Psychology Test - 11

The correct answer is Stereotype

Key Points

• A stereotype is any commonly adopted thinking in social psychology regarding particular groups of people or certain forms of behavior meant to reflect the entire category of such individuals or behaviors as a whole. 
• These thoughts or opinions can or may not represent reality accurately.
• We conclude by stereotyping that an individual has a whole range of features and abilities that we assume all members of that group have.
• Stereotypes consist of undesirable characteristics about the target group, and they lead to negative attitudes or prejudices towards members of specific groups.
• The cognitive component of prejudice is frequently accompanied by dislike or hatred, the affective component.
• Prejudices are examples of attitudes towards a particular group.
• They are usually negative, and in many cases, may be based on stereotypes.

The correct answer is Both A and B

Key Points

• 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.

The correct answer is two-step concept

Key Points

• The two-step concept was proposed by S.M. Mohsin, an Indian psychologist.
• According to him, attitude change takes place in the form of two steps. In the first step, the target of change identifies with the source. 
• 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. Identification means that the target has liking and regard for the source. S/he puts herself/himself in the place of the target, and tries to feel like her/him. The source must also have a positive attitude towards the target, and the regard and attraction become mutual. 
• In the second step, the source herself/himself shows an attitude change, by actually changing her/him 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.

The correct answer is schema

Key Points

• A schema is defined as a mental structure that provides a framework, set of rules or guidelines for processing information about any object.
• Schemas (or ‘schemata’) 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. 
• In the case of social cognition, the basic units are social schemas. Some attitudes may also function like social schemas. We use many different schemas, and come to know about them through analysis and examples. Most of the schemas are in the form of categories or classes. 
• Schemas that function in the form of categories are called prototypes,
• which are the entire set of features or qualities that help us to define an object completely.
• In social cognition, category-based schemas that are related to groups of people are called stereotypes. These are category-based schemas that are overgeneralized, are not directly verified, and do not allow for exceptions.

The correct answer is equity

Key PointsPro-social behavior is expressed when the situation activates certain social norms that require helping others. Three norms have been mentioned in the context of pro-social behavior:

1. The norm of social responsibility: We should help anyone who needs help, without considering any other factor.
2. The norm of reciprocity: We should help those persons who have helped us in the past.
3. The norm of equity: We should help others whenever we find that it is fair to do so.

For example, many of us may feel that it is fairer to help a person who has lost all belongings in a flood than to help a person who has lost everything through gambling

The correct answer is All of the Above

Key PointsImpression 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.

The correct answer is cognitive dissonance

Key Points

• The concept of cognitive dissonance was proposed by Leon Festinger. 
• It emphasizes the cognitive component. Here the basic idea is that the cognitive components of an attitude must be ‘consonant’ (opposite of ‘dissonant’), i.e., they should be logically in line with each other. 
• If an individual finds that two cognitions in an attitude are dissonant, then one of them will be changed in the direction of consonance. 

For example, think about the following ideas
(‘cognitions’):
Cognition I: Pan masala causes
mouth cancer which is fatal.
Cognition II: I eat pan masala.

• Holding these two ideas or cognitions will make any individual feel that something is ‘out of tune’, or dissonant, in the attitude towards pan masala. Therefore, one of these ideas will have to be changed, so that consonance can be attained. In the example given above, in order to remove or reduce the dissonance, I will stop eating pan masala (change Cognition II). 
• This would be the healthy, logical and sensible way of reducing dissonance
• Both balance and cognitive dissonance are examples of cognitive consistency. 
• Cognitive consistency means that two components, aspects or elements of the attitude, or attitude system, must be in the same direction.
• Each element should logically fall in line with other elements. 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. In such a state, some aspect in the attitude system changes in the direction of consistency, because our cognitive system requires logical consistency.

The correct answer is Both B and C

Key Points

• All definitions of attitudes agree that an 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). 
• It is accompanied by an emotional component, and a tendency to act in a particular way with regard to the attitude object. 
• 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. Taken together, these three aspects have been referred to as the A-B-C components (Affective-Behavioural Cognitive components) of attitude. 
• Note that attitudes are themselves not behaviour, but they represent a tendency to behave or act in certain ways. They are part of cognition, along with an emotional component, and cannot be observed from the outside.

The correct answer is Attitudes

Key PointsFormation 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 that 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 behavior.

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 learned in a social context without the physical presence of others. Print media, electronic media, and  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 normative behaviour in various religions. People imitate such behaviour shown by others as socially approved and develop a positive attitude towards it.

The Correct answer is Social Cognition

Key Points

• Cognition refers to all those mental processes that deal with obtaining and processing of information. 
• Extending this idea to the social world, the term ‘social cognition’ refers to all those psychological processes that deal with the gathering and processing of information related to social objects. 
• These include all the processes that help in understanding, explaining, and interpreting social behavior. 
• The processing of information related to social objects (particularly individuals, groups, people, relationships, social issues, and the like) differs from the processing of information related to physical objects. 
• People as social objects may themselves change as the cognitive process takes place. 
• For instance, a teacher who observes a student in school may draw conclusions about her/him that are quite different from the conclusions drawn by the student’s mother, who observes her/him at home. 
• The student may show a difference in her/his behavior, depending on who is watching her/him — the teacher or the mother. Social cognition is guided by mental units called schemas