Many different kinds of psychological researchers spend their careers studying the process of

(A) Explain how the following psychological principles influence attitudes.

Point 1 — Students should explain how the motivation to have consistent attitudes and behaviors influences attitudes. Students can describe this general influence or use a specific example. Students could describe how an action that is inconsistent with a specific attitude causes dissonance that is reduced when the attitude is changed.

Point 2 — Students should explain how the internal cognitive rules we use to understand the world influences attitudes. Students can describe this general influence or use a specific example. The student essay could describe how one of the mental rules we use establishes or changes an attitude, such as a stereotype about a specific type of person.

Point 3 — Students should explain how the process of reciprocal determinism impacts attitude. Students can describe this general influence or use a specific example. This explanation or example should explain the reciprocal relationship between personality, environment, and behavior, and how these interactions relate to attitude.

Point 4 — Students should explain how the concept of locus of control describes types of attitudes. Students can describe this general influence or use a specific example. The explanation should include the attitude that our actions determine what happens to us (internal locus of control) and/or the attitude that influences outside our control determines what happens to us (external locus of control). Students could go on to describe how internal or external locus of controls might lead to other attitudes (e.g., optimism or pessimism).

Point 5 — Students should explain how belief bias influences attitude. Students can describe this general influence or use a specific example. This explanation or example should include the idea that we might not change our attitudes in the face of contradictory evidence, and some attitudes might represent an illogical conclusion in order to confirm our preexisting beliefs.

Point 6 — Students should explain how the fundamental attribution error contributes to attitude formation. Students can describe this general influence or use a specific example. The explanation or example should describe how the mental act of attributing a person’s behavior to their internal disposition rather than to the situation reflects and establishes an attitude toward that person.

(B) Describe two interventions a psychologist might use to change a prejudiced attitude. One intervention should be based on the behaviorist perspective and one intervention should use the cognitive perspective.

Point 7 — In part B, students need to describe two interventions a psychologist might use to change an attitude. In order to earn point 7, students need to describe an intervention based on the behavioral perspective. This intervention needs to clearly use either an operant or classical conditioning technique in order to change an attitude.

Point 8 — In order to earn point 8, students need to describe an intervention based on the cognitive perspective. This intervention needs to clearly involve how we interpret, process, or remember events. Using the perspective, the psychologist would try to intervene in the ways a person mentally interprets or remembers an event and this change results in a change in attitude.