What are the functions of attitudes?
- Ego defensive function
- Value expressive
- Knowledge Functions
- Utilitarian function
- Social adjudicative function
Ego defensive function
o Sometimes attitudes are designed to make us feel good about ourselves: to protect our self-esteem or to ward off guilt.
o Many ego-defensive mechanisms lie outside conscious awareness ... denial, repression, projection (project negative quality onto other people) and rationalization are all example of ego-defensive attitudes that Freud was interested in.
Value expressive
o Value expressive attitudes are designed to project an idea of who we are ... to communicate an identity.
o For example if you see yourself as left-wing or as a militant radical, you might cultivate attitudes that are consistent with that self-image. Some of this is common sense ... people who are concerned about their carbon footprint might develop negative attitudes towards cars.
o This can also help explain why apparently random attitudes are often held in "clusters", as people take on the attitudes that best advertise who they are (e.g., environmentalist, hipster).
o You identify as a Christian but didn't have any info on gay couples. When you want to communicate your Christian beliefs to others your attitudes on gay marriage may be hurt
o Hipsters
Knowledge Functions
o Sometimes attitudes serve the function of making the world more understandable and predictable.
o Examples of attitudes that serve this function are stereotypes (e.g., French men are arrogant) and worldviews that help make things fit together and make sense (e.g., I believe good things happen to good people, so when I see a beggar on the street I think they brought their problems on themselves).
o Grotesque rules of thumb
o Belief in a just world
-World is indifferent
-Karma
-If you work hard good things will happen to you
o Helps organize world and help things fit together
o Sees homeless people and think if they worked harder they wouldn't be like that
Utilitarian function
o Attitudes sometimes serve the utilitarian function of maximizing reward and minimizing punishment.
o For example business people may favour a political party that keeps taxes low, whereas an unemployed person might favour a political party that protects welfare.
Social adjudicative function
o A subset of utilitarian attitudes are those that help us fit in: maximizing social gains and minimizing the potential for rejection and isolation.
o Both attitudes and behavior are heavily influenced by what other people think you should do (prescriptive norms) and what other people actually do (descriptive norms).
o Tailor attitudes to smooth the process of liking
o Descriptive and proscriptive norms
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Psychology
- Which neurotransmitters are most important in the development of mood disorders?
- One biological explanation for depression is that an overactive ______________ responds strongly to emotions and sends signals that lead to a decrease in ______________ activity.
- Sandra is suffering from major depression. She is convinced that she will always be unhappy and her life will never change. Which of the three elements of the depressive explanatory style does this illustrate?
- The depressive explanatory style is characterized by which three elements?
- Which of the following is a mood disorder?
- _______ is a disorder in which a person experiences episodes of mania and depression.
- A person who suffers from bipolar disorder alternates between
- Kayla has experienced a decrease in the need for sleep for the past three nights, is extremely talkative and sexually charged, and has been very irresponsible with money during this time. Kayla is in the midst of a(n)
- What mood disorder is characterized by alterations between periods of extremely high levels and extremely low levels of activity?
- Research into demographic differences in the rates of major depression, or clinical depression as it is often called, suggests that
- Prolonged periods of sadness, feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, social withdrawal, and cognitive and physical sluggishness best describes which disorder?
- Which of the following is an example of the "vicious cycle" of anxiety disorders?
- People with OCD often develop ____________ in response to ______________.
- Each day, while Sid is sitting at his desk at work, he continually thinks about germs. Each time this occurs, he washes his hands. Sid probably suffers from
- Mr. Carpenter is constantly afraid that he is going to oversleep and be late for work. As a result, he spends nearly an hour total each night making certain that his alarm clock is correctly set and saying "It's set, it's set, it's set" each of the times he checks it. This repetitive action is what clinical psychologists refer to as a
- Sierra is constantly worried that everyone whom she comes in contact with is full of germs, so she is constantly rushing off to wash her hands. Sierra may suffer from which psychological disorder?
- During the day, Barb suffers from frequent, unwanted thoughts that she has left her front door unlocked and recurrent images that all her belongings have been taken. These thoughts and images are what psychologists refer to as a
- A strong, intense fear of being in public or performing behaviours in public might be characteristic of
- People who have a(n) __________ are afraid of being evaluated in some negative way by others, so they tend to avoid situations that can be embarrassing.
- From an evolutionary perspective, humans would be most likely to develop a phobia to which of the following?
- What is the main difference between generalized anxiety disorder and phobias?
- Davis has such an intense, irrational fear of clowns that he cannot take his daughters to see the circus when it is in town. Davis would be most correctly diagnosed as suffering from
- Manny has such an intense fear of flying insects that he hardly ever goes outside his house during the summer months. He is probably suffering from a
- Agoraphobia is an intense fear of
- People who suffer from panic attacks often also experience