Chapter 4 Attitudes

Social Psychologists have long been interested in such reactions, which they term attitude. Attitudes: Association between attitude objects and evaluations of those objects.

1. Forming Attitudes: How we come to hold the views we do. Social learning: Acquiring attitudes from others. - We acquire them from others through the process of Social Learning. Classical Conditioning : Basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through

respected paring with another stimulus respected paring with another stimulus. Classical Conditioning conscious awareness Subliminal Conditioning absence of consciousness awareness

Instrumental Conditioning: Learning to state the “Right” views. : basic form of learning in which responses that lead to positive outcomes or that permit avoidance of negative outcomes are strengthened. Modeling: Learning by example. : basic form of learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior through observing others.

2) Social Comparison & Attitude Formation Social comparison: our tendency to compare ourselves with others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is or is not correct.  Often our attitudes are shaped by social information, coupled with our own desire to hold the “right” views. – those held by people we admire or respect.

3) Genetic Factors : ex) Comparing between identical twins and nonidentical twins. 2. Do Attitudes Influence Behavior? And If So, When and How? - Relationship between attitude and behavior: Situational constraints. situation- norms & time pressure

- People are more likely to behave according to their attitudes under certain conditions. Personal experience Expert in the subject Expect a favorable outcome Repeatedly expressed Stand to win or loss - 3 components of attitude. 1) Emotion 2) Cognition 3) Behavior

- Kinds of attitude 1) Implicit attitude 2) Explicit attitude

3. Persuasion: The process of changing attitude. effort The Traditional Approach - Elements of Persuasion a. Experts b. Messages c. Attractive communicators d. Individuals relatively low in self-esteem e. When an audience holds attitudes contrary to those of a would-be persuader. f. People who speak rapidly g. Message that arouse strong emotions

2) Cognitive Approach - Cognitive Perspective on persuasion : an approach that attempts to understand persuasion by identifying the cognitive processes that play a role in its occurrence. The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion: where persuasion is concerned, “To think or Not to Think” is indeed a crucial question.

Elaboration Likelihood model Central route Important Personal relevant Peripheral route Something Interesting

4. Other Factors Affecting Persuasion 1) Attitude functions a 4. Other Factors Affecting Persuasion 1) Attitude functions a. A knowledge function: to organize to interpret diverse sets of information b. A self-expression or self-identity function c. Self-esteem function 2) Reciprocity: Attitude change as a two-way street.

- Social behavior is concerned. - Appears to be a guiding principle - Social behavior is concerned. - Appears to be a guiding principle. 3) Message Framing : Should would-be persuader give people the good news or the bad news? persuader: must concern two important points about presuasion.

Personal characteristics of target person Carefully matching such appeals. 5. When Attitude Change Fail : Resistance to persuasion. Reactance: Protecting our personal freedom.  Negative reaction to threats to one’s personal freedom; often increase reactance to persuasion.

2) Forewarning: Prior knowledge of persuasive intent. Advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion; often increase resistance to the persuasion the follows. ex) commercial, political speech 3) Selective Avoidance  Tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes; increase resistance to persuasion.

6. Cognitive Dissonance : internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency between two or more of their attitudes or between their attitude and their behavior. ex) .You say things you don’t really believe. . Make a tough decision. . Discover that something you’ve purchased isn’t as good as you expected.