attitudes their nature and develoment

Question 1

what is an attitude according to Eagly and Chaiken 1993

Answer 1

psychological tendency expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour

Question 2

attitude according to hogg and vaughan 2014

Answer 2

enduring beliefs feelings and behavioural tendencies towards groups objects events symbols etc

Question 3

what is the one component model

Answer 3

edwards 1957, fazio et al 1986
-affective evaluation (positive or negative) that we make about a particular object

Question 4

what is the two component model

Answer 4

-readiness/ predisposition to evaluate
-includes thoughts and feelings in this model (elements of cognition)
-expands from one component
-mental or neural state of readiness exerting directive or dynamic influence on individuals responses to objects and situations (Allport 1935)

Question 5

what is the three component model

Answer 5

ABC
- Cognition, Affect, Behavioural tendencies
affect = feelings/emotions

Question 6

what are Zanna and Rempel’s 1988 features of attitudes

Answer 6

-an evaluation of the object e.g favourable or unfavourable
-the feelings we get allow us to make overall evaluations

attitudes develop from thoughts/beliefs (C), emotional reactions (A), behavioural reactions (B)

Question 7

what is an alternate way attitudes may form

Answer 7

some believe behaviour infers how we feel about things

Question 8

types of attitudes

Answer 8

attitudes to minority groups: prejudice
attitudes to individuals: interpersonal attraction
attitudes to ourselves: self esteem

Question 9

why look into attitudes

Answer 9

they influence behaviour
may enable us to better predict behaviour

Question 10

what is the functional value of attitudes

Answer 10

rapid and automatic evaluation of rewarding or harmful objects provides a survival advantage (evolutionary)
Fazio: attitudes act as a guide for our behaviour

Question 11

Zajonc 1980 theory

Answer 11

attitudes form rapidly and easily
-they are primitive and have an evolutionary sense
-favourable attitude = approach
-unfavourable attitude = avoid

Question 12

Roskos Ewoldsen + Fazio 1992 attitudes as mental shortcuts theory

Answer 12

-focus attention on salient objects
-influence the interpretation of info
-automatically guide behaviour

Question 13

4 functions of attitudes

Answer 13

Katz 1960
1. knowledge (provide info about environment through mental shortcuts)
2. instrumental (minimise damage and maximise gains)
3. value expressive (social role by communicating social values)
4. ego defensive (protects ones self confidence by resisting damage “truths”

Question 14

theories of attitude development

Answer 14

-cognitive info
-direct experience
-conditioning
-behavioural experience

Question 15

cognitive info to explain attitude development

Answer 15

-theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975): evaluating knowledge of an object determines our attitude and beliefs, we engage in behaviour based on experience and intend to comply with social norms

-theory of planned behaviour: intentions influenced by whether behaviour will have some kind of reaction/purpose

-expectancy value model (EV): expectancy of engaging in behaviour influences behavioural choices

Question 16

direct experience to explain attitude development

Answer 16

-mere exposure (Zajonc 1968): mere exposure to a novel object can induce a positive attitude
-study about foreign lang.
-pp briefly presented with chinese characters and had to decipher if character had pos. or neg. meaning
-character presented either 0,1,2,5,10 or 25 times
-more times seen, more favourable the character is
+ reduces prejudice Keith 2015
+ consumer behaviour McCoy 2017
- Bournstein: after many exposures attitudes level off

Question 17

conditioning to explain attitude development

Answer 17

-Riley and Anderson: pairing product with music can change attitude toward the product and increase purchase intention
-Janis et al: pp read persuasive messages, some pp read them whilst drinking a soft drink of their choice, those drinking a liked soft drink were more persuaded

-Zanna et al: words paired with electric shocks became disliked words

-operant cond.: Insko: survey responses more positive when attitudes previously conditioned by phone call where opinions were reinforced

Question 18

behavioural info to explain attitude development

Answer 18

-self perception theory (Bem 1972): we derive attitudes based on own behaviour e.g help an old lady cross the road and you consider yourself a helpful person (only works where either new weak or ambiguous attitudes already exist)