1 Attitudes & Behavior

2 What is an attitude?

What is Attitude? Attitudes are evaluative statements, judgements or feelings about objects, people or events.   In organizations, attitudes are important because they affect job behaviour.   These are positive or negative evaluations that employees hold about job environment. 3

4 Attitude….. Attitude….. A positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea, expressed at some level of intensity (e.g., love, like, dislike, detest)

5 Four Possible Reactions to Attitude Objects Cacciopo, et al. 1997

6 Components of Attitudes: Tripartite View CognitiveCognitive AffectiveAffective BehavioralBehavioral AttitudeAttitude

7 Components of Attitudes  COGNITIVE  beliefs about attitude object (pos & neg)  AFFECTIVE  emotions and feelings the object triggers (pos & neg)  BEHAVIORAL  reaction toward the object (pos & neg actions)

8 Attitude Object: DENTIST  COGNITIONS  Dentists are friendly.  Dentists are expensive.  AFFECTS  Dentists make me feel anxious.  I like dentists.  BEHAVIORS  I visit the dentist twice a year.  I am a very cooperative patient.

9 Why People Have Attitudes  Value-Expressive function: Express who we are  Ego-defensive function: Protect Self- Esteem  Instrumental function: Obtain awards, avoid punishments  Knowledge function: understand people and events

10 Where do attitudes come from?

11  GENES: Twin studies high correlations on attitude strength and content for identicals raised together OR apart! high correlations on attitude strength and content for identicals raised together OR apart! significantly lower for fraternals significantly lower for fraternals

12 Genetic Influences on Attitudes Olson et al., 2001.

13 Origins of Attitudes: Social Experiences  Affectively Based Attitudes  based on people’s feelings of an attitude object (not on beliefs)  Sources of Affectively Based Attitudes  values  mere exposure  classical conditioning

14 Origins of Attitudes: Social Experiences  Affectively Based Attitudes  based on people’s feelings of an attitude object (not on beliefs)  Sources of Affectively Based Attitudes  values  mere exposure  classical conditioning

15 Origins of Attitudes: Social Experiences  Affectively Based Attitudes  based on people’s feelings & values of an attitude object  Sources of Affectively Based Attitudes  values  mere exposure  classical conditioning

16 Mere Exposure The tendency to develop more positive feelings toward objects & individuals the more we are exposed to them.

17 Origins of Attitudes: Social Experiences  Affectively Based Attitudes  based on people’s feelings & values of an attitude object (not on beliefs)  Sources of Affectively Based Attitudes  values  mere exposure  classical conditioning

18 Classical Conditioning The case whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly experienced along with a neutral stimulus that does not, until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus

19 Where Do Attitudes Come From?  GENES  Twin study  SOCIAL EXPERIENCES  affectively based  behaviorally based

20 Origins of Attitudes: Social Experiences  Behaviorally Based Attitudes  based on people’s observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object  Sources of Beh. Based Attit.  Bem’s Self-Perception Theory  Operant Conditioning

21 What are your attitudes about liberal politicians? Behavior “Now that I think about it, I only vote for conservatives.” Behavior “Now that I think about it, I only vote for conservatives.” Attitude “I guess I don’t like liberal politicians.”Attitude “I guess I don’t like liberal politicians.” Self-Perception Theory

22 Origins of Attitudes: Social Experiences  Behaviorally Based Attitudes  based on people’s observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object  Sources of Beh. Based Attit.  Bem’s Self-Perception Theory  Operant Conditioning

23 Operant Conditioning The case whereby behaviors that people freely choose to perform increase or decrease in frequency, depending on whether they are followed by positive reinforcement or punishment

24 BehaviorToward An Object BehaviorToward + Reinforce- ment or Punishment. + Reinforce- ment or Punishment. Pos or Neg Attitude toward the Object Pos or Neg Attitude toward the Object Behaviorally Based Attitudes & Operant Conditioning e.g., playing with a child of anotherrace + reinforcement - parents’ approval - parents’ approval Punishment - parents’ disapproval

25 Do attitudes predict behavior?

26 General Attitudes and Specific Behaviors  Must be correspondence between level of specificity of attitude and behavior.  For example, to predict recycling at work, do you ask: –How do you feel about recycling? –How do you feel about recycling office paper?

27  Study of married women’s use of birth control  Ps asked a series of attitude questions - general to specific (e.g., will U use birth control in next 2 years)  Two years later asked Ps if they had used birth control since the interview Correspondence of Specificity (Davidson & Jaccard, 1979)

28 Attitude Attitude-Behavior Attitude Attitude-Behavior MeasureCorrelation MeasureCorrelation  Att. toward birth control.08  Att. toward birth control pills.32  Att. toward using birthing control pills.53  Att. toward using birth control pills during the next two years.57 Correspondence of Specificity (Davidson & Jaccard, 1979)

29 Predicting Planned Behaviors Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein) BehavioralIntentionBehavior

30 Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?  IT DEPENDS!  One Key Factor  Spontaneous Behaviors  Planned/Deliberative Behaviors

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