Attitudes Flashcards
Three Components
Evaluation (affective), belief (cognitive), behavior
Functions of Attitudes
Value of expression, provide expectation, utilitarian, organization
Value of Expression
Attitudes provide social capital of whether someone wants to know you; provides a way for others to take in information about us
Provide expectations
Expectations of what we are like as a person and how we behave; expressing what we like or dislike gives others expectations of our behavior
Organization
We take information from attitudes on topics and build on to organized knowledge structures (schemas)
Attitudes
Tendency to evaluate objects/issues favorably or unfavorably
How do we measure?
Direct and Indirect
Direct Measurements
Surveys and interviews
Direct: Likert Scale
Method of summated ratings. 1-10 point scales, agree - disagree
Indirect
Physiological, Bogus Pipeline, Implicit Association Test
Bogus Pipeline
Students asked at beginning of semester on dining habits, studying, food, etc and even mundane things like if they like oranges. Then further into semester, was brought into a room with a machine that can tell if you’re lying or telling the truth, but just had a research assistant in it. They reasoned the questions or asked socially undesirable questions tat they admitted to. People believed the bogus pipeline!
Implicit Association Test
People were asked to do remember stuff for like 10 minutes on a list, then asked to click yes if it was on their list and no if it wasn’t. Soon, experimenter started asking questions off the list about things such as Lithuanian and lazy. PEople would stall, the longe you took, the further it was and vice versa. Shows how far your attitudes and schemas are.
Characteristics associated with higher consistency
measurement relevance, measurement timing (how long it takes; think 2016 election), strength of attitude (personal experience)
Reasoned Action Model/Theory of Planned Behavior
Attitude ties to subjected norm and perceived behavioral control. PBC can go straight to behavior or like the others, intention then behavior
Attitude Change Theories
Learning Theory, cognitive motivation/balance, persuasion approach theory, cognitive response theory
Learning Theory
Any relatively permanent change in attitude/behavior resulting from environmental response. Includes classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Cognitive Motivation/Balance
Dissonance, balance theory, reactance
Persuasion Approach Theory - Message Learning Approaches
Source factors: attractiveness, credibility, power.
Message factors: comprehensibility, fear arousal, # arguments
Recipient factors: intelligence, self esteem
Medium Factor: print v video. Face to face v media
Cognitive Response Theory
What matters is nature of response to message.
Controlled processing; heuristic approach
What matters is heuristic
- automatic processing
Physiological Measurements of Behavior
Head movements, galvanic skin response, facial EMG
Dissonance
thoughts in head will predict behavior. Leon Festinger: Seekers Cult who thought the world ended and when it didn’t, believed that their missionaries were why
Balance Theory by Kelley
Relationship between 3 things that are balanced or unbalanced. The weakest link is the one most likely to change, but the reasoning is circular
Reactance
Attitude change when you feel that something is being taken away from you unfairly
Ex: ROmeo and Juliet effect
Classical Conditioning
Think Ivan Pavlov: dog and bell for food
Humans: motoric response-blinks, ANS threat Little Albert, taste aversions
