Major Concepts and Behavioral Objectives

CONCEPT I: Attitudes

Attitudes, with their thinking, feeling, and behavior components, are learned tendencies to respond favorably or unfavorably. Attitudes can be changed in two ways: by persuasive argument or by reducing the inconsistency between conflicting views.

1. Define an attitude and discuss the consistency of the three attitude components.

2. Discuss how attitudes can be changed through persuasive arguments.

3. Describe the cognitive dissonance model of attitude change and the research that supports it.

4. Critique the cognitive dissonance theory and describe other ways of thinking about attitude change.

CONCEPT II: Social Cognition

First impressions and expectations can substantially determine our attitudes about others. When we analyze people's characters, we generally make attributions about their personalities on the basis of their behavior--but we attribute their behavior to different causes than we do our own.

5. Define social cognition and describe how first impressions influence attitude formation.

6. Discuss how schemas affect our judgments about other people.

7. Explain how priming and self-fulfilling prophecies act to influence the development of our attitudes.

8. Explain in general terms how causal attributions are made.

9. Describe the common biases in making causal attributions.

CONCEPT III: Attraction, Friendship, and Love

Physical attractiveness is a salient feature in the development of interpersonal relationships, as are proximity, similarity, and the perception that the other person likes us. Love can exist in a variety of forms and is the subject of much current research and theorizing.

10. Describe the situational factors that are influential in liking and loving.

11. Explain the theories that attempt to describe and account for love, and discuss supporting research.

CONCEPT IV: The Psychology of Prejudice

Prejudice, such as racism and sexism, involves negative attribution. Prejudice can be reduced in situations in which participants must cooperate for their common welfare.

12. Define prejudice and cite evidence that supports its existence.

13. Discuss how racial prejudices might be formed and how they might be eliminated.

14. Describe the statistics regarding differential treatment of men and women and discuss how sexism can be perpetrated or reduced.