Attitudes

Question 1

What are the 3 components of an attitude

Answer 1

1) Affect: having either positive or negative feelings towards the subject
2) Cognitive: forming a belief or looking at knowledge which informs the attitude
3) Behavioural: Acting a certain way towards the subject

Question 2

Explain affect and attitudes

Answer 2

In an experiment participants were subliminally exposed to either positive or negative pictures. Then shown an unfamilliar face. Those shown positive ones reacted more positively to the face .

Positive/ negative feelings have an effect

Question 3

Explain cognition and attitudes

Answer 3

People may have negative stereotpyes about certain groups which predict prejudicial attitudes or negative ones towards certain groups.
Stereotypes reflect cognition

Question 4

Behaviour and attitudes explained

Answer 4

Participants asked to test headphones either shaking or nodding their head whilst listening to a debate. Those nodding their heads were more likely to agree with the argument.

Our behaviours inform the attitudes we have

Question 5

Explain the difference between 1 and 2 dimensional attitude structures

Answer 5

1 dimensional: exist on a scale where you can be highly pos, neutral or highly neg.
2 dimensional: shows positive and negative attitudes as separate components to present ambivalent attitudes accurately.

Question 6

What are the 4 functions of attitudes and explain
Katz 1960

Answer 6

1- Knowledge: we gain knowledge on a topic based off our attitudes
2- Ego -defense: attitudes can be used to defend egos by having a negative attitude towards the object which caused a certain event for example when failing a test thinking negatively to the teacher or marker
3- Instrumental: social acceptance
4- Value expressive: allows people to express their morals and opinions

Question 7

Explain the Thurstone scale

Answer 7

Produce 100 statements ranging in intensity and have judges order them from most positive to least towards the concepts. Look for the statement with the highest inter- judge agreement. Take the 22 of the statements in an agree/ disagree format and look at the overall sum of the participants responses .

Question 7

Guttman scale

Answer 7

Statements are organised in a hierarchy where agreement with a statement implies agreement of prior statements

Question 7

Osgood semantic differential

Answer 7

Measurement of evaluations using semantic scales. Where participants select on the scale eg.
dirty , , , , , , , , clean

Question 8

Likert scale

Answer 8

Participants choose a statement to present their attitude (Strongly agree, disagree, neutral etc )

Question 9

Physiological measures

Answer 9

Measure of skin resistance, heart rate, pupil dilation to see if there is any changes when being presented with the stimulus and an neutral object.
Not very reliable as our body may react to other variables such as the stress of being under such measures.
Also does not dictate the direction of the attitude

Question 10

Implicit association test

Answer 10

Comparison of the reaction time where the target cateogory shares and the postive share a side in comparison to the negative and target category sharing a side.

Have stronger validity than direct measures as participants are not affected by social desirability

Question 11

Karpinsky and hilton 2001 implicit vs explicit

Answer 11

With implicit measures, these may not be correct as we are aware of stereotypes. However when it is explicit we are openly endorsing the stereotypes rather than having them as just knowledge.

Question 12

What is the mere exposure effect

Answer 12

Repeated exposure to an object leads to greater attraction till around 10 exposures where this declines.

Question 13

Classical conditioning

Answer 13

Repeated association of a neutral stimulus can create a reaction which was typically elicited by a different stimulus (little albert)

Question 14

Instrumental conditioning

Answer 14

Rewards and positive reinforcement enforce an attitude

Question 15

Obervational/ vicarious learning

Answer 15

Social learning process where behaviour is modelled after observing others’ behaviours and the outcomes. For example bobo dolls bandura

Question 16

Explain the correspondence of attitude and behavioural measure

Answer 16

We should look at the behaviour expected to be performed, target of the behaviour, context (pub or priv) and time frame given

Question 17

Domain of behaviour

Answer 17

People are more likely to perform a behaviour linked to their attitude if it is easier to do

Question 18

What is attitudinal strength

Answer 18

The stronger ones attitude to something the more accessible and important it is so we are more likely to act on it

Question 19

How can individual differences impact behaviour

Answer 19

If they have a habit.
As well as if they are high-self monitoring they have a lower attitude- behavioural correlation

Question 20

What is the theory of reasoned action

Answer 20

Behaviour depends on the intention which is informed by subjective norms ( what other people’s beliefs about the behaviour are, creating a drive to comply) and own attitudes towards the behaviour including evaluation of the outcomes.

Question 21

What is the theory of planned behaviour

Answer 21

We also look at whether we think we have the control to do this behaviour and if we think it will have a positive impact.
This is a 3rd component along side the theory of reasoned action