(a) Cognitive, Behavioural, Affective

These are the three components of the ABC model of attitudes: Affective (feelings), Behavioural (actions), and Cognitive (beliefs).

(b) Overestimating internal factors for others’ behaviour

The Fundamental Attribution Error is the tendency to attribute other people’s behaviour to their personal characteristics (dispositional factors) while underestimating the role of the situation (situational factors).

(b) Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Festinger proposed that when a person holds two contradictory cognitions, they experience discomfort (dissonance), which motivates them to reduce the inconsistency.

(c) Discrimination

Discrimination is the behavioural component of prejudice — it involves unfair treatment of individuals based on their group membership. Stereotypes are the cognitive component.

(b) Meaningful intergroup contact under favourable conditions

Allport proposed that contact between groups reduces prejudice when it occurs under conditions of equal status, common goals, cooperation, and institutional support.

Cognitive dissonance (proposed by Leon Festinger) is the psychological discomfort experienced when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes, or when their behaviour contradicts their beliefs.

Example: A person who values honesty (attitude) but lies on their resume (behaviour) experiences dissonance. To reduce the discomfort, they might:

• Change their behaviour (correct the resume)
• Change their attitude (“Everyone exaggerates on resumes, so it’s okay”)
• Add a justifying cognition (“I need this job to support my family”)

Prejudice is the attitude; discrimination is the action that comes from that attitude. A person can be prejudiced without discriminating (internal bias without acting on it).

Four factors influencing attitude formation:

1. Family and socialization — parents’ attitudes are initially the strongest influence; children learn attitudes through observation and reinforcement

2. Peer group — friends and classmates shape attitudes through social comparison and conformity pressure

3. Personal experience — direct positive or negative experiences with an object or person shape attitudes (e.g., a good experience with a teacher creates a positive attitude toward the subject)

4. Media and information — television, social media, news, and advertising influence attitudes through repeated exposure and persuasion

Nature of Attitudes:

An attitude is a learned tendency to evaluate a person, object, or idea in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner. Attitudes are:

• Learned (not innate) — formed through experience and socialization
• Relatively stable — but can change under certain conditions
• Evaluative — they involve a positive or negative judgement

Three Components (ABC Model):

1. Affective Component — the emotional response (feelings) toward the attitude object. Example: “I feel happy when I help others”
2. Behavioural Component — the tendency to act in a certain way toward the object. Example: “I volunteer at an NGO regularly”
3. Cognitive Component — the beliefs and thoughts about the object. Example: “Helping others makes society better”

Factors influencing attitude formation:

1. Family — parents are the primary socialisation agents. Children acquire attitudes through imitation, instruction, and reinforcement.
2. Peer group — as children grow, peer influence increases. Conformity pressure and social identity shape attitudes.
3. Direct experience — personal encounters with the attitude object create strong attitudes (e.g., a positive experience at a hospital creates a favourable attitude toward doctors).
4. Media — mass media and social media constantly present information that shapes and reinforces attitudes through exposure and persuasion.
5. Culture — cultural norms and values determine which attitudes are acceptable or expected (e.g., attitudes toward marriage, education, work).
6. Conditioning — classical conditioning (association), operant conditioning (reinforcement), and observational learning (modelling) all contribute to attitude formation.

Prejudice is a preconceived, unjustified negative attitude toward members of a particular group, based solely on their membership in that group. It involves:

• Stereotypes (cognitive) — oversimplified beliefs about the group
• Negative emotions (affective) — hostility, fear, contempt
• Discrimination (behavioural) — unfair treatment

Sources of Prejudice:

1. Social learning — prejudice is learned from family, peers, and media through modelling and reinforcement
2. In-group favouritism — tendency to favour one’s own group and view out-groups negatively (Social Identity Theory by Tajfel)
3. Stereotyping — cognitive shortcuts lead to overgeneralised beliefs about groups
4. Realistic conflict — competition between groups for limited resources increases prejudice
5. Scapegoating — displacing frustration and aggression onto a weaker out-group
6. Historical and institutional factors — historical oppression and systemic inequality perpetuate prejudice

Strategies for handling prejudice:

1. Education — awareness programmes that promote understanding of diversity and the harm of stereotypes
2. Intergroup contact — Allport’s Contact Hypothesis — meaningful interaction between groups under conditions of equal status, common goals, and cooperation reduces prejudice
3. Legislation — anti-discrimination laws and policies that promote equality
4. Media representation — positive portrayal of minority groups to challenge negative stereotypes
5. Empathy training — perspective-taking exercises that help people understand the experiences of out-group members
6. Recategorisation — creating inclusive, superordinate identities (e.g., “we are all students”) to reduce in-group/out-group boundaries

(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A

The person’s attitude (“smoking is harmful”) contradicts their behaviour (continuing to smoke). This creates cognitive dissonance — psychological discomfort from holding contradictory cognitions. The reason correctly explains the mechanism behind the assertion.

(i) The manager is displaying discrimination — unfair or differential treatment of individuals based on their group membership (in this case, regional/community identity) rather than merit.

(ii) This represents the behavioural component of prejudice — the manager’s prejudiced attitude is being translated into discriminatory actions (biased hiring decisions).

(iii) The cognitive component underlying this behaviour is likely stereotyping — the manager may hold oversimplified, negative beliefs about the minority community (e.g., “they are not reliable” or “they won’t fit in”). These stereotypes lead to biased judgements regardless of individual merit.

(iv) Two strategies:

1. Blind recruitment/anonymous screening — removing identifying information (name, photo, community) from applications ensures candidates are evaluated solely on qualifications and experience
2. Diversity training — mandatory training for hiring managers on unconscious bias, prejudice, and the importance of inclusive hiring practices. This can be supplemented by establishing a diverse hiring panel to reduce individual bias

(i) According to the passage, media influences attitudes through repeated exposure to positive portrayals of groups. When people consistently see out-group members depicted favourably (as competent, kind, and successful), their attitudes gradually shift from negative to positive because the new positive images challenge and replace pre-existing stereotypes.

(ii) The principle of classical conditioning (association) explains this. Through repeated pairing of the out-group with positive attributes (competence, kindness, success), a new positive association is formed, replacing the earlier negative one. Observational learning (social learning theory) also applies — people learn new attitudes by observing positive models in media.

(iii) Example: A common stereotype is that women are not good at science and mathematics. This could be reduced by media depicting successful women scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in films, documentaries, and advertisements — showing them leading research projects, making discoveries, and excelling in STEM fields. Over time, repeated exposure to such portrayals would challenge and weaken the gender-based stereotype.