attitudes

• attitude


  refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviours towards a stimulus

  - likely to vary throughout your lifetime
• features of an attitude

  - motivating forces

  - relatively enduring in nature

  - evaluative in nature
• components of an attitude

  - affective (feelings)

  - behavioural (action/response dispositions)

  - cognitive (evaluation/beliefs)
• intra-attitudinal structure


  within one attitude
• Pratkanis intra-attitudinal model


  - attitude-object category

  - evaluative summary (eg. unfavourable)

  - supporting knowledge structure

  - bipolar (people disagree) versus unipolar (people agree) attitudes
• tri-dimensional view of attitude structure (Maio and Olson, 2000)

  Affective component: feelings and emotions towards the attitude object/target

  
  

  Behavioural: action tendencies towards the attitude object/target

  
  

  Cognitive component: ideas and belief about attitude object/target
• inter-attitudinal structure


  between attitudes
• balance theory (Heider)


  related to cognitive dissonance ideas

  
  

  made up of balanced and unbalanced triads
• balanced triads


  attitudes stay consistent over time
• unbalanced triads


  attitudes change over time - about object, perception of others opinion/attitude
• attitude functions


  the psychological needs fulfilled by an attitude

  - utilitarian

  - value-expressive

  - ego defensive

  - knowledge
• utilitarian


  helps you get something you desire in the future
• value-expressive


  expressing attitude doesn't necessarily express your beliefs but it is a way to present yourself in a certain way
• decision making and attitudes

  attitudes guide decision making

  - use valuative information to weigh up positive and negative aspects, and then make a decision
• theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour - Fishbein and Ajzen (1975)

  
  

  1. Start with single belief

  2. That belief is evaluated

  3. Add other beliefs and evaluations

  4. Form attitude

  5. Form a set of intentions

  6. Look at a single behaviour (individual times you do that given behaviour)

  7. Look at a set of behaviours (behaviour as a whole)

  
  

  attitudes are formed through using available information to make an overall judgement and decide what to do
• Attitude-Behavior Inconsistency (LaPierre, 1934)

  visited over 250 establishments with a Chinese couple without being refused from any establishment

  - later wrote to same establishments to ask if they accept members of the Chinese race as guests

  - out of 128 replies: 1 yes, 9 depended, 118 no
• theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1985)


  the model states that the best predictor of a behaviour is one's behavioural intention, which is influenced by one's attitude toward the specific behaviour, the subjective norms regarding the behaviour, and one's perceived control over the behaviour
• attitude intention correlation


  .1 = small effect size

  .3 = medium effect size

  .8 = large effect size
• forming attitudes through direct experience

  we develop more positive feelings towards objects and individuals the more we are exposed to them

  
  

  - Zajonc (1968) showed that frequent symbol exposure to Chinese symbols lead to a higher frequency of ppts rating 'goodness' of meaning?

  - Mita et al. (1977) found ppts showed a preference for visual images that they were frequently exposed to?

  - Brickman et al. (1972) found that ppts showed a greater liking for music they were frequently exposed to?
• forming attitudes through learning: conditioning

  classical conditioning: Staats and Staats (1958) found that pairing words and nationalities lead to ppts

  
  

  operant conditioning: Insko (1965) conducted telephone interviews, and positive or negative responses were reinforced with the repetition of 'good'

  - opinions/responses were expressed more confidently later on if the opinion was previously reinforced
• forming attitudes through observational learning

  Bandura (1977): behaviour is modelled, observed, and reciprocated if the modelled behaviour is seen to be rewarded
• sources of attitudes


  - parents are important in early life

  - peers are important in adolescence (Rettig, 1966)

  - reference groups - Newcombe Bennington Women's College Study (1943, 1967)

  - mass media and the internet is important in adulthood
• sociocognitive model of attitude structure and function 


  views attitudes as memory-based associative networks connecting an object to an evaluation, serving functions like guiding behaviour, simplifying decisions, and fulfilling social or personal goals