1 / 17

Attitudes

Attitudes. An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea. Attitudes can be based on three general classes of information: 1. Affect 2. Behavior 3. Cognition. How are Attitudes Formed?. Learning

Download Presentation

Attitudes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Attitudes • An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea. • Attitudes can be based on three general classes of information: • 1. Affect • 2. Behavior • 3. Cognition

  2. How are Attitudes Formed? • Learning • Mere exposure—repeated exposure to a stimulus increases our feelings about the stimulus. • Direct experience • Operant conditioning-reward and punishment • Classical conditioning-association of CS with UCS • Observational learning-imitation of others • Media • Genetics

  3. Attitudes and Judgment • Existing attitudes bias judgments of new information. • Death penalty study (Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979) • Fibrocystic disease and caffeine study (Kunda, 1987)

  4. Attitudes and JudgmentData from Kunda (1987)

  5. Attitudes and Judgment • Attitudes also bias recall of old information. • Introversion/Extraversion study (Sanitioso et al., 1990)

  6. Attitudes and Behavior • LaPiere (1934) study of attitudes and behavior towards Chinese people.

  7. Attitudes and Behavior • Factors that moderate the attitude-behavior link: • Strength of attitude • Specificity of attitude • Self-focus • Self-monitoring

  8. Self-Monitoring Scale • 1. I find it hard to imitate the behavior of other people T F • 2. I can only argue for ideas which I already believe T F • 3. I have considered being an entertainer T F • 4. I would probably make a good actor T F • 5. I have trouble changing my behavior to suit different people and different situations T F

  9. Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior Attitude toward a behavior Subjective norms Intention Behavior Perceived Behavioral control

  10. Attitude Action

  11. Cognitive Dissonance • A state of psychological tension that is aroused when a person simultaneously holds two thoughts that contradict one another.

  12. Theory of Cognitive Dissonance Inconsistency between thoughts Experience cognitive dissonance Attempt to reduce dissonance Change attitude

  13. Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) • Participants did boring tasks for 1 hour. • Paid $1 or $20 to tell another participant that the tasks were enjoyable. • During interview, asked how much they enjoyed the tasks.

  14. Three Dissonance-Arousing Conditions • 1. Attitude-behavior inconsistency • Leads to change in attitude • 2. Exerting wasted effort • Leads to effort justification • 3. Making a difficult decision • Leads to post-decisional dissonance

  15. Two Perspectives on Self-Persuasion • 1. Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger) – inconsistency between thoughts leads to unpleasant tension (dissonance), which motivates people to reduce dissonance by changing thoughts.

  16. Two Perspectives on Self-Persuasion • 2. Self-Perception Theory (Bem) – people form and modify their attitudes by observing their own behavior.

  17. Implications • Behavior  Attitude change • Use of cognitive dissonance to promote healthy behavior.

More Related