Attitudes Flashcards
1
Q
Definition of attitudes?
A
- can refer to a range of phenomena
- related to opinions, how we think/feel about something, what we say about issues that are important to us
- related to what we like and don’t like, our positive/negative feelings towards things
2
Q
What’s the social psychologist definition of attitudes?
A
- a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a directive/dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it’s related
- psychological tendency that’s expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour
3
Q
Richard LaPiere (road trip)
A
- went on road trip with young chinese couple in the 1930s
- assumed that travelling with them they would encounter people’s prejudices
- of the around 250 places they visited only 1 refused them based on ethnic background
- after the journey he wrote to all the establishments they had visited and asked their attitude on serving a Chinese visitor, of those that responded 92% said they wouldn’t
- shows there is a clear gap between what people say their attitude is and whether they are willing to act on it or not
4
Q
Wicker (1969)
attitude-behaviour link
A
- meta-analysis on research looking at the link between attitude and behaviour
- relationship was usually positively related, it was typically small
- small correlation means it can’t be used to predict
5
Q
How might the complexity of attitudes affect behaviour?
A
- attitudes are related to behaviours but the relationship is more complex than a direct line between what someone thinks consistently and the behaviour they act on consistently
- specific attitudes should predict behaviour better than general attitudes
- strong/accessible attitudes are better predictors than weak attitudes
6
Q
Fazio and WIlliams (1986)
attitude accessibility
A
- studied election campaign
- several months before the election they asked participants several questions to assess their attitudes towards each candidate
- they then gave either agreements or disagreements on the questions about the candidates (to measure how quick their attitudes were reached)
- they were then asked after the election who they’d voted for
- positive correlation between attitudes and behaviour in strong and highly accessible attitudes, though the correlation was stronger for the high accessibility
7
Q
What is the theory of reasoned action?
A
- suggests that attitudes do guide behaviour but the link isn’t direct, it’s mediated through another variable
- having an attitude forms an intention that drives behaviour, not the attitude driving the behaviour
- peoples approval and subjective norms also affect the forming of the intention
- for when we have full choice over how to behave
8
Q
What is the theory of planned behaviour?
A
- perceived behavioural control is an important predictor of their behaviour
- assessment of the capacity at which they can actually engage in the behaviour they have the intention of
9
Q
Definition of explicit attitude?
A
- conscious attitudes
- will tell someone if they ask about it
10
Q
Definition of implicit attitude?
A
-subconscious association with the object of the attitude
11
Q
Friese, Hoffman and Wanke (2008)
implicit and explicit attitudes
A
- asked participants explicit attitude questions about their preferences (chocolate vs fruit)
- given a choice task, could take 5 of the 20 items (10 chocolate, 10 fruit)
- given task to change cognitive load/capacity of remembering string of numbers (either 1 or 8)
- when high cognitive capacity, explicit attitudes predict their behaviour, stronger correlation (took more fruit)
- implicit attitudes took over when they had low cognitive capacity
- implicit attitudes are stronger predictor of behaviour
12
Q
How do attitudes change?
A
- social influence
- persuasion
- dissonance (behaviour changes first and then the attitude)
13
Q
What are the more ideal characteristics for persuasion to be successful?
A
- being seen as an expert
- strong arguments
- relative influence of source characteristics and message quality depends on individual’s aspects however
14
Q
Petty, Cacioppo and Goldman (1981)
persuasion
A
- exposed students to a message that countered their attitudes and looked at change in attitude
- students were given either weak or strong arguments, that were presented by either an expert or not and were led to believe that the changes would affect them personally or wouldn’t
- when involvement was low and delivered by an expert the participants attitudes became more positive
- if it wasn’t an expert they shifted further away from the message
- when it was personally relevant they weren’t affected by the expertise
- when we care about an issue we pay less attention to who delivers the message and more to the strength of the argument
15
Q
What’s the elaboration likelihood model?
A
- when issue involvement is low people engage in superficial processing of messages (fall back on rules of thumb to evaluate whether they should listen)
- when issue importance is high they engage in thoughtful processing
