Ap Psychology Project Implicit Attitudes

The mind is complicated but so are we. Our attitudes are shaped by beliefs and are constantly challenging our behavior. They are formed while we observe others or by repeated exposure to something. What some of us do not know is that we are consciously unaware of those beliefs and attitudes. We strive so much to do what others do and to think like them that we forget that we do not always have to have the same concepts. One way of knowing how much implicit evaluations influence our perception, actions and judgment is through this test. Implicit attitudes are unconscious evaluations towards something that are somehow built involuntarily. That is, we can have an opinion about something or feel a certain way and not even know it. It allows
us to know that most of the time our feelings and thoughts are not reflected in the questions that we answer and that are out of our control.
Explicit attitudes, on the other hand, involve thinking about something and reporting not evaluating; deals more with how the attitude is expressed. The test I completed was created to see our association with physically ill people versus mentally as being harmless versus dangerous (Project implicit, n.d.). I chose that test because a lot of people think that those with mental health issues possess a great threat and despite the fact that I think that is not fair it can be true. But we think like that because the media can have a great impact on us. If in almost all cases they say the offender has mental problems of course people are going to relate, but in reality they are not dangerous. There is a bias associated with less fair treatment and I wanted to see where I stand regarding that issue. My results showed that I associate dangerous more with physically ill people than mentally. I was not surprised, that is why I agree with the results. I believe that one of the factors in my results was that people don’t necessarily have to be mentally ill for them to be violent or dangerous. I implicitly think that people with mental illnesses are not dangerous. It depends on the person it does not have to be because he/she is physically ill or
mentally. Even though the test showed I am more inclined to think that physically ill people are more dangerous I cannot say I disagree because if I said otherwise I would be saying that I directly associate danger with mental health when in fact, more than danger all I see is consideration. As I said before, when we see everyone doing something it is likely that we will do it too; more than anything that represents an explicit attitude. Same thing happens with what we think and how we act because that is how everything that we believe in is established and it is exactly how our attitudes are shaped. Explicit attitudes are conscious and can be guided by implicit ones but implicit attitudes are hard to discover. With this test, I cannot say that I changed my view or how I see myself but I am more aware of the things we can do to be more conscious. Trying to change implicit biases or preferences is hard but there are many ways we can reduce them. We can use strategies that deny them and try to have more access to implicit attitudes than explicit.