Question:

Section AA1.

Why are implicit attitudes different from explicit?

Which are your true attitudes and which one is it?A2.

How could we increase the chances of people helping in emergency situations using Latane & Darley’s cognitive models?A3.

Give an example of at least four strategies people use when faced with threats to their self image.

Section BB1.

Imagine that you are a psychologist and want to study the relationship between aggression in children’s eating habits and hunger.

Explain and justify how two research approaches could be used to study this issue.B2.

B2.B3.

B3.

Answer to Question: PSY2009 Social Psychology

Section A

Solution to A1

Explicit attitudes can be defined as an instance in which a person displays his feelings knowingly.

Grinell: An explicit attitude refers to a person who expresses his cognisant outlook towards an individual, article, thought or situation. 2010).

Implicit attitudes are a way of expressing one’s feelings unconsciously, without fully understanding the context or situation.

These two attitudes are very different.

Anthony Greenwald, Mahzarin Bangaji defined implicit attitudes to be imprecisely recognized traces or past understandings that can arbitrate constructive and adverse feelings or thoughts toward a social thing.

The implicit attitude is out of one’s control.

An explicit attitude, on the other hand, is a state where the person is fully aware of the surrounding and reacts to it after having fully understood the whole situation.

While it may cause some harm, the latter is a true expression of one’s feelings.

The second, though, is a more planned behavior which can also be faked.

An explicit attitude infuses nature with preconceived notions and stereotypes. However, an implicit attitude, on the other hand, is not fake, instantaneous and is not labelled by nature (Rydell and McConnell 2006).

Explicit attitudes weighs the social and personal relationships. Therefore, a person would pay attention to different situations. In contrast, implicit attitudes act instantly without considering the consequences.

Attitudes define how people see the world.

It is a psychological phenomenon that describes how someone reacts to a situation.

If several participants are asked to provide their opinions about a particular person, then they would either consent or deny it (Echabe 2013).

These answers would not be ambiguous and would give the real answer without any guesswork.

There are some limitations to the above.

It is often difficult to know how to react to certain situations. For example, a person may want to be positive but social pressure and their mind may force them to act negatively.

The true attitude is hidden here.

If the person had reacted to the situation without being influenced or influenced by the social pressure, then it would have been taken as a true reaction.

According to Cooper et.al., implicit attitudes can be useful for testing the power of the contentious approach (Cooper et.al. 2016).

It can be rightly stated that implicit attitudes reflect true attitudes. However, sometimes it is difficult to stick to them because of socio-psychological pressures.

Solution for A2

It is a well-known fact that emergency situations are more likely to have people helping.

This can be explained by Latane’s and Darley’s cognitive model.

The model is broken down into five steps. This will help you decide if a person will be able to assist in an emergency.

We mean anyone in the public that is not related to someone seeking help.

First, the person must recognize the problem.

He will need to identify the problem and decide if it is an emergency situation.

This is the third step that will determine if the individual has a duty to help.

The individual can then think about his responsibilities, and determine how and what he should do (Roth (2008)).

However, due to the bystander phenomenon, there is a decrease in the likelihood that an individual in need of help will get it.

Unfortunately, when someone is in urgent need of help, the spectators don’t show up to help.

Many times, people are caught watching the crime but failing to act to help the victim.

As the Latane/Darley cognitive model shows, there is a greater likelihood that people will help in an emergency situation. This is because most people watching a crime happen are unable or unwilling to recognize it as such and so they fail to help (Burkley 2009.

They often depend on the reactions of those around them.

Second, even if they realize they are watching a crime they won’t intervene and help because there isn’t anyone taking responsibility.

There are many people who watch the crime and share the responsibility for helping the victim.

Kitty Genovese’s 1963 murder led to this model being created. There were 38 people who watched the crime unfold, but none of them came up to assist the victim.

The model that they have presented is that emergency responders are appreciated and liked more because people don’t know that an emergency exists.

Since the number of helpers is small, they are appreciated and applauded.

Solution to A3

Self concept is a sociopsychology term that refers to the way a person perceives and thinks about themselves.

Accordingly, self-concept can be described as the ability to become aware of oneself.

People desire to have a positive attitude about themselves. There are many strategies that can be used to help them do this.

These strategies are put into action when one comes across situations that may threaten his or her positive outlook.

These strategies are crucial for psychological well being.

SELF AFFIRMATION THORY:This theory suggests that people can overcome the self-doubt caused by feelings of self-disease by focusing on and asserting their worth in another field.

One example is if a person gets addicted to something illegal. Instead of trying to lessen the effect of this discord, he or her tried to get into healthy eating habits, and a good workout routine that would automatically help him to overcome the stress, and threat, to his own self concept ((Stangor 2010)).

AVOIDANCE STAGGY: The persuasion effect is one of the most dangerous threats to self concept.

It is common for individuals trying to change the attitudes and outlooks of others through persuasion.

It can cause self-concern.

Avoidance is the best method to cope with the persuasion stress.

Avoidance does not refer to total ignorance. It also means being selective when it comes to people we interact with (Fransen et.al. 2015).

This strategy is effective if someone has a positive outlook and is able to stay within the people around them.

POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT AND THINKING: This approach, while it may seem simple, is one that requires the individual to think positively about oneself even when the others around him don’t.

A key factor in improving self-esteem is to be optimistic about oneself.

Self-esteem is essential for coping with any threats.

Positive thinking directly relates to high self-esteem. This in turn has a direct impact upon the mental health of an individual (Mann, et.al. 2004).

This is how you can face any challenges with confidence.

SELF CONSCIOUS Theory: A strategy to deal with the threats associated with self-concept is the self conscious theory.

It describes a state in which a person puts importance on their own concerns as well as those of others.

The former refers to private self consciousness, where one questions one’s self and feels towards others. The latter is focused on how the public views them as persons.

Parmar. 2004).

These two self consciousness can help someone see themselves from a different perspective and allow them to face any threats to their self awareness.

Section B

Solution for B1

Children who are hungry and have aggressive tendencies show a strong relationship.

It is common to observe that children will throw tantrums on irrelevant topics when they feel hungry.

Lack of adequate food can lead to developmental issues in children and cause psychological as well emotional stress (Centre on Hunger, Poverty). 2002).

There is an intimate relationship between inadequate food and aggressive behavioural patterns.

These findings are supported by numerous research.

Research clearly shows that children suffering from malnutrition have poor brain development and impulse control.

Children who are starving might go to any length to find food.

To function normally, a brain requires at least 20% nutrition. When this is not met, the brain begins to behave irrationally.

The research shows that a child who is not getting enough nutrition can have a permanent impact on his or her ability to control their impulses.

According to University of Texas of Dallas researchers, poor nutrition can lead to aggressive behavior and violence. 2016).

According to the research, brain development is affected by hungry stomachs. This has lead to aggression and eating low-nutrition foods.

A lack of nutrition can also be linked with hunger.

Another Australian study found that one in six children aged between 8-14 years goes to sleep with an empty stomach.

They suffer from various symptoms, such as anxiety, headaches, stomach aches or irritable attitude, as well as nervousness.

They are the hardest hit by their emotional quotient.

American research found that hunger was directly related to aggression and depression in children.

Research has shown that kids can’t stop themselves from being hungry.

Children will also suffer from brain damage if they are given food that is not nutritious.

Low cognitive performance can be caused by a child’s insufficient intake of iodine.

According to this research, hunger can lead to aggression. But, eating poor food to satisfy a long-lasting hunger can also have an adverse effect on the child’s behaviour (Parletta and Segal, 2016).

The research shows that hunger results in the consumption of unhealthy foods, which is dangerous for brain development as well as behaviour.

Solution to B2

To be a successful survival strategist, one must have self-contentment.

If one is unhappy with their own self, it makes it difficult to communicate well with members of different cultures.

Cultural differences have many impacts on the interactions and, in turn, the content of the self.

When we refer to culture, we mean language, beliefs values, dress, knowledge, customs and food habits.

Culture is thought to be passed down through generations.

The research has been done in two areas.

The research focuses on people who believe culture is important and then those who feel culture is overshadowed.

This means that self-content will vary from person, not culture, to person.

Some people may promote their culture through cross-cultural interactions and feel content doing so. Others might have strong feelings about their culture and be open to having conversations with others. However, the second thought is where people are more enthused about their culture but still find their self-contentment in maintaining the uniformity of the relations.

Globalization has altered the way people think about cultural differences.

Individuals can reduce differences in how they perceive and interact across cultures by being mentally able adapt and find fulfillment.

Some people find that culture gives them happiness.

It is common to see people speaking and interacting in their own language without any regard for whether others understand.

This provides them with a feeling of satisfaction, as they know their language well and try to preserve their culture among the many other cultures around them (Neyer, Harzing (2008)). However, psychologically it is appreciable but socio-psychologically the same is not welcomed simply because it shows that the person is not social and cannot adjust with the environment.

This problem is more prevalent in minority cultures.

Therefore, if someone is only culture specific to a particular cultural environment, his perceptions will be negatively viewed by society. This would lead to a loss of self-worth and satisfaction.

To survive in a society, one must accept his own culture and not be satisfied with it.

Solution for B3

Before we can discuss the socio psychological link between social representations rumour and the concept of socio representations, it is crucial to understand their meaning.

Social representation refers to a set of ideas and values that interact among members of the group or society they are representing.

It’s a technique for communicating on topics with which the person is already familiar.

A rumour is a story or piece of news that is of interest for the general public, even though it is not directly related to the subject.

It spreads like fire in the woods and there is no control over the truth.

They are inextricably linked.

A person must be socially active to survive in this modern world.

In order to be part of a social group or community, one must also participate in rumours.

These concepts have a strong link to attitude. Attitude defines opinion and social representative. Rumoured stories, as well as opinion, both require opinion from other members of a group even if they’re not asked.

However, social representation theories tend to focus on how a person interacts and reacts to the various social factors and common situations.

Social representation can be defined as the way that a particular piece or news item is discussed by different people, and so influences the behavioural patterns (Howarth, 2006).

Although they don’t think about the news as sacred, the people who interact discuss it in order to be part the society.

Since rumours can’t spread in isolation, they are part and parcel of social representation (Baxter.et.al. 2015).

You must be involved in the social conversation.

This shows that gossips are spread by people who are socially connected with each other and are part of a larger group.

Another theory that is closely related to rumours is conspiracy theory.

This theory refers to events that result from a plot devised and executed by a group or individuals with great power.

They are both closely connected because of rumours regarding uncertain stories and conspiracy theory. These theories result when individuals don’t have control over the current situations and then try to make sense by simply making up stories (Oaklander 2015.

This creates a situation in which people attempt to connect dots that are not really there.

Because of this, they spread a new version of their story that is based on rumours.

Like rumours being the reason for another rumour’s birth, believing in another conspiracy leads to trusting it.

While there was a rumour about the millennium virus in 1999, more people were open to believing that it was true.

Conspiracy makes people more fearful of the powerful.

If people are able to control their emotions, they can escape conspiracy theories and not become part of the rumours (Brotherton 2015.

So it can be seen that there is a deep socio-psychological relationship between conspiracy theories and rumours.References:

Centre on Poverty and Food insecurity (2002).

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Social Media and the Generation Propagation and Debunking Rumours. Retrieved from https://cradpdf.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/PDFS/unc200/p801886_A1b.pdfBrotherton,R. (2015).

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