsistency between beliefs causes discomfort was proposed by

   1. Heider
   2. Asch
   3. Festinger
   4. Allport
   Show answer

   Answer: (c) Festinger. It is cognitive dissonance theory.

5. Judging a person as good in all respects because of one good quality is the

   1. primacy effect
   2. halo effect
   3. recency effect
   4. bystander effect
   Show answer

   Answer: (b) halo effect. One trait colours the whole impression.

6. Reduced helping in an emergency when many people are present is the

   1. halo effect
   2. contact effect
   3. primacy effect
   4. bystander effect
   Show answer

   Answer: (d) bystander effect. Responsibility is diffused.

7. Blaming a classmate's late arrival on laziness while ignoring heavy traffic is an example of

   1. actor-observer effect only
   2. cognitive dissonance
   3. fundamental attribution error
   4. halo effect
   Show answer

   Answer: (c) fundamental attribution error. Situational causes are underestimated.

8. The contact hypothesis suggests prejudice can be reduced when groups

   1. avoid each other
   2. are kept separate by law
   3. compete for resources
   4. interact on equal status towards common goals
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   Answer: (d) interact on equal status towards common goals. Cooperation builds understanding.