Lecture 7 - Attitudes

• Attitude


  A mental representation, an evaluation of an attitude object (e.g. people, concrete objects, abstract concepts/ideas) that can be positive, negative, or neutral, and can vary in strength
• Functions of attitudes (Katz, 1960)


  • Knowledge: explain and understand the world around us
  • Utilitarian/instrumental: help us gain rewards and avoid punishments
  • Value-expressive: express what we believe in or identify with
  • Ego-defensive: deny undesirable aspects of our own self
• Utilitarian function of attitudes (Fazio, 1989)

  Object appraisal
• Cognitive economy function of attitudes (Smith, 1965)


  Attitudes help us simplify and organise our understanding of the world
• Component theories of attitudes

  • One component (Affect only, Thurstone, 1931)
  • Two component (Affect and behaviour)
  • Three component (Affective, behavioural, and cognitive)
• Attitude formation


  1. Learning approaches (part of process of socialisation)

  2. Classical conditioning

  3. Operant conditioning

  4. Observational learning

  5. Mere exposure
• Implicit attitudes


  Lack of awareness of the origins of the attitude, can affect behaviour without awareness
• Explicit attitudes


  Measured directly by self-report questionnaires using Likert scales
• Implicit attitudes


  Measured using computer-based paradigms like the implicit association test (IAT) or other latency paradigms, or physiological measurements
• Attitudes do not always predict behaviour
• General vs. specific attitudes

  Specific attitudes better predict behaviour than general attitudes
• Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB, Ajzen, 1989)


  Links attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control to intention and behaviour
• The link between intention and behaviour in the TPB is weak
• The TPB does not account for spontaneous, unplanned behaviours
• Source of persuasion


  • Perceived as legitimate, experienced, and reliable (even if not actually so)
  • Attractive people are more persuasive
• Recipient of persuasion


  • More intelligent people are more difficult to persuade
  • Easier to reinforce current attitudes than change them
  • Personality differences can play a role
• Self-perception theory


  People infer their attitudes, beliefs, and other internal states through the observation of their own behaviour
• Cognitive dissonance


  Tension arises when we are simultaneously aware of two inconsistent cognitions, which we attempt to reduce
• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) study


  • Subjects paid $1 vs $20 to tell next subject study was enjoyable, then asked how much they enjoyed it
  • Those paid $1 rated the study as more enjoyable, to reduce cognitive dissonance
• Utilitarian function of attitudes

  The idea that attitudes have a functional role in guiding behavior by providing information about potential outcomes or consequences