Sociology (Attitudes Slides) Flashcards
What are attitudes?
Evaluations of people, objects, and ideas.
What are the three components of attitudes?
- Affective (emotional reactions)
- Behavioral (actions or observable behavior)
- Cognitive (thoughts and beliefs)
Give an example of the three components of attitudes using cars.
- Affective: Feeling excitement about getting a new car or an autoworker feeling resentment toward foreign-made models
- Behavioral: Test-driving and purchasing a car
- Cognitive: Admiring a car’s hybrid engine and fuel efficiency
What are two main sources of attitudes?
- Genetic origins (indirectly, through temperament and personality)
- Social experiences
What evidence suggests attitudes may have genetic origins?
Identical twins share more attitudes than fraternal twins, suggesting an indirect genetic influence.
What are cognitively based attitudes?
Attitudes based primarily on people’s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object.
What are affectively based attitudes?
Attitudes based more on people’s feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object.
What are four sources of affectively based attitudes?
- Values (religious or moral beliefs)
- Sensory reactions (liking the taste of something)
- Aesthetic reactions (admiring design features)
- Conditioning (classical or operant)
What are behaviorally based attitudes?
Attitudes based on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object.
How can classical conditioning create attitudes?
A stimulus that elicits an emotional response is paired with a neutral stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to take on the emotional properties of the first stimulus.
How can operant conditioning create attitudes?
Freely chosen behaviors increase or decrease when followed by reinforcement or punishment, leading to attitude formation.
What is Self-Perception Theory?
Theory suggesting that people infer their attitudes from their behavior, especially when their initial attitude is weak or ambiguous.
What are explicit attitudes?
Attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report.
What are implicit attitudes?
Attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconscious.
How can explicit and implicit attitudes differ?
A person might explicitly believe in racial equality but have implicit negative associations toward certain racial groups.
How are implicit attitudes typically measured?
Using the Implicit Association Test (IAT).
What is attitude accessibility?
The strength of the association between an attitude object and a person’s evaluation of that object.
When do attitudes predict spontaneous behaviors?
When they are highly accessible to people.
What is the Theory of Planned Behavior?
A theory stating that people’s intentions are the best predictors of their deliberate behaviors.
What are the three main factors that determine behavioral intentions according to the Theory of Planned Behavior?
- Attitudes toward the specific behavior
- Subjective norms
- Perceived behavioral control
Why are attitudes considered social phenomena?
Because when attitudes change, it is often due to social influence.
What happens when people experience cognitive dissonance related to their attitudes?
They often find internal justification for their behavior, which brings their attitude and behavior closer together.
What is the Yale Attitude Change Approach?
The study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change attitudes in response to persuasive messages.
What are the three components of the Yale Attitude Change Approach?
- Who: The source of the communication
- What: The nature of the communication
- Whom: The nature of the audience
