1. What is your attitude about Death Penalty? What are the specific components of your attitude about Death Penalty? Use specific terms, definitions, explanations, and examples to illustrate your points.
2. How did you form the attitude that you have about the Death Penalty? For example, what are some of the socialization agents, methods of conditioning, or other factors that have contributed to your attitude formation? Use specific terms, definitions, explanations, and examples to illustrate your points.
3. Describe the general cognitive structure that you have with regards to this particular topic. What are some of the primitive beliefs that help with your attitude formation about this topic? What are some of the minor beliefs that help support your particular attitude about this topic? Use specific terms, definitions, explanations, and examples to illustrate your points.
4. With regards to your attitude about Death Penalty, would you say that your attitude predicts your behavior? Make sure to discuss the relevant characteristics of the attitude that influence how you might behave in situations involving Death Penalty. Are there any specific situational constraints that could change your attitude about this topic in certain contexts?
Use specific terms, definitions, explanations, and examples to illustrate your points. vocabs could be use in the essay
Attitude : predisposition to respond to a particular object in a generally favorable (positive attitude) or unfavorable way (negative attitude)
Prejudice: a strong like or dislike for members of a specific group. People use stereotyped beliefs to justify their prejudice
Primitive belief: the unquestioning acceptance of the credibility of some authority (the Constitution, the Bible, etc.). Primitive beliefs are more fundamental than other beliefs
Cognitive consonance: consistent, one logically follows the other. Example: Hannah is environmentally conscious, so it is no surprise that she recycles anything she can.
Cognitive dissonance: inconsistent, one does not logically follow the other. Example: Hannah is environmentally conscious, so it wouldn't make sense for her to buy an SUV.
Implicit attitudes : Highly accessible attitudes that are activated automatically by the perception of the related object
Correspondence: or number of elements that are the same in the attitude and behavior, the better we may predict behavior
Situational constraints : refer to influences on behavior due to the likelihood that other persons will learn about the behavior and respond positively or negatively to it
Cognitions: -Subjective norms: the individual's perception of others' beliefs about the appropriateness of the behavior and their motivation to comply with those expectations -
Affect : any kind of subjective positive or negative evaluation of an object. Includes: Short-term: anger from getting cut-off in traffic, happiness from buying a chocolate milkshake. Long-term: emotions regarding holidays, or emotions about seasons.
Emotion: short lived reactions to a stimulus outside of the individual.
Sentiment: longer term emotional states such as love, grief, and jealousy. Emphasis on social aspect of emotion
Social influence: occurs when one person (the source) engages in some behavior that causes another person (the target) to behave differently from how he or she would otherwise behave