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What does the 'emotional dog and its rational tail' metaphor represent in human decision-making?
What is meant by 'moral dumbfounding'?
In the example of whether to slap one's father for $100,000, what drives the majority's decision?
How does reasoning function in relation to moral judgments according to the model presented?
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Which of the following scenarios illustrates the principle that reasoning follows emotional decisions?
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What role does rationality play in moral decision-making according to the model?
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What is suggested about psychopaths in relation to reasoning and morality?
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What primarily influences human attitudes according to the model discussed?
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What are explicit attitudes characterized by?
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How does the Implicit Association Test (IAT) measure attitudes?
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What does affective value primarily arise from?
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Which component of an attitude relates to emotional responses?
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How can attitudes predict behavior?
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What happens to the perception of sweet substances when the ventral pallidum is damaged?
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Which of the following best describes an implicit attitude?
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What is the primary role of the cognitive component of an attitude?
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Which statement about attitudes is true?
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What best characterizes the affective component of an attitude?
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Which of the following statements illustrates a common misconception about attitudes?
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How is value derived according to the discussion on affective value?
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Which example best reflects an emotional response leading to a cognitive assessment?
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What role does the ventral pallidum play in the brain?
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Which of the following is NOT one of the core motives for evaluation mentioned?
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How does evolution contribute to affective values in animals?
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What is described as a common affective response learned through ancestors?
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Which personality trait is associated with liberal political orientation?
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How does conscientiousness relate to conservatism?
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What percentage of the population's political orientation differences is influenced by genetic factors?
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What is the 'better than average effect'?
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What does a classic study comparing monozygotic and dizygotic twins estimate?
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How does culture influence moral values over time?
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Why would a mutation preventing fear of spiders not thrive in the population?
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Which aspect of personality is generally linked to differences in attitudes among individuals?
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What is a characteristic of the optimistic bias?
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What is the main implication of the shared feelings of disgust towards certain behaviors?
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What does Schadenfreude refer to?
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How does activity in the nucleus accumbens relate to purchasing decisions?
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How does dopamine function in relation to rewards?
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Which neurotransmitter is primarily responsible for the desire or wanting of a reward?
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What are the two separate experiences related to rewards identified in the content?
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Which neurotransmitters are involved in the experience of 'liking'?
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What was a key finding from the monkey reward experiment?
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In the context of the content, the term 'wanting' is best defined as:
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What happens to dopamine release when the predictive power of a cue increases?
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Which of the following statements about wanting and liking is true?
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What was a conclusion drawn from Takahashi et al.'s study?
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What can increase the liking of sugar in rats based on neurotransmitter manipulation?
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Which term best describes the desire for a reward influenced by environmental cues?
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Which factor is most likely to influence changes in social norms regarding sexual morality?
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How do monozygotic twins differ from dizygotic twins in terms of heritability value for attitudes?
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Which of the following is an example of the mere exposure effect?
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What role does the ventral tegmental area (VTA) play in the brain?
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How does damage to the amygdala affect fear learning?
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What factor contributes to the way we assign value to experiences?
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Which outcome is likely when individuals are repeatedly exposed to pleasurable music?
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What is one consequence of increased acceptance of pre-marital sex in society?
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What is the primary function of the nucleus accumbens in relation to reward?
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In the context of attachment theory, how does a parent-child relationship affect future romantic relationships?
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Which statement about social standards and moral judgment is correct?
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How can previous experiences shape future attitudes?
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Which of the following is a key characteristic of the mere exposure effect?
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What is the potential impact of societal changes on personal beliefs regarding drug use?
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What occurs when dopamine activity is enhanced?
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What is a common effect observed in drug addicts over time regarding their feelings toward the drug?
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When participants are blocked from obtaining a desired prize, how do their attitudes typically change?
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What role do neurotransmitters play in the relationship between wanting and liking?
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Which of the following describes cognitive dissonance?
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What is NOT a suggested method to reduce cognitive dissonance?
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What consequence can arise from the justification of effort?
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Which factor can contribute to the emotional value of a midterm exam?
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What does the hard problem of consciousness address?
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What can result from the experience of dissonance when one's thoughts and behaviors are inconsistent?
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What influences emotional responses to events like a midterm exam?
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What is a consequence of increasing desire for something that cannot be obtained?
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How can social norms influence individual reactions to midterms?
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Which approach does NOT contribute to reducing cognitive dissonance?
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What is the primary reason people value their own creations more than those made by experts?
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In the context of post-decision dissonance, what emotional response might a person feel after making a choice they are indifferent about?
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How does the paradox of choice relate to satisfaction with purchasing decisions?
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In experiments regarding decision-making, what effect was observed when participants had the option to reverse their choices?
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Which scenario would likely produce stronger post-decision dissonance?
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What is a common misconception regarding social influence?
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What effect does the presence of choice have on individuals' evaluations of their decisions?
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What is an effect of investing time and energy into a product?
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Which statement accurately reflects the findings on freedom and happiness?
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How do people evaluate their chosen options after making a decision?
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What psychological phenomenon explains why people might overvalue their own creations?
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What can be inferred about people’s preferences when given the chance to change their choice?
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What kind of social influence can occur even in the absence of others?
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Which type of decision typically leads to stronger feelings of regret or dissonance?
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Study Notes
Moral Judgements
- Moral Dumbfounding - People have a difficult time explaining their moral judgments, even if they feel strongly about them. They often hold strong beliefs without being able to articulate their reasoning clearly.
- Psychopathy - Psychopaths demonstrate perfectly functional reasoning capabilities, they can logically grasp the concepts of right and wrong. However, they act immorally due to a lack of emotional empathy rather than a deficiency in reasoning skills.
Attitudes and their Components
- Explicit Attitudes - Consciously held beliefs and opinions that can be easily verbalized.
- Implicit Attitudes - Subconscious beliefs and opinions that are harder to articulate. They can be conflicting with explicit attitudes.
- Implicit Association Test (IAT) - A method to measure implicit attitudes by analyzing reaction times to associate concepts, like "good/bad" with specific targets, like "self/other".
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Attitude Components -
- Affective: The emotional value attached to an object, including feelings of liking or disliking.
- Cognitive: The thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge about an object that contribute to the overall evaluation.
- Behavioral: The actions or behaviors that result from the attitude.
Affective Value
- The Brain Constructs Value: The brain does not merely reflect existing value; it actively creates value based on perception and interpretation. This means that the "goodness" or "badness" of something is not inherent to the object itself, but a product of our brains.
- The Ventral Pallidum: A crucial brain region involved in assigning affective value. Damage to this area can lead to a reversal of liking or disliking responses, particularly towards sweet substances. This demonstrates that liking is not inherent to the sweet taste but is a brain construct that can be altered.
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Two Core Motivations for Evaluation:
- To be right: Driven by a need to accurately perceive the world and make accurate predictions to achieve goals.
- To feel good: Driven by a desire for hedonic pleasure and a positive emotional experience. These two motives can sometimes conflict.
Sources of Affective Value
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Evolutionary Roots: Psychological tendencies that enhance survival and reproduction, like:
- Preferences for certain mates.
- Disgust towards behaviors harmful to social contract.
- Innate fear towards certain stimuli, such as snakes or spiders.
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Personality Traits: Individual differences in personality traits influence attitudes, with some traits linked to political orientations:
- Openness to Experience: More associated with liberal political views.
- Conscientiousness: More associated with conservative political views.
- Culture and Social Norms: Social standards heavily influence individual moral judgements, and these standards can change over time.
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Early Experiences: Early childhood experiences, especially the relationship with parents, can profoundly influence future relationships and attitudes.
- Attachment Theory: The quality of parent-child relationships can affect the development of attachment styles and influence romantic relationships later in life.
- Recent Experiences: Recent exposure to objects or situations can influence attitudes.
- Mere Exposure Effect: Repeated exposure to a previously neutral stimulus can increase liking for that stimulus, impacting preferences even in areas like food preferences. This effect is accompanied by changes in brain activity within the reward circuitry.
Brain Regions and Affective Value
- Amygdala: This region of the brain is responsible for rapidly assigning significance to events and objects in the environment. Damage to the amygdala leads to impaired fear learning, making it difficult for individuals to associate fear with specific objects or situations.
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Nucleus Accumbens: Part of the brain's reward circuitry, responsible for experiencing pleasure, is activated in response to:
- Strong emotions like sexual attraction.
- Attractive faces.
- The anticipation of earning money.
- Enjoyable music.
- The receipt of drugs (in addicts).
- Social rewards (e.g., learning about misfortune of an envied person).
- Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA): The source of dopamine neurons, which play a significant role in reward processing. The VTA projects to the nucleus accumbens, contributing to the positive affective values assigned to things.
Predicting Choices with Brain Activity
- Brain Activity and Choice Prediction: Brain activity can predict choices and behaviors, including purchasing decisions.
- Nucleus Accumbens Activity: The activity in this region can predict whether an individual will choose to buy a product.
Nucleus Accumbens Activity & Purchase Decisions
- The nucleus accumbens plays a crucial role in predicting purchase decisions.
- High activity in this brain region is associated with buying, while low activity suggests no purchase.
- Nucleus accumbens activity assigns subjective value to products.
Wanting vs. Liking
- Wanting: The desire to experience a rewarding stimulus, driven by dopamine, represents anticipatory pleasure.
- Liking: The enjoyment experienced from a reward, driven by endogenous opioids and cannabinoids, represents consummatory pleasure.
- Wanting and liking can be felt separately, leading to interesting consequences.
Dopamine and Reward Anticipation
- Monkey experiment: Dopamine levels spiked when a reward (juice) was unexpectedly presented, indicating a response to the reward’s anticipation.
- When reward cues were presented, dopamine increased in response to the cues, reflecting learned association between cues and the reward, rather than the reward itself.
- Dopamine release scales with the predictive power of the cue and the magnitude of the reward.
Liking Neurotransmitters
- Endogenous opioids (enkephalin) and endogenous cannabinoids (anandamide) contribute to liking.
- These neurotransmitters are mimicked by addictive drugs like heroin and marijuana, activating the systems designed for natural rewards.
- Manipulating these neurotransmitters in animals can affect liking.
Wanting and Liking: Separate Systems
- Wanting and liking are independent systems, even though we often like what we want.
- Enhanced dopamine activity increases wanting without affecting liking.
- Depleted dopamine activity reduces wanting but doesn't change liking responses.
Addiction and Wanting/Liking Dissociation
- In addiction, wanting for the drug increases over time, while liking may remain the same or even decrease.
- Drug addicts crave their drug even though they may not enjoy it as much as they used to.
Lusting While Loathing: Conflicting Attitudes
- Study: Blocking participants from a prize increased their wanting but decreased their liking for it.
- People can desire something they don't genuinely like.
- Participants were more willing to pay for the reward but more likely to trade it away after receiving it.
Midterms and Emotional Value
- Midterms, though lacking intrinsic value, hold intense emotional value due to various factors.
Core Motives/Evolution & Midterm Emotions
- Fear: Fear of failure or disappointing parents.
- Curiosity: Desire to understand new ideas.
- Belongingness: Desire to fit in.
Personality & Midterm Emotions
- Neuroticism: Prone to disappointment.
- Openness to Experience: Curious about new ideas.
- Extraversion: May value belongingness differently than introverts.
Life Experiences & Midterm Emotions
- Early and recent experiences, especially attachment theory, can influence how a student perceives a midterm.
Social Norms & Midterm Emotions
- Social Conformity: Midterm attitudes are influenced by societal norms and values.
- Emotional Contagion: Feelings about the midterm can be influenced by how others feel.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness
- Consciousness arises from physical processes, which themselves are devoid of meaning.
- How meaning and feeling emerge from meaningless physical processes is a fundamental question.
Cognitive Dissonance
- People dislike inconsistency between their thoughts and behaviors, experiencing dissonance when confronted with conflict.
- Motivated to reduce dissonance, people use different strategies:
Reducing Cognitive Dissonance: Strategies
- Change a dissonant cognition: Revise an attitude.
- Add a new cognition: Justify the inconsistent behavior.
- Change the behavior: Stop the inconsistent behavior.
Justification of Effort: The Ikea Effect
- People tend to value something they put effort into creating more.
- Study: Participants were willing to pay more for an origami they made themselves, even when experts created a better version.
Post-Decision Dissonance
- After making a decision, people reduce dissonance by evaluating their choice more favorably and devaluing the rejected options.
- This "what if" feeling is stronger when the decision is unchangeable.
The Paradox of Choice
- Having more choices can lead to less satisfaction due to the burden of "what if" feelings.
- Study on photography students: Those with the option to change their choice later were less satisfied with their choice than those with a final decision.
Lecture 6: Conformity
- ** Social influence**: The power of others to alter our behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
- Social Influence: Can occur in the presence or absence of others, as long as you're imagining their presence.
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Description
Explore the complexities of moral judgments and the dual nature of attitudes through this insightful quiz. Delve into concepts such as moral dumbfounding, psychopathy, explicit and implicit attitudes, and the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to enhance your understanding of psychology. Test your knowledge and refine your comprehension of these critical psychological concepts.