Attitudes Flashcards
Definition of attitudes
“A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor”
- Entity: Ideas, Events, Objects, or People. ex. Agree/ disagree abortion
- Composed of:
1. Affect (feelings)
2. Behavior (inclinations to act)
3. Cognition (beliefes)
Basic processes in formation of attitudes
1) Mere exposure effect: more positivity after exposure.
2) Positive/ negative consequences: instrumental learning
3) Social learning: observing pos./neg. consequences)
4) Evaluative (/classical) conditioning): Evaluation change after co-occurence with +/- stimulus.
Self-perception theory
the theory suggests that people develop their attitudes, beliefs, and emotions by observing their own behavior and the context in which it occurs.
1) Behavior Leads to Attitude Formation
2) No Strong Pre-existing Attitudes
3) the theory explains cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance theory
Mismatch between: Belief, Feeling and Behavior
→ Dissonance
–Dissonance is uncomfortable
–-> Motivation to reduce the dissonance
the functions of attitudes
1) Knowledge function: sense of structure
2) Instrumental function: approach reward, avoid punishment.
3) Ego defensive function: “reinsurance” against threat.
4) Value-expressive function: “display” the self.
The instrumental function of attitudes
– Evaluative responses are triggered automatically
– Evaluative response go along with behavioral tendencies
– Evaluative responses have a “summary function”
(direct) Ways of measuring attitudes
Through out history:
- Essay-like descriptions
- Absolute ranking (all – most – many – few - no)
- Relative ranking (order a list of stimuli)
- Paired comparison (chose out of two)
Most used today:
- Rating scale (agree/ disagree or Bad/ good).
Problems:
– Restriction to narrow range of options
– Social desirability
Indirect methods of measuring attitudes
1) Symbolic attitude measure
2) Physiological measures of attitudes
3) Observation (e.g., social distance)
