1.Define impression formation.

Ans:
When we meet people in public we start making conclusions about their personal qualities.This is called as impression formation.

2.Define attitude. Discuss the components of an attitude.
OR
Explain any two components of attitudes.
OR
Explain the A-B-C components of an attitude.

Ans:
Attitude is a state of the mind, a set of views, or thoughts, regarding some topic which has an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral quality).
Attitude is accompanied by A-B-C components and they are:
Affective Component : is an emotional component.
Behavioural Component:a tendency to act in a particular way with regard to the attitude object is categorised as behavioural component.
Cognitive Component:The thought component is referred to as the cognitive aspect.
Here is an example of a situation where we can categorise the A-B-C component.Consider your village is part of tree plantation campaign.
Your thought towards this campaign of tree plantation is positive (cognitive aspect). You feel happy when you see greenery and sad when the trees are cut (emotional ie affective component). If you happen to participate in this campaign your involvement is coming in behavioral component. In general, we expect all three components to be consistent with each other, that is, in the same direction. However, such consistency may not necessarily be found in all situations.

3.The cognitive component of attitudes which form the ground on which they stand is _______________ .
(a) Values (b) Beliefs (c) Prejudice (d) Stereotype

Ans: (b) Beliefs

4.Discuss how attitudes are learnt through exposure to information.

Ans:

• In today’s world an individual is exposed to a lot of information with the help of media, so a negative or positive attitude is formed on the information provided.
• By reading the biographies of self-actualised persons, an individual may develop a positive attitude towards hard work and other aspects for achieving success in life.

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5.Explain the influence of primacy, recency and halo effects on impression formation.

Ans:
The order or sequence in which information is presented affects the kind of impression formed.
There are three effects and they are :
Primacy effect: the information given at the start has a strong impact than the information given at the end. This is called a primary effect. It belvies first impression is the lasting impression.
Recency:If the perceiver pays attention to the information given till the last, than the last information given has a lasting effect and that is called as recency effect.
Halo:We have a tendency to think that a target person who has one set of positive qualities must also be having other specific positive qualities that are associated with the first set. This is known as the halo effect. For example if we know if an individual is tidy and punctual we are likely to think that the person will be hard working too.

6.Analyse the role of the following factors in determining pro-social behaviour :
a) Cultural factors
b) Diffusion of responsibility

Ans:
Cultural Factors:

• Some cultures encourage people to help needy and distressed.
• Culture that encourages independence, in this type you will see less less pro-social behaviour , as they will take care of themselves and will not let them depend on others.
• Individuals in cultures suffering from a shortage of resources may not show a high level of pro-social behaviour.

• Pro-social behaviour can be reduced when the number of bystanders is more than one.
• Consider for example an accident on road side where there are a lot of people gathered, each one will think it is not its responsibility to help the victim and someone else will help. This phenomenon is called diffusion of responsibility.
• On the other hand, if there is only one bystander, this person is more likely to take the responsibility and actually help the victim.

7.Analyse the importance of the following in social facilitation :
a)Evaluation Apprehension
b)Nature of the task

Ans:
Evaluation Apprehension:

• Better performance in the presence of others is because the person feels she or he is being evaluated. Cottrell called this idea evaluation apprehension.
• The person will be praised if the performance is good (reward), or criticised if it is bad (punishment).
• We wish to get praise and avoid criticism, therefore we try to perform well and avoid mistakes.

• The nature of the task to be performed also affects the performance in the presence of others.
• For example, in the case of a simple task, the person is sure of performing well, and the eagerness to get praise or reward is stronger. So the individual performs better in the presence of others than s/he does when alone.
• On the other hand, if there is only one bystander, this person is more likely to take the responsibility and actually help the victim.

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8.When the information presented first has a stronger effect than the information presented at the end, it is called ............................. .
(a) Halo effect
(b)Primacy effect
(c) Recency effect
(d) Secondary effect

Ans: (b) Primacy effect

9.Explain "Kernel of Truth" as a source of prejudice.

Ans:
Prejudices are examples of attitudes towards a particular group and which are mostly negative.
Sometimes people continue to hold stereotypes i.e ideas regarding the characteristics of a specific group and they think that, after all, there must be some truth, or ‘kernel of truth’ in what everyone says about the other group.
Even a few examples are sufficient to support the "kernel of truth" idea.

10.Discuss the three social norms of pro-social behaviour.

Ans:
Pro-social behaviour is expressed when the situation activates certain social norms that require helping others.
There are three norms:
Social responsibility: We should help anyone who needs help, without considering any other factor.
Reciprocity: We should help those persons who have helped us in the past.
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 more fair to help a person who has lost all belongings in a flood, than to help a person who has lost everything through gambling.

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11.Analyse the following processes of Attitude Formation:
(a) Learning attitudes by association
(b) Learning attitudes through modelling

Ans:
(a) Learning attitudes by association

• You must have seen that students tend to like a particular subject because of the teacher. This is because they see many positive qualities in that teacher; these positive qualities get linked to the subject that s/he teaches, and ultimately get expressed in the form of liking for the subject.
• In other words, a positive attitude towards the subject is learned through the positive association between a teacher and a student.

12.When Mumbai was flooded, the community stepped forward to help the effected people with food , water and shelter. This is an instance of
(a)Pro-Social Behaviour
(b)Diffusion of Responsibility
(c)Social Facilitation
(d)Social Cognition

Ans: (a) Pro-Social Behaviour

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13. State any four factors influencing pro-social behaviour.

Ans:

• Pro-social behaviour is based on an inborn, natural tendency in human beings to help other members of their own species. This inborn tendency facilitates survival of the species.
• Pro-social behaviour is influenced by learning. Individuals who are brought up in a family environment that sets examples of helping others, shows more prosocial behaviour than individuals who are brought up in a family environment devoid of these features.
• Cultural factors influence pro-social behaviour. Some cultures actively encourage people to help the needy and distressed.In cultures that encourage independence, individuals will show less pro-social behaviour, because people are expected to take care of themselves, and not to depend on help from others.
• Pro-social behaviour is affected by the expected reactions of the person who is being helped. For example, people might be unwilling to give money to a needy person because they feel that the person might feel insulted, or may become dependent.

14. With the help of an example, explain how cognitive dissonance leads to attitude change.

Ans:
The concept of cognitive dissonance was proposed by Leon Festinger.
Here is an example of cognitive dissonance:
Think about the following ideas ("cognitions") :
Cognition I : Pan masala causes mouth cancer which is fatal.
Cognition II : I eat pan masala
Considering 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.

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15. Explain social cognition with the help of suitable examples.

Ans:
"Social cognition" refers to all those psychological processes that deal with the gathering and processing of information related to social objects.It includes all the processes that help in understanding, explaining and interpreting social behaviour.

• The processing of information related to social objects i.e particularly individuals, groups, people, relationships, social issues differs from the processing of information related to physical objects.
• People as social objects may themselves change as the cognitive process takes place.
• An example is 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 behaviour, depending on who is watching her/him - the teacher or the mother.

16. What is social facilitation?

Ans:
One of the first observations made about social behaviour was that performance on specific tasks is influenced by the mere presence of others. This is called social facilitation.
For example, Reena is about to participate in a music contest. She is very talented, yet she is feeling very nervous about the event.

17. State any three strategies for handling prejudice.

Ans:
Knowing about the causes or sources would be the first step in handling prejudice.
Thus, the strategies for handling prejudice would be effective if they aim at :
(a) minimising opportunities for learning prejudices,
(b) changing such attitudes,
(c) de-emphasising a narrow social identity based on the ingroup, and
(d) discouraging the tendency towards self-fulfilling prophecy among the victims of prejudice.

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18. Explain the A-B-C components of an attitude.

Ans:
Attitude is a state of the mind, a set of views, or thoughts, regarding some topic which has an evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral quality).
Attitude is accompanied by A-B-C components and they are:
Affective Component : is an emotional component.
Behavioural Component:a tendency to act in a particular way with regard to the attitude object is categorised as behavioural component.
Cognitive Component:The thought component is referred to as the cognitive aspect.
Here is an example of a situation where we can categorise the A-B-C component.Consider your village is part of tree plantation campaign.
Your thought towards this campaign of tree plantation is positive (cognitive aspect).
You feel happy when you see greenery and sad when the trees are cut (emotional ie affective component).
If you happen to participate in this campaign your involvement is coming in behavioral component.
In general, we expect all three components to be consistent with each other, that is, in the same direction.However, such consistency may not necessarily be found in all situations.

19.What is attitude? Discuss its nature.

Ans:
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).
Attitude 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 aspect. Taken together, these three aspects have been referred to as the A-B-C components (Affective-Behavioural-Cognitive components) of attitude

20.What are the two source characteristics that affect attitude change.

Ans:
Source credibility and attractiveness are two features that affect attitude change.
Attitudes mostly likely change when the message comes from a highly credible source rather than from a low-credible source.
An example that explains above scenario is : Adults who are planning to buy a laptop are more convinced by a computer engineer who points out the special features of a particular brand of laptop, than they would be by a schoolchild who might give the same information. But, if the buyers are themselves schoolchildren, they may be convinced more by another schoolchild advertising a laptop than they would be by a professional giving the same information.
Products such as cars, sales may increase if they are publicised, not necessarily by experts, but by popular public figures.

21. What are the steps in which attitude change takes place according to the two-step concept ?

Ans:
In case of two-step concept attitude change can take place in 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 becomes 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.

22. The two-step concept was proposed by _____________, an Indian psychologist.

Ans: S.M. Mohsin

23. ____________ means that the target has liking and regard for the source.

Ans: Identification

24.How do values and beliefs differ from attitudes ?

Ans:
Beliefs refer to the cognitive component of attitudes, and form the ground on which attitudes stand, such as belief in God, or belief in democracy as a political ideology.
Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a 'should' or 'ought' aspect, such as moral or ethical values. One example of a value is the idea that one should work hard, or that one should always be honest, because honesty is the best policy. Values are formed when a particular belief or attitude becomes an inseparable part of the person's outlook on life. Consequently, values are difficult to change.

25. How values are based on belief or attitude ?

Ans:
Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a 'should' or 'ought' aspect, such as moral or ethical values. One example of a value is the idea that one should work hard, or that one should always be honest, because honesty is the best policy. Values are formed when a particular belief or attitude becomes an inseparable part of the person's outlook on life.

26. How does social facilitation takes place ?

Ans:
When performance of specific task is influenced by the mere presence of others is called as social facilitation.
Norman Triplett observed that individuals show better performance in the presence of others, than when they are performing the same task alone.
Some important facts about social facilitation are as follows :

• Better performance in the presence of others is because the person experiences arousal, which makes the person react in a more intense manner. This explanation was given by Zajonc (this name is pronounced to rhyme with 'science').
• The arousal is because the person feels she or he is being evaluated. Cottrell called this idea evaluation apprehension. The person will be praised if the performance is good (reward), or criticised if it is bad (punishment). We wish to get praise and avoid criticism, therefore we try to perform well and avoid mistakes.
• The nature of the task to be performed also affects the performance in the presence of others. For example, in the case of a simple or familiar task, the person is more sure of performing well, and the eagerness to get praise or reward is stronger. So the individual performs better in the presence of others than s/he does when alone. But in the case of a complex or new task, the person may be afraid of making mistakes.The fear of criticism or punishment is stronger. So the individual performs worse in the presence of others than s/he does when alone.
• If the others present are also performing the same task, this is called a situation of co-action. In this situation, there is social comparison and competition. Once again, when the task is simple or a familiar one, performance is better under co-action than when the person is alone.

27. Describe the important factors that influence impression formation?

Ans:
When we meet people, we make inferences about their personal qualities. This is called impression formation.
Impression formation and attribution are influenced by :

• the nature of information available to the perceiver
• social schemas in the perceiver (including stereotypes)
• personality characteristics of the perceiver, and
• situational factors

Q 28. Discuss the factors that influence attitude formation.

Ans:
Following are the factors that influence attitude formation.
Family and School Environment

• In the early years of life, parents and other family members play a significant role in shaping attitude formation.
• Later , the school environment becomes an important background for attitude formation.
• Learning of attitudes within the family and school usually takes place by association, through rewards and punishments, and through modelling.

• Reference groups indicate to an individual learning of attitudes through group or cultural norms , also the acceptable behaviour and ways of thinking in a group.
• Attitudes towards various topics, such as political, religious and social groups, occupations, national and other issues are often developed through reference groups.
• The influence of reference group is noticed at the beginning of adolescence, at which time it is important for the individual to feel that they belongs to a group.
• The role of reference groups in attitude formation may also be a case of learning through reward and punishment.

• Many attitudes are formed through direct personal experiences which bring about a drastic change in our attitude towards people and our own life.
• An example relating to personal experience : a driver in the army went through a personal experience that transformed his life. On one mission, he narrowly escaped death although all his companions got killed. Wondering about the purpose of his own life, he gave up his job in the army, returned to his native village in Maharashtra, and worked actively as a community leader.Through a purely personal experience this individual evolved a strong positive attitude towards community upliftment.

• The media can exert both good and bad influences on attitudes.
• The media and Internet make people better informed than other modes of communication. The bad thing is, that there is no check on the nature of information being gathered, and therefore no control over the attitudes that are being formed, or the direction of change in the existing attitudes.
• The media can be used to create consumerist attitudes where none existed, and can also be harnessed to create positive attitudes to facilitate social harmony.

29. Anshu feels that assertive and successful women might become too powerful and neglect their family responsibilities. Explain the factors that will help in changing Anshu's attitude towards assertive and successful women.
OR
Explain briefly the factors that influence attitude change.

Ans:
Following are the factors that will help in changing Anshu's attitude towards assertive and successful women. Characteristics of the existing attitude

• Positive attitudes are easier to change than negative attitudes are.
• Extreme attitudes, and central attitudes are more difficult to change than the less extreme, and peripheral (less significant) attitudes are. Simple attitudes are easier to change than multiple attitudes are.
• An attitude change may be congruent — it may change in the same direction as the existing attitude (for example, a positive attitude may become more positive, or a negative attitude may become more negative).
• On the other hand, an attitude change may be incongruent — it may change in a direction opposite to the existing attitude (for example, a positive attitude becomes less positive, or negative, or a negative attitude becomes less negative, or positive).
• An attitude may change in the direction of the information that is presented, or in a direction opposite to that of the information presented.

• Source credibility and attractiveness are two features that affect attitude change.
• Attitudes are more likely to change when the message comes from a highly credible source rather than from a low-credible source.For example adults who are planning to buy a laptop will listen more to a computer engineer than a schoolchild. But, if the buyers are themselves schoolchildren, they may be convinced more by another school child advertising a laptop than by a professional telling the same thing.
• In the case of some products such as cars, sales may increase if they are publicised, not necessarily by experts, but by popular public figures.

• The message is the information that is presented in order to bring about an attitude change.
• Attitudes will change when the amount of information that is given about the topic is just enough, neither too much nor too little.
• Message given can contain rational or an emotional appeal.For example a pressure cooker ad points out that using of pressure cooker will save fuel this gives a rational appeal whereas cooking in pressure cooker preservers the nutrients gives emotional appeal.
• The motives activated by the message also determine attitude change. For example, drinking milk may be said to make a person healthy and good-looking, or more energetic and more successful at one's job.

• Qualities of the target, such as persuasibility, strong prejudices, self-esteem, and intelligence influence the likelihood and extent of attitude change.
• People, who have a more open and flexible personality, change more easily.
• People with strong prejudices are less prone to any attitude change than those who do not hold strong prejudices.
• Persons who have a low self-esteem, and do not have sufficient confidence in themselves, change their attitudes more easily than those who are high on self-esteem.

30.Which one of the following is a feature of an attitude?
(a) Centrality
(b) Behavioural
(c) Cognitive
(d) Affective

Ans: (a) Centrality

31.Vinita holds a negative attitude towards individuals of a particular community. She avoids interacting or helping them in college. Identify and explain the behaviour being exhibited by Vinita.

Ans: The behaviour exhibited by Vinita is of Discrimation.
Prejudice may also get translated into discrimination, the behavioural component, whereby people behave in a less positive way towards a particular target group compared to another group which they favour.
Wherever prejudice and discrimination exist, conflicts are very likely to arise between groups within the same society. Our own society has witnessed many deplorable instances of discrimination, with and without prejudice, based on gender, religion, community, caste, physical handicap, and illnesses such as AIDS.

Q 31.What is prejudice? Write any THREE sources which lead to the development of prejudices.

Ans:
Prejudices refer to preconceived opinions or attitudes held by members of one group towards another. The word literally means "pre-judgement", that is, an opinion formed in advance of any familiarity with the subject, before considering any available evidence.
Here are the three sources that lead to the development of prejudices.
Learning

• Prejudices can also be learned through association, reward and punishment, observing others, group or cultural norms and exposure to information that encourages prejudice.
• The family, reference groups, personal experiences and the media may play a role in the learning of prejudices.
• People who learn prejudiced attitudes may develop a "prejudiced personality", and show low adjusting capacity, anxiety, and feelings of hostility against the outgroup.

• Individuals who have a strong sense of social identity and have a very positive attitude towards their own group boost this attitude by holding negative attitudes towards other groups. These are shown as prejudices.

• In Scapegoating the majority group places the blame on a minority outgroup for its own social, economic or political problems.
• The minority is too weak or too small in number to defend itself against such accusations.
• Scapegoating is a group based way of expressing frustration, and it often results in negative attitudes or prejudice against the weaker group.

Q 32.Discuss the strategies for handling prejudice ?

Ans: To know about the source or cause is the first way to handle prejudice. The strategies will work well if they focus on following:

• minimising opportunities for learning prejudices,
• changing such attitudes,
• de-emphasising a narrow social identity based on the ingroup, and
• discouraging the tendency towards selffulfilling prophecy among the victims of prejudice.

• Education and information dissemination:for correcting stereotypes related to specific target groups and tackling the problem of a strong ingroup bias.
• Increasing intergroup contact:allows for direct communication, removal of mistrust between the groups, and even discovery of positive qualities in the outgroup.
  However, these strategies are successful only if :
  • the two groups meet in a cooperative rather than competitive context,
  • close interactions between the groups helps them to know each other better, and
  • the two groups are not different in power or status
• Highlighting individual identity rather than group identity:thus weakening the importance of group (both ingroup and outgroup) as a basis of evaluating the other person.

Q 33. What is cognitive dissonance? Give an example.

Ans: Cognitive dissonance emphasises the cognitive component.The basic idea is 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. I

Here is an example of cognitive dissonance:
Think about the following ideas ("cognitions") :
Cognition I : Pan masala causes mouth cancer which is fatal.
Cognition II : I eat pan masala
Considering 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.

Q 34. The concept of cognitive dissonance was proposed by ____________.
a) Leon Festinger
b) S.M. Mohsin
c) Cottrell
d) Carlsmith

Ans:a) Leon Festinger

Q 35. ____________is a phenomenon by which the majority group places the blame on a minority outgroup for its own social, economic or political problems.

Ans: Scapegoating

Q 36.Explain Scapegoating.

Ans: This is a phenomenon by which the majority group places the blame on a minority outgroup for its own social, economic or political problems. The minority is too weak or too small in number to defend itself against such accusations. Scapegoating is a groupbased way of expressing frustration, and it often results in negative attitudes or prejudice against the weaker group.

Q 37.Tarun's group has won the elections from his constituency. His opponents, Ramesh and his group, are weak and too small in number. Tarun often expresses frustration and negative attitude towards Ramesh's group. This is known as _________.

Ans: Scapegoating