Attitude

• attitude is a predispositional (already decided) to act in a certain way towards something or someone in a persons environment
• attitude

  • either positive or negative
  • they are usually directed towards a particular situation
  • attitudes are a combination of the beliefs and feelings we have about attitude objects
  • attitudes are learnt rather than innate
• prejudice is a preconceived opinion based on a faulty and inflexible generalisation
• Examples of formations of attitudes:

  • friends
  • family
  • peers
  • media
  • past experiences
  • prejudice
  • coaches and teachers
  • socialisation
• Social norms is the behaviour that are deemed as normal within a culture and are created through socialisation
• Culture is members of a community learning certain behaviours that are shared among those within the community of people of our society
• A stereotype is a belief held by a collection of people about traits shared by a certain category of people
• Methods to improve attitudes:

  • peer pressure
  • role models
  • reward success
  • set goals
  • emphasise health benefits
  • vary training methods
  • positive reinforcement
• The Triadic model of attitude consists of the cognitive, affective and behavioural element.
• Cognitive element = beliefs

  Affective element = emotions

  Behavioural element = behaviour
• Cognitive element - our beliefs are formed through past experiences and by what we have learnt from others
• Affective element - our emotional reactions to something whether we like or dislike is based on past experiences
• Behavioural element - our behaviour is usually consistent with our beliefs but not always.

  • all elements must be consistent to make the attitude stable and this interdependence is the key to changing attitudes
• Persuasive communication - persuading them to change their attitude
• The effectiveness of them changing their attitude depends on:

  • the person doing the persuasion (high status)
  • the quality of the message
  • the characteristics of who is being persuaded
• Persuasive communication:

  for persuasion to be successful the message must make sense and be believable.

  the people you are trying to persuade must be intelligent enough to understand the message
• Cognitive dissonance - refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours

  • inconsistent attitude = unstable
  • when there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviours something must change to eliminate the dissonance
• Cognitive dissonance theory

  To change the attitude, we must have to; change one or more aspects of the triadic model
• Methods of changing attitudes relating to lifestyle:

  • positive reinforcement
  • negative reinforcement
  • promoting or educating
  • getting them to enjoy activity
  • use role models
  • raise self esteem
  • encourage them to join a group
  • set goals