Attitudes and Behaviour

Question 1

What are the 4 factors of the TPB?

Answer 1

attitudes
PBC
perceived norms (replaced subjective norms in TRA)
- injunctive norms
- descriptive norms

Question 2

What are attitudes?

Answer 2

subjective evaluations about the outcome of a given action

Question 3

What is perceived behavioural control?

Answer 3

perception of one’s ability to engage in particular behaviours
internal; skill, willpower
external; time, opportunity

Question 4

What are injunctive norms?

Answer 4

the perception that significant others will approve of a given behaviour

Question 5

What are descriptive norms?

Answer 5

the perceptions that significant others are also engaging in a particular behaviour

Question 6

What are the two views of the attitude-behaviour relationship?

Answer 6

Ajzen & Fishbein
optimism; measures of attitude are strongly related to action
Wicker
pessimism; measures of attitude are unrelated or only slightly related to behaviours

Question 7

Which study supports an attitude-behaviour gap?

Answer 7

LaPiere (1934)
Chinese couple went to restaurants
face-to-face only 1/251 establishments wouldn’t serve them
on the phone 92% said they wouldn’t allow it
* norm of politeness in face-to-face interactions

Question 8

What is correspondence and why is it important?

Answer 8

it is making sure that the measurement is effective and specific enough, the attitude-behaviour gap can exist if correspondence is not met

Question 9

Which studies show the importance of correspondence?

Answer 9

Weigel & Newman (1976)
a substantial attitude-behaviour correlation can only be obtained when the attitude measure has established quality and is comparable to the behavioural measures
Davidson & Jaccard (1979)
strongest attitude-behaviour correlations were found for the most specific attitude measurement; taking birth control pills in the next 2 years

Question 10

What is the Theory of Reasoned Action?

Answer 10

Ajzen & Fishbein (1980)
attitudes and subjective norms influence behavioural intention
explicitly deals with purely volitional behaviours

Question 11

What is a subjective norm?

Answer 11

the perception of important others opinions on whether a behaviour should be performed (normative beliefs) AND the social pressures to perform or not perform that behaviour (motivation to comply)

Question 12

What is the expectancy-value framework?

Answer 12

subjective expected utility approaches in decision making

Question 13

What is a criticism of the TPB?

Answer 13

it is overly rational, neglecting affective factors

Question 14

What factors can cause an intention-behaviour gap?

Answer 14

attitude strength
ambivalence
indifference
imminence of events

Question 15

How does attitude strength affect intention and behaviour?

Answer 15

some attitudes can be stable and consequential, others can be flexible with few important effects
depends on;
- durability
- influence on behaviour
- resistance to persuasion effects

Question 16

What is ambivalence?

Answer 16

having both positive and negative feelings towards a construct
- approach-avoidance conflict

Question 17

What is indifference?

Answer 17

having no opinion so masking this fact by making hastily fabricated affective judgements

Question 18

How does the imminence of events affect decision making?

Answer 18

we are over influenced by the imminence of events, choosing impulsively when the consequences are at hand, but with restraint when they are deferred
Hernstein’s chocolate cake dilemma

Question 19

What are some additional variable proposed for the TPB?

Answer 19

anticipated regret
moral norms
identity appropriateness

Question 20

What is anticipated regret?

Answer 20

perceived discrepancies between what is and what might have been

Question 21

What are moral norms?

Answer 21

actions are perceived as right or wrong regardless of personal or social consequences; Beck & Ajzen (1991)
* rejected as not applicable to a wide range of behaviours

Question 22

What is identity appropriateness?

Answer 22

who you consider yourself to be and what someone like you would do; Sparks & Shepherd (1992)

Question 23

What are the criteria for additional variables to the TPB?

Answer 23

behaviour specific
be a causal factor
conceptually independent
applicable to a wide range of behaviours
consistently improve prediction

Question 24

What is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 24

Festinger (1957)
when two of one’s own cognitions conflict causing an aversive feeling
dissonance causes pressure to reduce or eliminate it by changing attitudes or behaviour

Question 25

Which studies support the theory of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 25

forced compliance; Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
grasshopper experiment; Zimbardo et al. (1965)
effort justification; Arsonson & Mills (1959)

Question 26

What is the forced compliance experiment?

Answer 26

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)
participants carry out dull tasks
then asked to tell new participants they will enjoy it
paid either $1/$20
participants paid $20 negatively evaluated the experience
participants paid $1 positively evaluated the experience to justify lying to the new participants as $1 was not enough

Question 27

What is the grasshopper experiment?

Answer 27

Zimbardo et al. (1965)
participants are either in the attractive/unattractive experimenter condition and are induced to eat grasshoppers
participants in the unattractive condition changed their attitude and were more favourable towards eating them again to justify their actions

Question 28

What is the effort justification experiment?

Answer 28

Aronson & Mills (1959)
women are invited to a discussion group and either have to pass a control, mild or severe initiation
participants in the severe condition gave higher ratings of enjoyment to justify their actions

Question 29

What are the alternative explanations for cognitive dissonance?

Answer 29

self-concept involvement
impression management
self-perception theory

Question 30

What is self-concept involvement theory?

Answer 30

Aronson

dissonance arises if behaviour which is inconsistent with self-concept

Question 31

What is impression management theory?

Answer 31

people try to create an impression of attitude-behaviour constancy

Question 32

What is self-perception theory?

Answer 32

participants infer their attitudes from their behaviour

Question 33

How does hypocrisy induce dissonance?

Answer 33

the discrepancy between knowing what is currently being done and what you believe you should be doing

Question 34

Which study shows the effect of hypocrisy on dissonance?

Answer 34

Stone et al. (1994)
combination of manipulations which induce hypocrisy
- public commitment
- mindfulness; list past failures
hypocrisy induces dissonance so behaviour is changed

Question 35

What is the theory of self-affirmation?

Answer 35

people are motivated to deal with the threat that inconsistency poses to the perception of the self

Question 36

What are the effects of self-affirmation?

Answer 36

systematic processing of information, greater information acceptance, changes in attitudes, intentions and behaviour

Question 37

Which studies show self-affirmation?

Answer 37

community projects
prejudice
caffeine consumption
sunscreen use
health risks
consumption/willingness to pay

Question 38

What is the SA community project experiment?

Answer 38

Steele (1975)
participants who were called a relevant/irrelevant negative name showed greater compliance to help out with a community project in order to affirm a sense of personal integrity

Question 39

What is the SA prejudice self-affirmation experiment?

Answer 39

Fein & Spencer (1997)
conducted during a period of bad relations with Jews
affirmation manipulation created similar ratings of Jewish and Italian candidates
no manipulation created higher personality ratings for Italians

Question 40

What is the caffeine consumption experiment?

Answer 40

Reed & Aspinall (1998)
high caffeine, affirmed participants rated risk-confirming information as more convincing that the non-affirmed participants (reduced biased processing)
however, the high caffeine, non-affirmed participants showed greater intention to reduce consumption as the affirmed high caffeine users do not have a threatened sense of self

Question 41

What is the SA sunscreen use experiment?

Answer 41

Jessop, Simmonds & Sparks (2009)

positive traits affirmation showed the best response to using more sunscreen, more responsive and more behaviour change

Question 42

What is the SA health risk experiment?

Answer 42

Sherman, Nelson & Steele (2000)
participants who completed self-affirmation were less defensive and more accepting of health information
health messages can threaten self-image so self-affirmation

Question 43

What is the SA consumption experiment?

Answer 43

Sivanathan & Pettit (2010)
wounded egos consume high-status goods for their affirmational properties
after negative feedback participants were willing to pay a much higher price for a high-status photo