Chapter 6

• Attitude change can be explained through real-life examples of attempts made by advertisers to promote their products through media.
• These attempts to change attitude may or may not be successful.
• Attitudes are distinguished from behaviour related to the attitude.
• Attitudes are states of the mind, sets of views or thoughts regarding some topic, which have an evaluative feature, are accompanied by an emotional component, and have a tendency to act in a particular way with regard to the attitude object.
• The thought component of an attitude is referred to as the cognitive aspect, the emotional component as the affective aspect, and the tendency to act as the behavioural (or conative) aspect.
• The A-B-C components of an attitude are the Affective-Behavioural- Cognitive components.
• Attitudes are not behaviour, but represent a tendency to behave or act in certain ways.
• Attitudes are part of cognition, along with an emotional component, and cannot be observed from outside.
• An example of an attitude towards the environment shows the relationship between the three components.
• Attitudes need to be distinguished from two other closely related concepts, namely, beliefs and values.
• The attitude towards a particular person is likely to consist of mainly one attitude.
• Attitudes provide a background that makes it easier for a person to decide how to act in new situations.
• The valence of an attitude tells us whether an attitude is positive or negative towards the attitude object.
• Values are difficult to change.
• The complexity of an attitude refers to how many attitudes there are within a broader attitude.
• Beliefs refer to the cognitive component of attitudes, and form the ground on which attitudes stand, such as belief in God, or belief in democracy as a political ideology.
• Values are attitudes or beliefs that contain a ‘should’ or ‘ought’ aspect, such as moral or ethical values.
• The attitude towards health and well-being is likely to consist of several ‘member’ attitudes, such as one’s concept of physical and mental health, views about happiness and well-being, and beliefs about how one should achieve health and happiness.
• An attitude system is said to be ‘simple’ if it contains only one or a few attitudes, and ‘complex’ if it is made up of many attitudes.
• The extremeness of an attitude indicates how positive or negative an attitude is.
• Values are formed when a particular belief or attitude becomes an inseparable part of the person’s outlook on life.
• In many cases discriminatory behaviour can be curbed by law.
• Attitudes and behaviour are consistent when the attitude is strong, the person is aware of their attitude, and there is very little or no external pressure for the person to behave in a particular way.
• Prejudices are examples of attitudes towards a particular group, usually negative, and often based on stereotypes about the specific group.
• History contains numerous examples of discrimination based on race and social class or caste.
• Prejudice may also get translated into discrimination, the behavioural component, whereby people behave in a less positive way towards a particular target group compared to another group which they favour.
• Prejudices frequently consist of undesirable characteristics about the target group, leading to negative attitudes or prejudices towards members of specific groups.
• The genocide committed by the Nazis in Germany against Jewish people is an extreme example of how prejudice can lead to hatred, discrimination and mass killing of innocent people.
• Our own society has witnessed many deplorable instances of discrimination, with and without prejudice, based on gender, religion, community, caste, physical handicap, and illnesses such as AIDS.
• The cognitive component of prejudice is frequently based on stereotypes about the specific group.
• Wherever prejudice and discrimination exist, conflicts are very likely to arise between groups within the same society.
• Attitudes may not always predict actual pattern of one’s behaviour, sometimes it is behaviour that decides the attitude.
• Prejudices can exist without being shown in the form of discrimination, and discrimination can be shown without prejudice.
• ORS will protect your child from heat in the summer.
• Learning is a process through which attitudes can be acquired, reinforced, or changed.
• Highlighting individual identity rather than group identity weakens the importance of group (both ingroup and outgroup) as a basis of evaluating the other person.
• Increasing intergroup contact allows for direct communication, removal of mistrust between the groups, and even discovery of positive qualities in the outgroup.
• Education and information dissemination are strategies for handling prejudice that aim to correct stereotypes related to specific target groups and tackle the problem of a strong ingroup bias.
• A strong social identity and ingroup bias can lead individuals to hold negative attitudes towards other groups, which are shown as prejudices.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy is a situation where the target group is responsible for continuing the prejudice, as they behave in ways that justify the prejudice.