3- Attitudes Flashcards
What are the two key features of attitudes?
They are in everyday life, and they are enduring
What is an attitude?
A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour
What is the ABC of the three-component attitude model?
Affective, behavioural, cognitive
What is the affective part of attitudes?
Feelings about an attitude object
What is the behavioural part of attitudes?
Predisposition to act in a certain way to the attitude object
What is the cognitive part of attitudes?
Beliefs about an attitude object
What is the main definition of an object?
A relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events, or symbols
What kind of component is an attitude?
A unitary one
How can we measure attitudes?
On a spectrum
What are the four main functions of attitudes?
- Knowledge
- Instrumentality
- Ego-defence
- Value-expressiveness
What is instrumentality as an attitude function?
Means to an end or goal
What is ego-defence as a function of attitudes?
To protect self-esteem
What is value-expresiveness as an attitude function?
To display values that uniquely identify and define us
What are two direct measures of measuring attitudes?
Self-report measures and attitude scales
What do we do with self-report measures?
Just ask people to report
What are the advantages of self-report measures?
Direct and straightforward
What are the disadvantages of self-report measures?
They are not always accurate
What are attitude scales?
Multi-item questionnaires designed to measure people’s attitudes
What are the three indirect ways of measuring attitudes?
Monitor physiological indices, implicit association test, and measure the speed with which one responds to pairings of concepts and evaluations
What is the advantage of monitoring physiological indices?
It is difficult to control physical responses
What is a disadvantage of monitoring physiological indices?
Physical responses are sensitive to variables other than attitudes
What does a facial electromyograph do?
Records facial muscle activity associated with emotions and attitudes
Why do we measure facial muscle activity?
Certain muscles contract when we feel specific emotions
How can priming be measured?
A prime is presented subliminally or supraliminally
What does subliminally mean?
Stimulus may not be consciously perceived
What does supraliminally mean?
Stimuli are perceived by the conscious mind
What does priming activate?
Stereotypic judgemennts
What does the implicit association test measure?
Reaction time
What indicates a stronger mental association?
A faster and more accurate response
