NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Psychology Chapter 6 Attitude and Social Cognition

NCERT
SOLUTIONS
CLASS - 12th

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Book Name : Psychology Ncert Solutions | Chapter-6 Psychology

Class : 12th
Subject : Psychology
Chapter : 6
Chapter Name : Attitude and Social Cognition

Q1 Define attitude. Discuss the components of an attitude.

Answer. Attitude can be defined as - '' a state of mind, a set of views or thoughts regarding
some topic, which have an
evaluative feature (positive, negative or neutral quality).'' The topic about which belief is made is
termed as the attitude subject. It has an emotional component and a tendency to behave or act
in a particular manner regarding the attitude object. The following are the main components of
attitude -
i) Affective component - The emotional component of attitude is termed as the affective
component.
ii) Behavioural component - The tendency of a person to act in a particular way regarding the
attitude object is known as the behavioral component.
iii) Cognitive component - The thought component or the state of mind of the person is known
as the cognitive component.

Q2 Are attitudes learnt? Explain how?

Answer. Yes, attitudes are learnt by a person. They can be learnt by various experiences,
knowledge or in other ways. The following are the ways in which an attitude can be learnt -
1. Learning attitudes by association - We meet many people in our life on a daily basis. We
see many good and bad features in them and we may learn many new attitudes by
associating with them.
2. Learning attitudes by being rewarded or punished - Sometimes we may get rewarded for
our work and other times, we may get punished due to some wrong deed. This helps us
in understanding the right and wrong deeds and we learn many attitudes from it.
3. Learning attitudes through modelling - It is the method of learning attitudes by observing
what others are doing around us. For example, a child learns many attitudes by
observing his parents, his neighbours and other people surrounding him.
4. Learning attitudes through group or cultural norms - Norms are the behaviour which we
are supposed to follow while living in a society. Thus we learn new attitudes by following
the norms of the society. They may change when we move from one culture to another.

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Book Name : Psychology Ncert Solutions | Chapter-6 Psychology

5. Learning through exposure to information - An attitude can not only be learnt through
contacting with someone, rather a person may also learn attitude by reading someone's
biography or by various social media platforms.

Q3 What are the factors that influence the formation of an attitude?

Answer. The factors influencing the formation of attitude are as follows -
1. Family and School Environment : A person learns many attitudes and values from his
family and friends. If his family and friends share positive attitude with him then it will
positively develop his state of mind and he will develop positive attitude within himself.
2. Reference Groups : These groups include cultural, social, political or religious groups to
which a person is associated. These groups help him in learning new attitudes and
behaviour towards the society and other groups. They teach him the norms or ways of
thinking.
3. Personal Experiences : Many attitudes are developed by the personal experiences of the
individual which he develops when he is exposed to the society. An individual has
different experiences when he is admitted to school, when he starts doing a job or
business and in other phases of his life.
4. Media-related Influences : Currently the technological advancements have made it
possible to get linked to the world at a click of the mouse. Thus people are largely
affected by the social media and the media platforms.

Q4 Is behaviour always a reflection of one’s attitude? Explain with a relevant example.

Answer. No it isn't always necessary that one's behaviour is a reflection of his attitude towards a
particular object. Sometimes it may happen that the attitude of a person towards a certain object
is completely different from how he behaves towards it. Attitude and behaviour are consistent
with each other only in certain circumstances which are explained below -
i) When the person isn't being observed.
ii) When his attitude towards a particular object is very strong.
iii) The person is aware of his attitude.
iv) When his behaviour would show a positive consequence as per his belief.
For example - it may happen that a person is afraid of dark places. However he may predict in
front of others that he isn't afraid and may seem to be happy roaming around in a dark place.
His behaviour in this case contradicts his attitude.

Q5 Highlight the importance of schemas in social cognition.

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Answer. A schema is defined as a mental structure that provides a framework, set of rules or
guidelines for processing information about any object. It is very important in social cognition
which is highlighted below -
In the case of social cognition, the basic units are social schemas. Some attitudes may also
function like social schemas. These are the mental structure which function as a framework to
process social information. These schemas help in developing many prototypes. Prototypes are
those concepts which have defining features of a concept, class or family to a large extent.
Schemas may work in categories or classes. If they do so, then such schemas are called
prototypes. These category based schemas which are related to a group of people are termed
as stereotypes in social cognition.

Q6 Differentiate between prejudice and stereotype.

Answer. The difference between prejudice and stereotype is as follows -

Basis Prejudice Stereotypes

Definition These are the examples of It refers to a cluster of ideas
attitudes towards a particular regarding the characteristics
group. They are generally of a particular group.
negative.

Based on They are based on ethnicity, It includes classifying people
race, gender, caste and they on the basis of their
mostly show negative membership in a particular
attitudes towards other group, and it can be negative,
groups. positive or neutral.

Consist of It may lead to hatred or It consists of undesirable
dislike towards a particular characteristics about the
group which may also lead to target group.
discrimination.

Truth It isn't based on a truth and It is generally based on a
usually originates from the truth and a factual concept.
lack of knowledge about a However it can also be based
particular group. upon prejudice.

Q7 Prejudice can exist without discrimination and vice versa. Comment.

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Answer. Prejudice can exist without the presence of discrimination. Similarly discrimination can
also exist without prejudice. However they generally go hand in hand. It means that wherever
prejudice or discrimination exist, the two groups may have conflicts while living in the same
society.
The discrimination may be there on the basis of gender, religion, community, caste, physical
handicap, and illnesses. In these cases, prejudice may or may not exist. However in most of
these cases, it can be suppressed by law.
However the cognitive and emotional components of prejudice are more difficult to change.

Q8 Describe the important factors that influence impression formation.

Answer. The factors which influence the formation of impression of a person are as follows -
(i) The nature of information available to the perceiver.
(ii) Social schemas in the perceiver (including stereotypes).
(iii) personality characteristics of the perceiver.
(iv) situational factors.
The following are the three sub-processes in the formation of impressions of an individual
towards a particular object or another individual -
1. Selection - Under this, selected information is taken from the targeted person.
2. Organisation - The selected information is classified and organised in systematic
manner.
3. Inference - After analysing the information, a conclusion is drawn about the person who
is targeted.

Q9 Explain how the attribution made by an ‘actor’ would be different from that of an ‘observer’.

Answer. There is a difference between the attribution made by an actor and an observer and
this is known as the actor - observer effect.
The attribution made by a person towards his own positive or negative attitudes or experiences
is known as the actor role. However other persons may also develop attribution towards his
positive or negative attitudes or experiences, which is known as the observer role. The basic
reason for the difference between the actor and observer roles is that people want to have a
nice image of themselves, as compared to others.
For example - if you get good marks then you will give the credit to your hardwork. However if
your friend gets good marks then you will give credit to easy test or his good luck. This makes
the difference.

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Q10 How does social facilitation take place?

Answer. Our performance on specific tasks is largely influenced by the mere presence of others.
This is called social facilitation. It may happen that we perform completely different when we are
alone as compared to the time when we are surrounded by other people.
● If we perform better in the presence of others, then it is because we feel arousal in the
presence of others. We feel that we will be praised for our better performance. Thus he
performs in an intense manner.
● When we feel that we will be praised for better performance and will be punished for bad
performance, then we try hard to perform better for getting appreciation since we don't
want to get punishment.
● The nature of the task to be performed also affects the performance in the presence of
others.
● If two or more persons perform the same task at the same time in front of others, then it
gives rise to competition. When the task is simple then the performance is better in
social competition.

Q11 Explain the concept of pro-social behaviour.

Answer. All religions teach us that we should help those who are in need. This behaviour is
called helping or pro-social behaviour. We are taught that we should be helping others in case
they need our help. It is similar to ‘altruism’ which means helping others without thinking of self
interest or self benefit.
Some of its examples are cooperating with others, helping during natural calamities or an
emergency situation, showing sympathy towards the weaker section of the society etc.
This type of behaviour of people has great value and importance for promoting peace and
harmony in the society, however people don't show this behaviour very often. Nowadays people
are becoming more selfish and self-catering. Thus they don't like to help others.

Q12 Your friend eats too much junk food, how would you be able to bring about a change in
her/his attitude towards food?

Answer. I would like to use the concept of cognitive dissonance to bring about a change in her
attitude towards food. This concept was given by Leon Festinger. According to this concept,
cognitive components of an attitude must be consonant which means they should be logically in
line with each other.
Here, the cognitions are as follows -

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(i) Junk food is bad for health.
(ii) He/she eats too much junk food.
Hence the two cognitions aren't in line with each other i.e. They are dissonant. Thus he would
tend to change one of them in order to bring consonant. Thus he would stop eating much junk
food to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

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