7.3 Attitude and Behavior

Question 1

What is the definition of attitude?

Answer 1

person’s feelings and beliefs about other people or events around them and their tendency to react behaviorally based on those underlying evaluations

Question 2

What are the three main components of attitude?

Answer 2

1. affect
2. behavior
3. cognition

Question 3

What are the four processes through which attitudes influence behavior?

Answer 3

1. when social influences are reduced
2. when general patters of behavior, rather than specific behaviors, are observed
3. when specific, rather than general, attitudes are considered
4. when attitudes are made more powerful through self reflection

Question 4

What is the principle of aggregation?

Answer 4

an attitude affects a person’s aggregate or average behavior but not necessarily the isolated act

Question 5

What are the three processes by which behavior influences attitude?

Answer 5

1. role-playing
2. public declarations
3. justification of effort

Question 6

What is public declaration?

Answer 6

saying something public which can make someone believe in that statement in the absence of bribery or coercion

Question 7

What is the justification of effort?

Answer 7

people modify their attitudes to match their behavior

Question 8

What is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?

Answer 8

a persuasion strategy that involves enticing people to take small actions then gradually asking for large commitments

Question 9

What is cognitive dissonance theory?

Answer 9

explains that we have tensions whenever we hold two thoughts or beliefs that are incompatible, or when attitudes and behaviors don’t match