Attitudes Flashcards
- Affect (feelings)- how much you like and dislike
- Behavior (intentions/tendencies)- behavioral tendency to approach or avoid
- Cognition (beliefs)- thoughts that reinforce people’s feelings
ABCs of attitudes
we follow through in strongly held, consistent attitudes
Attitude Strength
attitudes that aren’t purposefully hidden and/or not fully recognized; measure immediate evaluative reactions that may be unconscious to the person
implicit attitudes
attitudes that are at the conscious level, are deliberately formed and are easy to self-report
explicit attitudes
- Measure at the same level of specificity
- Action, target, context
- Use “multiple act criterion”
- Measure across many different attitudes and behaviors
How to address problems with attitude measurement
- Knowledge Function:
- Identity Function:
- Behavioral Function:
Functions of Attitudes
- Attitudes provide a schema we use to integrate existing and new information
- Evaluate different but related objects
knowledge function
- Help you express who you are
- Convey your values or self-concept
Identity Function
- Can guide your behavior
- Achieve goals, avoid negative outcomes
Behavioral Function
- is primarily a theory of attitude formation
Bem states:
Theory states that people infer their attitudes from observing their behavior and the context in which the behavior occurred
- Occurs when attitude is weak and vague
self perception theory
We are happy as long as there is equilibrium…
…but are uncomfortable with imbalance
Heider’s Balance Theory
unpleasant state of arousal when we are unbalanced (inconsistency between attitudes/beliefs and behaviors) we are motivated to reduce dissonance and restore consistency
- primarily a theory of attitude change
Cognitive Dissonance
reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one’s behavior when the external justification is insufficient
Insufficient Justification
the phenomenon where we lose intrinsic motivation to complete an activity that we used to enjoy for itself after a reward, such as a prize or money, is given to us for completing the activity
Overjustification
numerical scale used to assess people’s attitudes with labeled anchors on the extremes
Likert Scale
state of psychological dissonance that often occurs after making an important decision
occurs when:
- Important decisions
- Permanent decisions
- Equally attractive alternatives
- Less similar alternatives
Post-Decisional Dissonance
After making a choice between 2 objects, people reevaluate their chosen item more positively and their rejected item more negatively
Spreading of alternatives
tendency to justify devoting significant money, time, or effort to a disappointing or unpleasant experience, such as:
- betting/gambling
- running a marathon
- club/orgs hazing
Effort Justification
- The cognitive dissonance theory accounts for attitude changes when people’s behaviors are inconsistent with their original attitudes which are clear and important to them;
- the self-perception theory is used when those original attitudes are relatively ambiguous and less important.
Self-perception vs. dissonance
the extent to which an attitude object is thought about, reflected in the amount of time devoted to this thinking over an extended period
Attitude centrality
people are motivated to rationalize and justify instances of inequality in order to preserve and defend the legitimacy of the system
System justification theory
people feel threatened by their own death and therefore adopt worldviews that allow them to find meaning and worth in their lives
terror management theory
measures the strength of associations between concepts and evaluations or stereotypes to reveal an individual’s hidden or subconscious biases
Implicit association test
- When attention is focused on the attitude
- When the attitude is formed by active experience
- When the attitude is personally relevant
- When the cognitive and affective components of attitude match
- When appropriate measures are used
- When we assess a “true” attitude rather than social desirability
When do attitudes predict behavior?
