Definitions & Measures Flashcards
What was Allport’s (1935) definition of Attitudes?
A mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerts a directive or dynamic influence upon an individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related
IE. Something in our head, some kind of evaluation. guided by things we’ve done, seen or read. It influences what we do
What is Fazio’s (1990) definition of Attitudes?
A mental association between an object and our evaluation of it
Strong automatic link
If an attitude has a strong link between the object and the evaluation, how accessible is it?
Highly accessible
What is Zanna and Rampel’s (1989) definition of attitudes?
Am overall evaluation of an attitude object that is based on cognitive, affective and behavioural information
What is Eagly and Chaiken’s definition of attitudes?
A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with a degree of favor or disfavor
What two ways can an attitude vary? What do they mean?
Intensity/Strength: Stability over time and withstand persuasive appeals
Valence: Positive vs negative
Give 4 reasons why attitudes are important
Attitude appraisal function - Serve as energy saving devices to make judgements easily and quickly
Express attitudes
Identify who we like
Protect selves from negative feedback
Why is knowing the primary function of an attitude important when wanting to change someone’s attitude?
More likely to be successful
What did Wicker say about attitudes predicting behaviour? How did Fishbein and Azjen counter this?
Wicker -Attitudes aren’t good predictors of behaviour
Fishbein and Azjen - Its about HOW and WHEN attitudes predict behaviour = some conditions are better than others
What is evaluative conditioning?
The repeated exposure of an attitude object paired with an affective sensation comes to elicit an evaluation of the attitude object
Name two explicit measures of attitudes
Likert scale and Semantic differential scale
How does a Likert scale measure attitudes?
Rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with statements that express either a positive or negative sentiments about an attitude object
How does a Semantic Differential Scale measure attitudes?
People rate attitudes based on several bipolar adjective scales (E.g Bad vs good, unfavourable vs favourable)
What are the issues with explicit measures of attitudes?
Awareness of attitude
Social desirability/filtered responses
Presentation of question = diff responses
Diff responses if question invites person to rate attitudes based on others
What are explicit measures shown to do?
Predict behaviours