Attitudes Flashcards
What are attitudes and how are they formed?
They are positive, negative or mixed reactions to a person, object or idea.
They are either inherited or learned.
What are some ideas associated with learned attitudes and what is found in Newcomb’s (1943) study?
The more familiar we are with attitude objects, the more we like them.
Reinforcement and modelling plays a large role in attitude development. If attitudes are reinforced, they are likely to enhance.
Context.
you can be influenced by an environment, and what you are exposed to in that environment, over time.
Newcomb found that, college students who were conservative before attending university, had attitudes changed when exposed to the liberal nature of universities over time.
What are two ways of measuring peoples attitudes in a direct way and what are the advantages and disadvantages of these methods?
The best way is to ask people. Through.
- open ended questions
Advantages: simple and lots of data
Disadvantages: time-consuming, differences in expressiveness - Close questions (Likert, Semantic differential scale, Guttman)
Advantages: easy and quick
Disadvantages: responses are set and the choice of wording used could sway the reality of attitudes and impose bias.
What are some indirect measures of attitudes?
Participants are unaware they are being assessed.
Non-verbal/physiological/brain activity measures.
Duping a participant
Cognitive research methods: association between pairs of concepts from timing responses to pairings such as good/bad
Overt behaviour (presuming attitude is based on behaviour)
Why were the early studies of attitude-behaviour relationships weak?
Too many variables did not account for this relationship. It was once these relationships between attitudes and behaviour became more specific, that scientists notice a change.
What is Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) Theory of reasoned action?
Your intention about a certain place, thing, event etc. is a good indication of your attitude towards that thing which is then an indication of your behaviour. There is also the addition of subjective norms around that behaviour, which is the social pressure to perform/not perform it.
How does the theory of planned behaviour (Azjen, 1991) add to the theory of reasoned action?
By adding a component of perceived behavioural control, variables that affect your ability to perform that behaviour such as exterior circumstances is accounted for. This is where control influences intention as well as behaviour.
What is the weakest link, and therefore a criticism, of the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour?
It exists in the link between intentions and behaviour. Usually, people have great intentions however the execution into behaviour can be murky or not fall through. This is where other methods need to be looked at in order to understand how to bridge that gap.
What is a good technique to understand the relationship between attitudes and behaviour.
By asking very specific questions that understand the relationship and attitudes you are trying to assess.
What are the two routes to persuasion in Petty and Cacioppo’s elaboration likelihood model of persuasion?
Central and peripheral.
Central processing of a persuasive message is when and individual is focusing and thinking about the overt content of the message and is persuaded by the quality of the arguments.
Peripheral processing is when you are influenced by peripheral cues, i.e. music or a celebrity, to persuade you into doing something.
What were the factors that Hovland et al. found in persuasion?
This was the post WWII focus on messages, source and audience characteristics that influence persuasion.
What are some message characteristics that influence persuasion?
Order of arguments
One- and two-sided arguments
Type of appeal
Explicit vs. implicit conclusions
What are some source characteristics that influence persuasion?
Expertise Trustworthiness Likability Status Race
What are some audience characteristics of persuasion?
Persuadability Initial postion Intelligence self-esteem Personality
What is the sleeper effect in source characteristics and what did Hovland find in their study?
It is the delayed increase in the persuasive impact of a a non-credible source.
Hovland found that overtime we separate the message from the source, thus we disassociate from the origin of a message and attitude change is the same regardless of credibility. However, once participants were reminded of the non-credible source, the sleeper effect disappears.
