Week 6 Lecture Flashcards
Attitudes
A disposition to evaluate an attitude object with some degree of favour or disfavour
Anything you encounter could be an attitude object
An attitude is always positive or negative
It helps you to summarise the world around
Multicomponent model of attitudes
People can evaluate smth through their thoughts, feelings and their overt behavior on a spectrum from extremely negative to extremely positive
3 components of ABC Model of Attitude
- Affect component –> I like it bc it gives me pleasure and prestige
- Behavior component –> I like it bc I previously owned it and it was nice
- Cognition component –> I like it bc it saves gas
There is an overlap, can influence each other –> changing one component can result inattid=tude change
The valence of an attitude
- Positive attitude (love)
- Negative
- Strong
- Weak
Strong attitude
Important to self-concept –> similar to high involvement
Related to values
Commitment
Springs to mind easily
Role in decision-making
Guiding for behaviour
Persistent over time, not easily changed
Ambivalence
Sometimes you just don’t know
See both advantages and disadvantages
You don’t have enough info to make an attitude –> ambivalence
Characteristics of ambivalence
Unresolved or unpleasant feeling
Less guiding for behvaior
Less persistent over time
Strong attitudes are usually not ambivalent
Weak attitudes can be ambivalent, but they don’t have to be
Ambivalent is not indifferent –> you haven’t made up your mind yet
Explicit attitudes
conscious and openly expressed evaluations or beliefs that individuals are aware of and can report accurately
Can be measured by:
1. Questioneers
2. Interviews
Dangers:
Social desirability –> to present oneself in a manner that will be viewed favourably by others
Demand characteristics –> participants form an interpretation of the experiment’s purpose and change behavior accordingly
Hawthorne Effect
Implicit attitudes
unconscious, automatic evaluations or biases that influence a person’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours without their conscious awareness or control
Measured by:
Reaction time tasks (IAT)
Priming instruments
Linguistic tests
Make use of associations
Implicit Association Task (IAT)
People have to categorise items
Reaction time tells us smth about the strength of an association memory
Faster reaction time = stronger association
Dual attitudes
Explicit and implicit attitudes
These can exist next to each other
Can be different
Implicit attitude is much stronger than explicit attitude
Dual vs Ambivalent attitudes
Ambivalent –> state of conflict
Dual –> which attitude is the most accessible
Theory of planned behaviour (TPB)
not only attitude influence behavior but also:
1. Norms –> the person believes that specific individuals will approve or disapprove of the behaviour
2. Control –> the amount of control we think we have over the situation
3. Intention –> motivational factors that have an influence on behaviour (how hard will i try)
