Chapter 12

The book defines attitudes as the evaluation of objects, events, or ideas. There are several ways we require attitudes the first is by familiarity. We gain this by being exposed to something frequently, like foods in your culture. Also through classical conditioning we gain attitudes based on associations we have made between objects, such as a celebrity endorsing a popular shoe brand. Operant conditioning contributes too if you receive a reward every time you do something your more likely to keep doing it. We also develop attitudes based on society, for example for many westerners wouldn't eat a snail but in France its considered a delicacy. Attitudes can be changed and the theory of cognitive dissonance tells us why we might do it in some cases. The Festinger & Carlsmith experiment showed that people change their attitudes to explain their behavior. It showed that if we want to change attitudes we have to get them to do something inconsistent with their normal behavior. Attributions are peoples casual explanations for why events or actions occur. Experiments have found that people tend to be systematically bias in their processing information. They tend to make attributions consistent with what they previously believed. We are not always accurate in our attributions because of biases we have. Stereotypes are cognitive schemas that allow for fast and easy processing of information about people based on their membership in certain groups. According to the self fulfilling prophecy people tend to behave in ways that match their own or others expectations. They cause us to have different views on situations, for example the experiment where men where shown a picture of the woman they were on the phone with. The men that were shown a picture of an attractive woman reported her to be more sociable, poised, and humorous then the men presented with an unattractive photo. There are several ways to get rid of stereotypes and the prejudices that may come with them. One study showed boys at different summer camps competing in athletic events. The competition created some tension and hostility between the groups. After they had to do cooperative activities and started to make friends from different groups. So a great way to get rid of stereotypes and prejudices between groups is to make them work together on a goal. When people are put in certain situations their behavior is very predictive based on their attitude. For example in politics if a person is a democrat it is likely that in the election they will vote for a fellow democrat. There are two types of attitudes implicit and explicit. Explicit you know and are able to report to other people, such liking football or not. Implicit you are unaware because they are at the unconscious level, such as purchasing a product endorsed by a celebrity but being unaware of that fact. Personal attributions are defined as explanations that refer to internal characteristics, such as abilities, traits, moods, and effort. They help shape our personalities and make us individualized. Jigsaw classrooms are designed to involve person to person interactions. Studies have shown this leads to more positive attitudes toward other races when this is used.

Chapter 9

Motivation is defined as the factors that energize, direct or sustain a behavior. So it is basically why we do what we do. Most of the time we do things in hopes of some kind of reward. We may go to work everyday to get money to pay for food which we need. It could be because something sparked our interest or to get back to homeostasis by trying to return ourselves to a comfortable position. There are two different types of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation would be doing something for an outside reward, for example working to earn a paycheck. Intrinsic would be doing something because it is rewarding itself, such as listening to music. What we do is driven by one or the other of these motives. Emotion is defined as feelings that involve subjective evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs. Emotions are also adaptive because they prepare and guide behaviors, such as running from a dangerous animal. Also getting away when your scared. There are several different types of emotion including guilt and embarrassment which are used in the book. It talks about guilt as being when a person feels responsible for another persons negative state. According to the book embarrassment represents submission to and recognition of an unintentional social error. These different emotions seem to be liked in our self perception, how we view ourselves. There is evidence that damage to the prefrontal cortex effects emotion in people. There is an example in the beginning of the chapter of a man who had tissues removed from that area stopped showing signs of emotion after surgery. It has been found that the amygdala is also very important in emotions with fear. One patient that had this structure removed showed no fear even when she knew something was associated with a shock she didn't shy away from it. Negative feedback can affect motivation by telling us that we need to return ourselves back to a pleasant state. This is shown in the book with a person being in a cold room turning on the heat in hopes of returning to homeostasis. Very good supporting evidence for optimal level of arousal is athletic competition. If you are too over stimulated you become nervous and unable to focus on your task. If you aren't aroused you don't care and therefore tend to give little effort and not perform well. A very important thing about setting goals is we need to make sure they are realistic that we can actually obtain them. Another helpful idea is to make steps to reach your goal make it a process to simplify it. Flavor an variety are big factors in our motives for eating. We tend to eat more if it tastes good and we get bored of one food therefore stop eating before we are full. A study proved this when rats that were presented with a variety of food consumed more then the one food diet rats. One hormone that seems to have a big effect on human sexual motivation is testosterone. It has been shown that males need a certain level of testosterone to have sex and the more testosterone women have the more likely they are to have sexual thoughts and desires.

Chapter 8

Representations one of the general kinds is analogical representations. This is a mental representation with characteristics of an object. There is also symbiotic where it does not have physical characteristics. There is evidence with this in how analogical corresponds with geographical maps and symbiotic with how it is abstract. Expected utility is the ideal way for humans to make decisions by examining every option and possible outcome. The limitations to this would be its incredibly time consuming so humans have created shortcuts, known as heuristics, to help with decision making. Framing also contributes to decisions since it is how information is perceived. Goals are often associated with decision making. You could use sub goals to accomplish this. For example if you want to win a state championship you first have to have win your district first. Another is a sudden insight. This would be when the solution just comes to you immediately. There are several different types of intelligence that people have. The first would be general intelligence, the idea that one general factor underlies all mental abilities. One major finding is the fact we can find the general intelligence based on IQ tests. Fluid intelligence involves information processing in complex situation. An example would be reasoning or making analogies. Another is crystallized intelligence, which is the kind we gain from experience.  Prototype is based on categorization and how within categories some things are more representative than others. The good thing about this is it allows us to be flexible. People tend to follow scripts in certain situations. This is based on their expectations either from what they were told or what they experienced. There is a difference in problem solving and decision making. With decisions your trying to chose the best option. In problem solving your overcoming an obstacle. We tend to forecast how we will feel after events. If we think we will be sad we tend to do things to cheer ourselves up. Reliability would be how consistent something is. This differs from Validity which would be how relevant something is.