Chapter 6 - attitudes Flashcards
attitude
overall evaluation (judgement) of an
object that is based on cognitive, affective and behavioural information
in what 2 things can attitudes vary?
- Valence (emotional experience): negative, positive or neutral attitude
- Strength: mild or strong attitude
cognitive component of attitudes
Refers to beliefs, thoughts, and attributes associated with an attribute object
Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975) expectancy–value approach
cognitive attitude
attitude towards an object is the sum of ‘expectancy X value’
Overall attitude towards table
- Function
- Look
- Comfort
Sum all these things together to get attitude
affective component of attitude
refers to feelings or emotions associated with an attitude change
Evaluative conditioning (associating feelings with attitude objects)
is when you start to like or dislike something because it gets repeatedly paired with something you already feel positive or negative about.
e.g. A brand is always shown with happy music, you start to like it because of the positive association.
Bit of subliminal priming, unconcious awereness of stimulus pairing
Mere exposure effect (associating feelings with attitude objects)
Increase in liking an object as a results of being repeatedly exposed to it
Behavioural component of attitudes
refers to past behavior we have performed (or might perform in the future) towards an attitude object.
We conclude our attitude based on our behaviour
Self perception theory
Theory assumes that when inner states are ambiguous, we infer our attitude based on our behaviour
IF WE DONT KNOW HOW WE FEEL ABOUT SOMETHING, WE LOOK AT OUR BEHAVIOR TO MAKE A CONCLUSION
Cognitive dissonance
If we behave in a way that is against our believe, we are motivated change to diminish dissonance (uncomfortable)
Difference self perception theory and cognitive dissonance
Self perception theory is about interpreting our behaviour to understand out attitude, cognitive dissonance is about resolving internal conflict
One dimensional perspective on attitudes
A perspective that perceives positive and negative elements stored along a
single dimension. People their attitude can be at the end or in between
Two-dimensional perspective
Positive and negative elements stored along separate dimensions
* Attitudinal ambivalence – when an individual both likes and dislikes an attitude object.
Function of attitude
With attitude we can classify object in our environment and it serves as a purpose for how we then act.
It provides answers to people in high need for closure
Attitudes are energy-saving devices
Give 3 reasons
o Strong attitudes guide relevant judgements and behaviour
o Weak attitudes have little effect in
judgement and behaviour processes
o Highly accessible attitudes make attitude-relevant judgements easier
IF WE KNOW OUR ATTITUDE WE CAN EASILY ACT AND JUDGE WITHOUT THINKING, IT SAVES ENERGY
Object appraisal function of attitude
Attitudes serves as an energy saving device
Utilitarian function of attitude
Attitudes help us maximise rewards and minimise costs.
We behave towards out goals
Social judgement function of attitude
Attitdues helps us identify with liked others
We may buy something because our idol likes it.
Ego-defensive function of attitude
Attitude helps us protect our self esteem
We have a negative attitude towards something we are bad at to protect our self esteem
Value expression function of attitude
Attitude helps us to express our values.
I don’t eat meat because I care for animals lives.
Self monitoring
Refers to differences in how people vary their behaviour across social situations
High self-monitors
ADAPT
- Oriented to situational cues
- Adapt their behaviour to the current situation
Low self-monitors
NOT ADAPT
- Behave according to their core values
- Tend not to adapt their behaviour to the current situation
Strong attitudes are (vs. weak)
- More PERSISTENT (stable over time)
- More RESISTENT to CHANGE
- More likely to INFLUENCE INFO PROCESSING
- More likely to guide BEHAVIOR
Explicit measures of attitudes
You directly ask respondent to think and report attitude
Implicit measures of attitudes
Assess spontaneous evaluative associations with an object without relying on a verbal report
Likert Scales (explicit measure of attitude)
- Based on summated ratings – responses indicate either a favourable or an unfavourable
attitude
Semantic differential scales (explicit measure of attitude)
- Uses bipolar adjectives (e.g., good–bad, like–dislike)
- Measures attitudes towards many attitude
objects along a common scal
Evaluative priming (implicit measure of attitude)
- Typically, an object is briefly presented on a computer screen, then replaced by an evaluative object (e.g., disgusting)
- Participant indicates the valence of the adjective as quickly as possible
- Speed of response is the key measure
Attitude behavior relation
Degree to which attitude predicts behavior
Factors that influences if attitude predict behavior
- Correspondence between attitudinal and behavioural measures
- Domain of behaviour
- Strength of attitude
- Role of person variables
Correspondence (influence on attitude predicting behaviour)
There needs to be a high correspondence between measures of attitude and behaviour in four key ways if you want to predict behaviour with attitude
* Action (e.g., helping)
* Target (refugees)
* Context (in Utrecht)
* Time (next month)
Domain (influence on attitude predicting behaviour)
The relationship between attitudes and behaviour differs depending on which the topic
under investigation.
(Attitude is related to voting behavior, but not blood donating)
Strong attitudes are more likely than weak attitudes to predict behaviour
YES OR NO?
Yes, so the strength of an attitude influences behavior
how does a role of person variables explain that attitude influences behavior
- Self-monitoring (low self-monitors are more consistent in their behavior)
- The nature of the participants in a study – e.g., students show lower attitude-behaviour relations than non-students
The MODE model explains unplanned/spontanious behavior
Motivation and Opportunity as Determinant for behavior
- If individuals have enough motivation and opportunity (time to think things through) they may base their behaviour on a careful consideration of the information available
- When motivation or opportunity are low, people rely on most automatic behaviour to guide behavior.
