PowerPoint Presentation

ATTITUDESPRESENTED BY

KRIZIA MAE EVALLE1Attitude a predisposition to respond to a particular object in a generally favorable or unfavorable way.

- Ajzen, 1982 - 2A persons attitudes influence the way in which he or she perceives and responds to the world.

- Allport, 1935;Thomas & Znaniecki, 1918 - 3TheNature ofAttitudesAn attitude exists in a persons mind; it is a mental state.Every attitude is about something, the object of the attitude.4THE COMPONENTSOF AN ATTITUDECOGNITIONEVALUATIONBEHAVIORALPREDISPOSITIONan attitude is based on a set of cognition or knowledge structures associated with the attitude object.an attitude is not just based on what people think but also how they feel about an object.an attitude also involves a predisposition to respond or a behavioral tendency toward the subject.Consider the following statement: My human sexuality class is really boring. This attitude has three components. (1) Beliefs/Cognitions - The person who doesnt like his or her human sexuality class perceives it as involving certain content, whether particular beliefs are true or false. (2) An Evaluation its really boring indicates that the course arouses a mildly unpleasant emotion in the speaker. And (3) a Behavioral predisposition Its boring implies a tendency to avoid the class.5RELATIONSHIPAMONG THE COMPONENTSSome attitudes are AFFECT-BASED

your more affect-based attitudes are difficult to change with cognitive reasoning.Other attitudes are COGNITION-BASED

Cognitive components of that attitude are taking priority. The more important is what you know.Some attitudes are affect-based, primarily driven by the evaluative component of the attitude. (e.g. I am scared of snakes. Even if someone tried to influence the cognitive components of the attitude, such as assuring you that most snakes are not poisonous or that poisonous snakes are more scared of you than you are of them, if you have a phobia of snakes, you would jump at the sight of one. Other attitudes are cognition-based. (e.g. The Toyota Prius is the best hybrid car. Less important for this attitude is whether you are aesthetically drawn to the car and more important what you know about the car. It is reliable, gets good gas mileage, and has a lower carbon footprint than other models.6

instrumentalconditioningATTITUDE FORMATION1classicalconditioning2observationallearning37ATTITUDE FORMATION

Instrumental ConditioningAttitudes toward our classes and jobs might be formed through learning based on direct experience with the object.If you experience rewards related to some object, your attitude will be favorable. (e.g. if your work provides you with good pay, a sense of accomplishments from your coworkers, your attitude toward it will be quite positive.)Conversely, if you associate negative emotions or unpleasant outcomes with some object, you will dislike it. (e.g. if you experience frequent embarassment in your human sexuality class or have struggles to stay awake while doing the course reading and scored poorly on every test and assignment, you are likely to have a very negative attitude toward the course.)8ATTITUDE FORMATIONClassical ConditioningWe can also acquire attitudes and prejudices toward objects through classical conditioning, in which a stimulus gradually elicits a response through repeated association with other stimuli.

E.g. children themselves are often punished for being dirty or hear adults say, Dont be stupid! if they hear their parents (or others) refer to members of a particular group as stupid, children increasingly associate the name with negative reactions these terms initially elicited.9ATTITUDE FORMATIONObservational learningWe also learn attitudes more directly by observing others and interacting with them.

E.g. television coverage of racially charged riots depicting a racial group as being volatile, dangerous, or unreasonable fosters negative attitudes toward group. Similarly, portrayals of families of various social classes shape viewers attitudes toward those groups, whether positive or negative.10THE FUNCTIONSOF ATTITUDES1

2

3HEURISTIC FUNCTIONAttitudes provide a simple and efficient means of evaluating objects (Fazio, 1995). We group people, objects, and events into categories or schemas and develop simplified (stereotyped) attitudes that allow us to treat individuals as members of a category.ATTITUDES DEFINE THE SELF AND MAINTAIN SELF-WORTHSome attitudes express an individuals basic values and reinforce his or her self-image. We tend to adopt attitudes we see as consistent with our identities.SOME ATTITUDES PROTECT THE PERSONfrom recognizing certain thoughts or feelings that threaten his or her self-image.

AAttitudeOrganizationATTITUDE STRUCTUREAttitudes are usually embedded in a cognitive structure, linked with a variety of other attitudes.Vertical StructureAttitudes are organized hierarchically. Some attitudes (primitive beliefs) are more fundamental than others.

Vertical linkages signify that a minor belief is derived from or dependent on a primitive belief.

ATTITUDE STRUCTUREAttitudes are usually embedded in a cognitive structure, linked with a variety of other attitudes.Horizontal StructureWhen an attitude is linked to more than one set of underlying beliefs that is, when there are two or more different justifications for it the linkages are termed horizontal.

REFERENCE

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGYJohn D. Delamater, Daniel J. Myers,AND Jessica L. Collett(2015) 8th Ed.15