Attitudes and Beliefs Flashcards
what are attitudes?
- An attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs and behaviours towards a particular object, person, thing or event
- Often the result of experience or upbringing, and they have a powerful influence over behaviour
- Set or collection of thoughts, feelings and behaviours on any given topic that predisposes a person to react in a predicatable manner
- While attitudes are enduring, they can also change
How do we form attitudes?
1- Leared through experience
- These tend to be more resistent to change
- Social environment, reinforcement through reward and/or punishment
- Evaluative conditioning- tactic often utilised withing advertisements
2-May have a genetic basis
- Inherited traits
- Evidence derived from studies on identical twins and non-identical twins
What are the factors influencing attitude formation?
- experience
- social roles and niorms
- classical and operant conditioning
- observing people ( parents)
Flowchart of behaviour formation
1- Your beliefs- ideas you hold to be true
2-Your values- what is important to you
3-your attitudes- how you treat others and approach situations
4-Your behaviour- how you act
What are the three components of attitude?
A- Affective- emotional, feelings
B- Behavioural- response (verbal or action)
C- Cognitive- thoughts, evaluation
What are the three witches of attitude?
CONTENT- cognitive, affective and behavioural
STRUCTURE- how this info is organised
FUNCTION- Diverse psychological needs served by attitudes i.e. self esteem
What are the functions of attitudes?
- To express our values and beliefs
- Protect ourszelves from negative feedback
- Identify with people we like
- Judgements are easier and faster to perform
What is attitude stregth?
The degree to which attitudes are stable, resistant to change and influence behaviour
What is attitude valence?
- The direction of evaluation
- Positive vs negative
- Like vs dislike
What are the theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour?
-Both theories propose that the behaviour is based on the conceot of intention
What is intention?
- Intention is the extent to which an individual is either ready to, or likely to engage in a particular behaviour
- Intention is influenced by attitudes, subjective norms, volutional control and behavioural control
- If the outcome of a behaviour is believed to be beneficial, positive and desirable, the individuals attitude will be more favourable
What is the impact of attitude on intention?
- Example, if a mother believes BF will protect her baby agaisnt infecion and is healthier for her and convenient ( positive attitude) then she is more likely to BF
- If a mother believes BF is embarassing, hurts or restricts her activity (negative attitude) then she is likely not to
What is the impact of subjective norm on intention?
- Subjective norm is percieved social pressure to engage/not engage in a certain behaviour
- Determined by normative beliefs
What is volutional control?
- The behaviour must be under the personal control of the individual to be enacted
- This is one in which the individual can decide, at will, to enact the behaviour
- In some cases a person may not have complete control in the decisions made, e.g. wearing of a condom is not completely in a womans control however she does have control in consent
What is behavioural control?
- Refers to the ease with which an intention to change behaviour can be made- less likely to change behaviour of it is percieved to be too difficult
- Making the health choice the easier choice
What is cognitive dissonance?
- A state of imbalance among beliefs
- Suggests a person with 2 inconsistent attitudes would be motivated to change one or other of these attitudes to regain a balance of consonance
e. g. -I like smoking (affective) - I smoke (behavioural)
- I believe smoking is unhealhy (Cognitive)
Link between attitudes and health behaviour
- Attitudes can predict behaviour therefore to change behaviour one needs to address the underlying attitude
- Health behaviour is a combination of attitudes and thoughts
- An underlying assumption in persuasion research- shift a persons attitude in the right direction and behaviour will follow
Other techniques of changing health behaviour?
- Introductory techniques
- Incremental stepped approach
- Appraise with advantages/disadvantages (evidence based)
- Role modelling- do as I say, not as i do
- Involve family and friends if appropriate
- Reinforcement/ encourage/ empower
- Relevant context
Explain the foot in the door technique
- Agreeing to a small request increases likelihood of agreeing to a second request
- Works on theory of consistency- similar requests
Explain door in the face technique
- Refusing a large request- increases likelihood of agreeing to small requests
- Work on the principle of reciprocity- people feel bad saying no
Self- Awareness
- We all have attitudes and judgements that affect how we think about and behave towards others. When we talk about negative attitudes and behaviour towards others we need to be aware of potential prejudice and discrimination
- The quality of self-awareness cannot be understated
