Chapter 4: Behaviour and Attitudes

Question 1

What are attitudes?

Answer 1

• an individuals evaluation (favourable or unfavourable) of a person, issue, object, group or behaviour
• *often do not predict behaviour
• *biggest area of research in social psych

Question 2

Components of attitudes?

Answer 2

1. Cognitive: knowledge/thoughts of the attitude target (person, place or thing)
2. Affective: feeling towards the attitude target
3. Behavioural: intention to act toward the attitude target

Question 3

Aspects of Attitudes:

- Attitudes influence ?

Answer 3

behaviour, behaviour influences attitudes

Question 4

Aspects of Attitudes:

- may contain?

Answer 4

conflicting elements
L> affective and cognitive elements may be mixed producing ambivalent attitudes
ex: animal research

Question 5

Aspects of Attitudes:

- may be explicit or implicit?

Answer 5

• explicit: evaluations that ppl report consciously …easier to change
• implicit: automatic evaluative responses which may occur without awareness

Question 6

Measuring attitudes?
- self report?
L> good? Bad?

Answer 6

• measures rely on peoples judgements of their attitudes

- self report techniques assume people now what their attitudes are and will report honestly *could be lying

Question 7

Measuring attitudes?

- likert scale

Answer 7

• an attitude measurement technique that requires respondent to indicate extent of agreement or disagreement with several statements on an issue

Question 8

Measuring attitudes?

- semantic differential scales?

Answer 8

• an attitude measurement that requires respondents to rate a target on several evaluative dimensions…evaluated on some level

Question 9

Measuring attitudes?

- opinion surveys?

Answer 9

• designed to assess public opinion about an issue, event or group

Question 10

Nonverbal Measures of Attitudes::

- Behavioural?

Answer 10

• rely on overt behaviour

* * behaviour being displayed…

Question 11

Measuring attitudes?

-physiological?

Answer 11

• include measures of arousal (heart rate…levels of sweat via galvanic skin response ) and muscle action

Question 12

Measuring attitudes?
-physiological?
L>Facial Electromyography?

Answer 12

– procedure for measuring muscle contractions the face that may be sensitive to positive vs negative responses to stimuli

Question 13

Measuring attitudes?

-Implicit?

Answer 13

• automatic evaluation of target

Question 14

Measuring attitudes?
-Implicit?
L> Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Answer 14

• a rxn time procedure that provides a measure of implicit attitudes …rxn time will be slower if they do not line up

Question 15

Do Attitudes Predict Behaviour?

- Leon Festinger (1964): Wicker (1969)

Answer 15

• attitudes do not predict behaviour …

- actually found the opposite

Question 16

Do Attitudes Predict Behaviour?

-Daniel Baston et al (1997:1999)

Answer 16

• moral hypocrisy : appearing moral when you are not

- at least going to church on easter and x-mass…behave socially acceptable but attitude is the opposite…

Question 17

Do Attitudes Predict Behaviour?

-Mischel(1968)

Answer 17

• personality traits equally ineffective
• self esteem, defensiveness, level of anxiety…not good for predicting attitude
• *change behaviour which will change attitude

Question 18

Attitudes Predict Actions

- three conditions? :

Answer 18

1. other influences minimized
   - find tests that tap into implicit..is focal test etc participating in a charity that you believe in
2. attitude specific to relevant action (i.e. participating in a charity that you believe in but not when asked in one of your combines
3. attitude is potent
   - makes for strong attitude
   - stronger attitude = stronger prediction of behaviour
   * *behaviour may not feel attitude = if its not central to your thoughts