Social Psychology 320 Lecture 2 week 3

Gabriela Ilie Fall 2006

Department of Psychology University of Toronto

Being a little flustered towards driving-in to work?

Outline
Definitions What are attitudes? Attitudes origin, formation, issues Where do they come from? How do attitudes developed? Consistency?
Factors to consider: implicit vs. explicit influences

Function and Roles Whats the point?

Introduction

Attitude is a hypothetical construct.

Attitudes are not directly observable.

Attitudes are inferred from observable responses (we make a judgment that something has happened). The relevant observations here are evaluative responses that are elicited by certain stimuli, or occur in close conjunction with the attitude object. If there is an established tendency (consistency?) to respond in a certain way toward an attitude object, the person has formed an attitude toward this object.

Attitude Object

+/- (good/bad) Attitude

Ice cream is good I like ice cream I eat ice cream

Evaluative Responses

Evaluative Responding
Attitudes develop on the basis of evaluative responding.
We cannot unequivocally conclude that an individual holds an attitude until he/she responds evaluatively to an Attitude Object (AO).

Evaluative Responding
Bad
Good No Yes

No
Yes

Indifference
Positive

Negative
Ambivalence

Definitions of Attitudes

The Tripartite Model of Attitudes

Cognitive (reflect perceptions and thoughts about the attitude object) Affective (reflect feelings and evaluations toward the attitude object) Conative (reflect behavioral inclinations, intentions, commitments and actions with respect to the attitude object) These components are related, but they are not always consistent. These categories are often not homogeneous. Must all 3 components be present for attitudes to be considered a true evaluative tendency (i.e. part of the definition of pure attitudes)? Conclusion: It is better to consider each component separately and study the processes that link the components with each other.

Gordon Allport (1935)

Attitude is a mental or neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive influence upon the individuals response to all objects and situations with which it is related.

Petty & Cacioppo (1981)

Attitude is a general and enduring positive or negative feeling about some person, object, or issue.

Eagley and Chaiken (1992)

Attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor [] summary evaluations of attitude objects.

Judd, Ryan, & Parke, (1991)

Attitudes can be viewed as evaluations of various objects that are stored in memory.

Petty (1995)
Attitudes refer to very general evaluations that people hold of themselves, other people, objects, and issues.

Perloff (1993)
Attitude as "a learned, enduring, and affective evaluation of an object (a person, entity, or idea) that exerts a directive impact on social behavior.

The three Components of Attitude

1. Cognitive beliefs about what is or is not true with respect to the AO. 2. Affective feelings / emotions toward the AO. 3. Behavioral tendencies to do certain things with respect to the AO.

Tri-component model
Component Affect Cognition Characteristics Emotional reactions Examples "I like/hate ..."

Internalized mental I think the representations, beliefs, world should..." thoughts Tendency to respond in a particular way toward "I always do... the attitude object

Behavior

Perloff (2003)
Attitude is a learned, global evaluation of an object (person, place, or issue) that influences thought and action.

Attitudes vs. Other Related Constructs

Video clip? Attitude or what?

Attitudes vs. Other Constructs

Differentiating attitudes from: Habits (I wake up every morning and I feel angry!)

Values (beliefs that we held dear); You know what

Maria once I would like to wake up and find these dishes in the cabinet!

Beliefs (They are assumptions, theories,

explanations, conclusions and states of mind)

Opinions (a person's ideas and thoughts towards

something)

Attitudes and Habits

(Carol is not that. I wake up every morning and I feel angry!)

Both influence behavior Habits are routine behaviors that are performed without evaluation of the behaviors consequences or the behavior itself Attitudes are persistent evaluations
In the video example we just saw we see some development of cognitive dissonance, questioning/evaluation of the habit. We see acknowledgement of the consistency of the habit and its repercussions. I realize that it had nothing to do with our car being stolen Or NOT? Some attitude formation?

Attitudes and Values

You know what Maria once I would like to wake up and find these dishes in the cabinet!

Both are evaluations Although, saying that somebody values the dishes being placed in the cabinet after they have been washed is similar with saying that somebody has a positive attitude of the dishes being placed in the cabinet after they have been washed Values are ideal, desirable goals - more global/general than attitudes Values can encompass several attitudes i.e., one can have several attitudes towards certain values

Attitudes and Beliefs

Your amigo here, is going to sell our keys the moment he goes out that door!

Beliefs are propositions about the attributes (your amigo here) of objects (e.g., [he]is going to sell our keys the moment he goes out that door) Beliefs are primarily cognitive they do not have the affective content of attitudes (although they may trigger affective reactions) Difficult to distinguish attitudes from beliefs when a belief ascribes a positive or negative attribute to an object

Attitudes vs. Opinions

Opinions colloquially express an attitude (We have different opinions on the use of language with our maid). Opinion is more commonly used in market research and surveys (Public Opinion Polls), whereas Attitude is more commonly used by psychologists. Opinion more related to cognitive evaluation.

Where do they come from?

Genetic Influence
Research indicated that twins have similar attitudes i.e., suggesting a genetic basis for the formation of attitudes (Arvey, et al., 1989). Some attitudes (e.g., death penalty, religion, sex, music) show heritability coefficients of around .50. (Tesser, 1993)
Suggesting automaticity, fast processing, implicitness; old brain areas mechanisms?

Universality of certain attitudes - result of phylogeny (McGuire, 1985).

Phylogeny is the study of the evolution of a genetically related group of organisms.

Genetic Influence
Heritable attitudes would be harder to change, and they are more quickly activated.
Old brain areas mechanisms? But... attitudes don't "sit" on genes; genetic influences must be mediated through complex interactions between biological tendencies and socio-cultural shaping.

An attitude is a learned, global evaluation of an object (person, place, or issue) that influences thought and action. (Perloff, 2003, p. 39).

Social Learning / socialization refers to the "gradual acquisition of language, attitudes, and other socially approved values through reinforcement, observation, and other learning processes." (Forsyth, 1995)

Attitude Formation
Attitudes are learned from others or via direct experience through: 1. Imitation or modeling (conscious adoption, unconscious assimilation; Newcomb, 1943). 2. Information (e.g., perception, rumor, reading). 3. Mere exposure 4. Classical conditioning 5. Operant conditioning

Classical conditioning
Learning-through association between stimuli The attitude object is associated with unconditional stimulus (e.g., image, pain, physiological stress, odors and sounds)

US

Unconditioned Response

Neutral Stimulus

Neutral Stimulus

US

Neutral Stimulus

Conditioned Response

Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement or punishment of attitudes (sometimes it is only the verbal response that is reinforced or punished). The event following the response (i.e., consequence) reinforces or punishes the response (i.e., attitude). Phone interviews in which experimenter says "good" or "mm-hmm" in response to expressed opinions. These attitudes became stronger, as tested one week later (Hildum & Brown, 1956).

Mere Exposure
Attitudes can be acquired from the mere exposure to an object. Direct repeated experience often results in preference (i.e., compared to objects less often encountered). The more familiar the object/task, the more we generally like it (Bornstein, 1989; Zajonc, 1968).

Direct Experience
Direct experience of issues and events (+ or experiences). Attitudes acquired by direct experience are: held with greater confidence more specific more easily recalled more resistant to change more consistent with behavior Fazio and Zanna (1978)

Imitation/Modeling
Imitation mere copy of anothers behavior without acquisition of the relationship between behavior and consequences e.g., young children mimic/parrot their parents attitudes. Modeling (Social Learning Theory) - behaviors / attitudes are acquired through observation and reproduced because of the contingencies relationship with the consequence (Bandura, 1969).

Why do People Hold Attitudes?

General Functions of Attitudes

Phylogenetic (Adaptive) Explanation Stresses the adaptive value of avoiding objects that threaten survival, and seek objects that help to maintain resources and secure reproduction.

General Functions of Attitudes

Efficiency Function Learned summary of evaluations which guides our behaviors (i.e., so we dont have to constantly re-assess attitudes objects). Make decisions faster. Make decisions in situations with insufficient information.

Attitudes define how people perceive and think about their environment and - to a certain extend - how they behave.

Environment/ Attitude Objects/Behavior

Attitudes/ Evaluative Responses

Are attitudes useful?

Keeping phylogeny in mind: Are attitudes evolving?

General Functions of Attitudes

But, efficiency has some costs:
Overgeneralization, Simplification, Prone to errors, May lead to bad decisions

Functional Approach
Examines the functions (needs/roles) attitudes serve for different individuals in different contexts (Perloff, 2003)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Knowledge Utilitarian Social Adjustive Social Identity Value-Expressive Ego-Defensive

Function of attitudes
1. The same attitudes can serve different functions for different people 2. Different attitudes can serve a same function for different individuals 3. A single attitude can serve several functions for a same individual.

Why are we interested in the Functions of Attitudes

Knowledge of the functions is necessary to control attitudes (i.e., predict, prevent, produce, reinforce, induce or change). Attitude change is more likely when the message or strategy is directed at the underlying function the attitude serves (i.e., match the motivational function).

Agent 320
A teen holds a positive attitude toward smoking because she thinks she will be accepted and liked by her peers if she take this side. Your Mission: Changing (i.e., removing or substituting) her attitude.

Conclusion
Attitudes are persistent evaluations. Attitudes are influenced by cultural factors (learning) and biological factors (innate preferences or aversions). Attitudes are based on cognitive evaluations and affective evaluations to varying degrees. Attitudes help us to make decisions and choices more economically based on information from previous experiences.