Attitude and Social Cognition – important questions for Boards 2027
CBSE Class 12 Psychology
What effect can being rewarded for expressing an attitude have on that attitude?
Answer
Praise for expressing a particular attitude can strengthen it, making the individual more likely to develop that attitude further.
How are attitudes generally learned through experience and interaction? Explain how association can transfer positive qualities from one person or thing to an associated object.
Answer
Attitudes are generally learned through personal experiences and interaction with others. Through association, positive qualities of a teacher become linked to the subject taught, leading students to develop a liking for that subject.
Explain how attitudes learned through socialisation and observation can contribute to the development of prejudice. Illustrate your answer with an example.
Answer
Prejudice is a negative attitude towards people based on their membership in a social group. 1. During socialisation, children learn attitudes from parents, family members, peers and cultural norms. Repeated negative comments about a group can teach children to view its members with suspicion. 2. Children may also acquire prejudice through observation and modelling. When influential adults avoid or insult members of a group, children may imitate that behaviour and adopt the attitudes behind it. 3. For example, a child may hear family members claim that people from a particular region are dishonest. If the child also sees adults excluding regional neighbours, the child may learn and repeat the stereotype without judging individuals personally. 4. Group approval can reinforce the attitude, while disagreement may be discouraged, allowing prejudice to persist. Thus, learned attitudes and observed behaviour can contribute to prejudice across generations.
Explain the relationship between prejudice and discrimination, giving examples of discrimination. How can laws address discrimination, and why are prejudice’s cognitive and emotional components harder to change?
Answer
Prejudice is a usually negative attitude towards a group, while discrimination is behaviour that treats a target group less positively than a favoured group. 1. Prejudices can exist without being expressed through discrimination, and discrimination can occur without prejudice, although the two often go together. Their presence can lead to conflict between groups. 2. Discrimination has occurred on the basis of race and social class or caste. Other examples in our society include discrimination based on gender, religion, community, physical handicap and illnesses such as AIDS. The Nazi genocide against Jewish people shows the extreme consequences of prejudice and discrimination. 3. Laws can curb discriminatory behaviour. However, the cognitive and emotional components of prejudice are more difficult to change than behaviour. 4. Stereotypes and negative attitudes may persist even when discriminatory acts are restricted, making changes in beliefs and feelings especially challenging. Laws can limit discriminatory actions, but changing prejudiced attitudes remains difficult.
Can exposure to information through media form attitudes without the physical presence of other people? State how such information may affect attitudes.
Answer
Yes. Media can form positive or negative attitudes without others’ physical presence; biographies, for example, may foster positive attitudes towards hard work.
Explain how people can learn attitudes by modelling others. What are group or cultural norms, and how can they become attitudes?
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Explain how competition between groups over limited resources can contribute to prejudice. Use an example to show how this may affect relations between groups.
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Explain the cognitive, affective and behavioural (conative) components of an attitude. Use one example to show how these components relate to an attitude object.
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According to balance theory, when relationships among a person, another person and an attitude object are imbalanced, the person is most likely to: (A) experience discomfort and be motivated to restore balance (B) stop forming attitudes (C) ignore all relationships with the attitude object (D) become unable to change any attitude
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Explain how a person may change one of two conflicting cognitions to restore consonance. Give an example.
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37 more probable questions in this chapter, every one with a full answer.
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