Social Psych Ch. 8

Front 1

utilitarian function

Back 1

An attitudinal function that serves to alert people to rewarding objects and situations they should approach and costly or punishing objects or situations they should avoid. (page 275)

Front 2

ego-defensive function

Back 2

An attitudinal function that enables people to maintain cherished beliefs about themselves and their world by protecting them from contradictory information. (page 276)

Front 3

value-expressive function

Back 3

An attitudinal function whereby attitudes help people express their most cherished values—usually in groups in which these values can be supported and reinforced. (page 277)

Front 4

reference groups

Back 4

Groups whose opinions matter to a person and that affect the person’s opinions and beliefs. (page 277)

Front 5

knowledge function

Back 5

An attitudinal function whereby attitudes help organize people’s understanding of the world, guiding how they attend to, store, and retrieve information. (page 279)

Front 6

heuristic-systematic model

Back 6

A model of persuasion that maintains that there are two different routes of persuasion: the systematic route and the heuristic route. (page 281)

Front 7

elaboration likelihood model (ELM)

Back 7

A model of persuasion that maintains that there are two different routes of persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route. (page 281)

Front 8

central (systematic) route

Back 8

A persuasive route wherein people think carefully and deliberately about the content of a message, attending to its logic, cogency, and arguments as well as to related evidence and principles. (page 281)

Front 9

peripheral (heuristic) route

Back 9

A persuasive route wherein people attend to relatively simple, superficial cues related to the message, such as the length of the message or the expertise or attractiveness of the communicator. (page 282)

Front 10

source characteristics

Back 10

Characteristics of the person who delivers the message, including the person’s attractiveness, credibility, and expertise. (page 286)

Front 11

sleeper effect

Back 11

An effect that occurs when messages from unreliable sources initially exert little influence but later cause individuals’ attitudes to shift. (page 287)

Front 12

message characteristics

Back 12

Aspects of the message itself, including the quality of the evidence and the explicitness of its conclusions. (page 288)

Front 13

identifiable victim effect

Back 13

The tendency to be more moved by the plight of a single, vivid individual than by a more abstract number of individuals. (page 289)

Front 14

receiver characteristics

Back 14

Characteristics of the person who receives the message, including age, mood, personality, and motivation to attend to the message. (page 292)

Front 15

third-person effect

Back 15

The assumption by most people that “other people” are more prone to being influenced by persuasive messages (such as those in media campaigns) than they themselves are. (page 294)

Front 16

agenda control

Back 16

Efforts of the media to select certain events and topics to emphasize, thereby shaping which issues and events people think are important. (page 297)

Front 17

thought polarization hypothesis

Back 17

The hypothesis that more extended thought about a particular issue tends to produce more extreme, entrenched attitudes. (page 302)

Front 18

attitude inoculation

Back 18

Small attacks on people’s beliefs that engage their attitudes, prior commitments, and knowledge structures, enabling them to counteract a subsequent larger attack and be resistant to persuasion. (page 303)